Return to office policy guide

Crafting a balanced Return to Office policy

Many employers, including the federal government, have been pushing to get employees back into the office this year. But is a return-to-office mandate a good idea for your company?

Many business leaders applaud RTO policies, believing the move can improve collaboration and productivity. On the other hand, many employees do not want to say goodbye to the flexibility they’ve grown accustomed to and return to the old days of lengthy commutes. A recent FinanceBuzz survey found that a third of remote workers would opt to quit or look for a new job if asked to return to the office.

Business leaders must carefully craft their RTO policy to balance the benefits and potential drawbacks of returning to in-person work. Before requiring your team to return to on-site work, consider several RTO policies and answer other questions.

What is a return-to-office (RTO) policy?

A return-to-office, or RTO, policy outlines the guidelines and expectations for employees transitioning back to the physical workplace after a period of remote work.

It is generally implemented after a period of remote work. Many employers allow long-term remote work. This followed the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, these employers are creating return-to-office (RTO) policies. These policies aim to transition workers back into the office. This transition could be full-time, or it could mandate a set number of required in-office days.

Key components of an RTO policy

Here are some key things to address in your return-to-office policy.

Schedule

Note how often employees need to be in the office (e.g., the specific days, number of days per week, or other flexible arrangements).

Attendance

Explain how attendance will be tracked and managed. One trend to be aware of here is “coffee-badging,” or showing up to make an appearance at work (swiping their badge for attendance-tracking purposes) and going home.

You should address in your policy that full-day attendance is expected and will be tracked (i.e., having people clock out physically at work when they leave).

Workspace assignments and guidelines

Describe how workspaces will be allocated. Will there be assigned desks, or will you use some desk-sharing model? If you’re swapping to a hybrid model, it may also help explain the logistics of maintaining a remote and in-office workspace.

For example, will employees take a company-issued laptop back and forth, or will they have complete desktop set-ups at home and on-site?

Communication around policy updates

Explain how the company will communicate changes or updates to the policy. Let employees know if you will offer a specific notice period, such as 30 days, for any changes to their schedule or work locations.

Flexibility and accommodations offer

Let employees know about any options for flexible work arrangements or accommodations regarding the policy. For example, you may offer flexible schedules that allow employees to shift their day earlier or later to avoid rush hour traffic or accommodate school drop-offs.

Also, note if you will make accommodations for certain employees. These accommodations would be for those who live further away from the office. Therefore, they cannot immediately return to in-office work. You may also want to include a sentence or two about compliance.

Specifically, note that your company will comply with the ADA. Additionally, mention that employees can request reasonable accommodations. These accommodations could apply to the policy itself.

Alternatively, they could help with the transition back to the office. Finally, direct employees to contact the HR department or their manager for these accommodations.

Types of RTO policies

RTO doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing thing. Many companies go the hybrid route for returning to work or offering other flexible options. Here are some different types of RTO policies you may consider:

• Full RTO: If you want everyone back in the office, that is an approach you can take. This is one of the more stark RTO options and can cause some employee pushback. Many employers have adopted this approach recently.
  
  
• Hybrid RTO: A popular RTO option involves shifting from fully remote work to a mix of remote and in-person work through a hybrid model.
  
  
• Optional RTO: Giving employees the flexibility to come into the office when they’d like (such as when they have meetings or collaborations that they’d instead do in person) is also an option.
  
  
• Phased RTO: A gradual transition to regular office attendance, often starting with a phase or periodic in-person work.
  
  
• Regional RTO: If you’ve been hiring remotely for the past few years and have employees spread out across the country, a full RTO or even a widespread hybrid RTO policy may not be practical unless you run a massive company with offices in many states.
  
  In this case, some companies are doing more regional RTO initiatives, where employees within a specific range (such as 50 miles) of the office must report in person. In contrast, those not near an office can remain remote.

Why companies are implementing RTO policies

In-person work can offer key benefits that business leaders want to capitalize on. Here are the top motivators for employers returning their teams to the office.

Encouraging in-person collaboration and teamwork

Many business leaders encourage a return to the office because in-person interaction fosters better collaboration among team members. When people work near one another, they often get to know their team members better and may engage in more frequent, informal collaboration and teamwork.

Formal in-person collaborations may also be more interactive and engaging compared to working together over video conferencing platforms like Zoom.

Maintaining a cohesive company culture

Business leaders have focused on company culture over the last decade, and some feel that remote work has hampered the strong, cohesive culture that they worked to build. Working together in one place daily creates a stronger sense of community than remote work’s more decentralized nature.

Productivity concerns

Some employers feel that productivity is higher in the office environment, but studies and employees’ perspectives are more mixed. Some workers think they do their best, most productive work at home, while others thrive in the office, and some do best through a hybrid work model.

A 2024 Stanford study found that hybrid work did not negatively impact employee productivity. Researchers found that those working from home two days per week were just as productive and likely to get promoted while being less prone to quitting than their fully in-office counterparts. A separate study by the Stanford Institute for Economic

Policy Research (SIEPR) found that fully remote work was associated with about 10% lower productivity than entirely in-person work. This may indicate that partial RTO through hybrid work could be the ideal model, balancing productivity concerns and employee retention.

Facilitating employee training and development

It is often easier to provide guidance and training to employees in person. Employees can participate in more interactive group training sessions or activities like job shadowing in the office.

