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Remote workers vying for a promotion may find that the role they’ve been eying has gone to an in-office counterpart.
The majority (87%) of CEOs plan to reward employees who work in the office by giving them “favorable assignments, raises, or promotions,” according to KPMG’s recently released CEO Outlook Survey of 1,325 chief executives.
This comes as some companies continue to mandate workers return to the office while punishing those who don’t. An August report from Resume Builder found 28% of employers will threaten to fire employees who don’t comply with RTO requirements. At Meta, Insider reported that employees could risk negative performance reviews and termination for refusing to return to the office. And Amazon told some remote workers to forfeit their jobs if they’re unwilling to RTO, according to the Washington Post.
Unintended consequences. While KPMG’s survey respondents value office attendance, they also said that DE&I efforts should be prioritized, with 66% reporting that DE&I progress is moving too slowly. Yet in-office mandates and rewards could impede those efforts.
Laura Morgan Roberts, associate professor of business administration at the University of Virginia, told HR Brew that employees from marginalized populations often face hurdles to career advancement. RTO rewards could only further exclude these workers from mentorship, coaching, or access to promotions.
“We know from research that members of marginalized and underrepresented groups, because they feel less included at work, are less enthusiastic about spending time in the office when it’s unnecessary,” she said.
Roberts pointed out that leaders need to consider not just if employees are willing to return to the office, but if they’re able. For example, women who are primary caregivers may need to work remotely to care for their families, and disabled people (who found themselves with more job opportunities thanks to remote work) may be unable to return to a physical office.
“The trends to date support that or suggest that those individuals who are willing and able to come back into the office are going to be disproportionately white men…[Marginalized groups are] going to become further marginalized by those types of incidents and programs.” she explained.
While employers and leaders may claim to have inclusive cultures and workspaces, a rigid in-office policy could easily exclude marginalized voices. “If leaders are being intentional about including voices and perspectives [and] efficient in their use of resources and equitable in their allocation of tasks, then you can have a high-functioning, geographically dispersed team,” Roberts said.
Rewarding in-office employees could send the message that quality workers who need to work remotely aren’t valuable contributors. “These communities—they’re not disposable,” Roberts said. “We rely very heavily on working mothers to fuel our economy. So, it’s in our best interest to ensure that they have fair equitable access to viable careers.”