Since Covid-19 forced companies to try remote work, many employees have come to find that when working from home, they get (cue: Miley Cyrus) the best of both worlds. People were reporting equal or improved productivity, according to multiple studies, all while sitting on the couch in their sweatpants.

Remote working didn’t break the economy, either: The S&P 500 index soared to great heights in 2021 and has been volatile in 2022, but currently sits about 9% higher than it was in January 2020.

And yet, recent months have seen employers pushing for greater office attendance—and employees feeling like performance reviews, productivity monitoring, and the possibility of layoffs are being used to make it happen. But some workplace strategists, including Steve Cadigan, a consultant and former HR leader at companies like LinkedIn and Cisco, say measures such as layoffs are missing the mark.

Employees are actually attracted to the social aspect of the office; meeting their teammates and “work friends” are among the top reasons for wanting to come into the office, according to recent research from Microsoft.

Tug of war. After the Covid-19 vaccine became widely available, companies including Apple, Meta, and Tesla tried to reel employees back into the office at least a few days a week.

But the workforce has demonstrated a clear preference for remote-friendly arrangements: 32% of US workers in “remote-capable” jobs would prefer to work exclusively remote, while 59% would prefer to be hybrid, a Gallup poll found.

A more people-centric approach. Cadigan acknowledged managers’ performance- and innovation-based fears around remote work. But he cautioned against using performance reviews or monitoring to get employees back to the office. Keep reading here.—AK

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On Tuesdays, we get into the weeds with the founders of HR tech startups. Want to tell us about your company? Get in touch here.

Taylor Smith is the co-founder and CEO of Blueboard, an employee-recognition service that partners with organizations to offer experiential, customized rewards to employees. Smith started the company in San Francisco in 2014, when he was hustling secondhand Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber concert tickets to make ends meet, he told HR Brew. Now, it has amassed nearly $16 million in funding from a variety of investors, including Greycroft and Bullpen Capital. Smith told HR Brew how tailoring bespoke experiences to workplace rewards can be a boon for engagement and retention.

What product or service does your company offer? We are an experiential rewards and recognition platform. [The majority] of companies have recognition programs, but the rewards are usually stuff. It’s like gift cards, it’s merchandise, it’s electronics. It’s all nice, it’s not awful, but our generation tends to spend our own money on experiences, right? We’re saving to go to concerts, eat out, and travel to other countries. So, we thought, “How cool would it be if a company could hit a button, and the employee could just choose how they want to spend quality time out in the world?” Whether that’s getting a couple’s massage [or] taking a surfing lesson…and the company pays for all of it. So, that’s what we do—we send people on adventures all over the world.

How does the service work? You would get a reward in your email, you’d click “activate,” you go to our experience menu, and you key-in your location, and then the menu is going to show all of the experiences that are within that budget within [about] a 50-mile range of where you’re located.

What specific issue in HR does your company intend to solve? Keep reading here.

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Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: International interest in US job listings has increased 57% since the Covid-19 pandemic began. (Indeed)

Quote: “Throw a hissy fit for a few days, then suck it up and eat it while I search for a new job.”—A software designer at a Boston bank on how he expects to respond to stricter RTO enforcement (Vox)

Read: A former Amazon VP shares his experience trying to bring the “Amazon playbook” to a new company, and why it isn’t a foolproof plan. (Insider)

Family-friendly benefits: Are you meeting the needs of working parents? If you don’t offer childcare benefits, 83% of parents say they’ll find a workplace that does. Vivvi’s flexible model supports infancy through elder care. Start here.*

^{*This is sponsored advertising content.}