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If the return-to-office debate was a mixed martial arts competition, remote work would’ve gotten hit by a few roundhouse kicks this past year from its opponent, in-person attendance.
But don’t count it out just yet: 35% of US employees “did some or all of their work at home” in 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, down from 42% in 2020, but still higher than 24% in 2019, prior to the pandemic.
HR Brew spoke with two labor experts about how employers’ approach to remote work might change over the next few years.
Landing in the middle. The percentage of remote workers will likely settle somewhere between pre-pandemic and pandemic levels, like a “pendulum,” Robin Erickson, VP of human capital at research firm The Conference Board, told HR Brew.
“It was very high onsite before Covid. During the lockdown, it was very high [in] remote, and then I think that it will balance out,” Erickson said. “I think that hybrid is what is here to stay.”
Nick Bunker, an economist and director of North American economic research at Indeed, agreed. Remote work, he told HR Brew, won’t vanish, but companies will continue to wrestle with what flexibility they can offer employees.
“That’s still in the negotiation stage…how remote work and flexibility can coexist, or just how flexibility and work schedules can exist for a variety of different jobs,” Bunker said. Flexibility and remote work, Erickson added, will likely look different across industries and roles.
“[People] talk about, ‘Well, you know, in the manufacturing industry, you can’t be remote.’ Well, that’s not exactly true, because you have a large percentage of your organization, your administrators, your managers, a lot of people who can be remote,” she said.
Where we are ➡ where we’re going. Corporations including Zoom and Meta have made headlines for strict RTO policies, but Erickson said they’re “anomalies,” and not illustrative of the overall business community. Employees value choice, she said, and leaders who want to retain them should consider allowing them to choose where they work.
“RTO mandates weren’t listening enough to what employees wanted for their lives, and I don’t think it will be all or nothing,” she said. “I do think that employee choice is important for those organizations that can do that.”
Erickson said “compressed workweeks” can offer flexibility to those in roles that require in-person attendance, pointing to the healthcare and airline industries, which, she said, have offered three- and four-day workweeks for years. Though job hopping has slowed, she said HR and business leaders shouldn’t get comfortable and should keep offering employees flexibility.
“People haven’t felt as safe to switch jobs because of the economic uncertainty and because of the political uncertainty, and my feeling is that as soon as the economic and political uncertainty goes away, that we’re going to see the Great Resignation 2.0,” she said. “Because I think people will want to find organizations that fit the flexibility that they need.”