Working together in person can also facilitate peer-to-peer training and learning by observing coworkers completing their tasks and making collaboration or assistance easier.

In fact, 68% of the managers surveyed in Owl Labs’ 2023 State of Hybrid Work Report believed their hybrid and remote working employees were missing out on impromptu or informal feedback. This real-time coaching feedback can make a difference in employee development.

Potential downsides of implementing an RTO policy

Here are some potential downsides of implementing a return-to-office policy that you should be aware of before making an RTO mandate.

Increased turnover

It’s generally expected that some employees won’t return to the office. Some analysts even view RTO mandates as soft layoffs; a way to reduce or restructure their workforce without actually conducting layoffs or providing a severance. Of course, this isn’t always the intention, but it can often be the result. Some employees don’t want to go back to the office.

A new Pew Research Center study found that 46% of employees surveyed said they’d be unlikely to stay in their current job if forced back into the office. RTO mandates can have a highly negative impact on retention.

Restricting your talent pool

When you require employees to report to the office daily (or weekly), you restrict your talent pool to those in your local area. This may be fine if you operate in a large city or hire for roles requiring less specialized skills.

However, it can become problematic if you’re in an industry requiring more specialized skills, training, or credentialing.

Logistical challenges and space constraints

Returning fully to the office can also present an array of logistical challenges. Do you have enough desk space to create in-office workstations for all of your remote team members who will now be returning to the office?

Do you have adequate parking for everyone to drive to work each day? What will you do if an employee doesn’t live near one of your offices? Plenty of logistical questions like these will arise throughout the transition.

Companies may want to move to a hybrid model. This is a good alternative to a full return-to-office (RTO) model. This is especially true if their current facilities cannot accommodate a sudden influx of in-person workers.

For example, if you have a small office space, having everyone in the office each day can force employees to compete for parking spaces. Furthermore, they might compete for meeting rooms.

Additionally, employees may have to compete for office equipment. Even space in the lunchroom can become a point of competition, which can cause friction and frustration.

If you ask everyone to come in two to three days per week, you can assign alternating schedules to help ease the heightened demand for office resources.

In Google’s hybrid RTO efforts, some locations even used a desk-sharing model due to a lack of room for extra desks and workspaces. Hybrid employees alternated the use of workstations and had lockers provided to store equipment when they were not in the office.

Desk sharing isn’t ideal as it limits an employee’s ability to set up their own personal work area. However, this is just one example of how even large companies have struggled with the logistical difficulties and space constraints during RTO implementation.

Best practices for implementing return-to-office policies

Here are some things to remember while creating and implementing your return-to-office policy.

Provide ample notice

Humans are creatures of habit, and many do not like their routines suddenly disrupted. If your company has been allowing fully remote work arrangements for quite a while and wants to shift back to in-office work, give employees plenty of notice.

Employees may need to make alternate arrangements before returning to the office. For example, they might need to adjust school pickups and drop-offs or arrange after-school childcare.

Furthermore, employees could need to coordinate eldercare support, figure out transportation, and find dog walkers or doggie daycares.

Ideally, provide a few weeks of notice or even a few months. It helps ease the transition with hybrid work, where employees begin by coming in for two days per week before making a full return.

Set clear expectations

Make what you expect from employees clear. Vague or open-ended policies will not get the results you’re looking for. If you want employees to report to the office for specific days, ensure they understand how that will be tracked. If you don’t want people leaving early to finish their days at home, ensure that full-day office attendance is required.

Provide a positive workplace experience

Many team members may be unhappy about having to return to the office. The morning commute can be a drag, and RTO policies can disrupt their personal work-life balance or family obligations. Put some extra effort into making it a welcoming environment when they return.

You can set aside time for team building and fun office activities to encourage workplace comradery. This will lay a foundation for good teamwork and in-person collaboration. It also helps to remind managers to avoid micromanaging.

Remote workers are used to much more autonomy, so a sudden shift towards micromanagement can be frustrating. Avoid standing over their shoulder or checking in too often.

The future of the office: Will RTO policies eliminate remote work?

With many large and small employers embracing a return to the office through RTO policies, work may look different in the years to come. Will remote work disappear entirely?

Probably not. It likely won’t return to pre-pandemic levels, but it may become less common than it was from 2020 through 2024.

In the era of RTO mandates, remote work may become an even more significant competitive advantage for small businesses that continue to offer it.

Robert Half’s Demand for Skilled Talent report found that 37% of American job seekers are interested in a fully remote role, and 60% want to work a hybrid schedule. Businesses willing to accommodate these job seekers’ desires will have a huge advantage in recruiting top talent.

In the 2010s, businesses stood out to job seekers by amping up their office perks (and advertising them heavily to promote their employer brand). To entice talent, many start-ups provided in-office entertainment, unique amenities, and fully stocked kitchens and snack bars.

As we enter the latter half of the 2020s, we may see a return to boost enthusiasm for in-office work. Still, companies will likely use their remote work offerings as a differentiator in the hiring market.

This might be good news if you’re a small business that can’t afford to compete with fancy catered lunches or things like Google’s infamous office nap pods.

More resources:
Remote work productivity: The verdict is in and it’s surprising
Employee handbook considerations for remote employees
PTO request policy: A comprehensive guide for employers

Want more insights like these? Visit Kaylyn McKenna’s author page to explore her other articles and expertise in business management.