Not so long ago, being full-time in the office was the norm and not doing so was reserved only for a small number of special cases. Now? It’s what most people are looking for from their employer and in job adverts. However, with news stories of employers requiring greater attendance in the office becoming a regular thing, is the tide starting to turn on this trend?
Stacie Cheadle, Technical Writer at CIPD HR-inform, looks at recent examples of employees being called back into the office and the implications this has for remote and home-working.
The rise and fall of remote working
Working from home became a necessity for many during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, as the various lockdown restrictions eased, many businesses have taken different approaches as to where they allow their employees to work, including returning to the office, working remotely or utilising hybrid working.
The popularity of remote working has evolved and changed as businesses and their employees have adapted to life post-pandemic and the form it has taken varies depending upon the business, industry and their employees’ personal preferences.
Depending upon the personal circumstances of the employee, some still prefer remote working because of the flexibility and work-life balance it may provide, yet others prefer being in the office with their colleagues where they can interact face-to- face. Problems can therefore arise when the employer’s opinion on home-working differs to their employees.
Growing movement towards a return to the office
Home-working does not work for everyone and there are some important drawbacks that might make employers hesitant to move fully to remote working. Many people find collaboration difficult when at home, especially on group projects where there are many voices. For some, daily travel into the office can be good for their wellbeing or even allow them to escape from an abusive or otherwise unpleasant home life, for a few hours at least. Home-working can also reduce work-life balance for some, especially those that struggle to “switch off” and are tempted to log back into their work outside of their hours. For these reasons, and others, there are increasing calls by businesses to get their staff back into the office, for at least some of the working week.
Companies such as Zoom, Google and Amazon have recently announced that they are moving away from remote working and adopting a hybrid approach. In fact, Google plans to introduce office attendance as a performance indicator when reviewing its staff and send reminders to employees it deems to be consistently absent from the office space.
Zoom has asked all staff living within 50 miles of a local office to attend at least twice a week, joining others in the tech industry in asking its staff to be physically present at work. It has referred to its approach to blending home and office work as a ‘structured hybrid approach’ and has said that this will be beneficial to the business by putting it in a stronger position to use its technologies and will improve innovation and customer support.
Employers seeking to get their employees back into the office have faced opposition from their employees and the impact this can have on the business is something to consider. For example, at advertising agency, WPP, a group of staff started a petition in January 2025 against the organisation’s mandate to return to the office for a minimum of four days a week from April 2025, calling the move a step backwards” and detrimental to employee wellbeing. There have also been reports that JPMorgan Chase’s move to force workers back to the office full time has led to employee complaints and, potentially, rumour has it, the possibility of unionisation of the disgruntled staff.
Bringing staff back in
For those employees who are willing to return to the office, there is of course no issue. It will simply be a matter of mutually agreeing the best times and days for this to happen. Some employees, however, may not be so willing to give up their home office, even for a day or so.
Should employers decide to insist upon office attendance, the first thing they would need to consider is what their employees’ current terms of employment are. If bringing employees back to the office would result in a change to these terms, a period of consultation would be needed.
If a change is then enforced and an employee disagrees with such a decision, there is a risk of a claim for constructive unfair dismissal. Another factor in calling employees back into the office is that if an employee believes that it puts them at a disadvantage because of a protected characteristic, they may consider this to be discrimination. Employers, therefore, must be able to demonstrate strong business rationale for any such change.
Consideration of the reasons why they want employees back in the office will likely need to be balanced against the impact this could have on employee retention and how attractive the business will be to future job applicants who may consider working from home to be key in their job search. If the reason an employee is reluctant to work from the office is because of high commuting costs and the impact this will have on them given the cost-of-living crisis, discussions should take place with the employee about what the proposed commute would be and what the specific individual concerns are.
The company could look at whether they are able to offer benefits, such as discounted train fares or money off car parking to assist. Offering incentives, such as fruit and free breakfasts, may be smaller gestures but could go some way to assisting employees if they don’t have to worry about the indirect costs of coming into the office.
The benefits of home-working
However, the benefits of allowing some home-working should not be forgotten and for many it remains a valued part of their job.
According to research from Finder.com, 78% of those working from home some or part of the time saw improvements in their work-life balance. The benefits of home-working are varied and particularly so as the cost-of living crisis continues. The data found that 59.7% of respondents cited ‘no commute’ as a benefit of home-working (and with the average commute for a worker in the UK at 59 minutes, this is understandable), 43.8% said saving money on food and commuting costs, 41.9% cited flexibility over when they work and 38% said it was because they could spend less time getting ready for work.
There has also been research that shows that home-working can boost productivity. Two-thirds of employers reported increased productivity from remote workers compared to in-office workers; 65% of workers said they would be more productive at home than in the office, which for 75% of them was because of reduced distractions.
There are also the cost-saving benefits of home-working, both for the employee and the employer. For the employer, it gives it the opportunity to review its real estate and possibly downsize, eg HSBC has announced that it will leave its long-time headquarters in Canary Wharf and move to smaller premises in London’s central banking district, due to the reduced need for office space. Employees have made savings too, with research suggesting that they saved £44.78 every week when moving to homeworking, due to reduced commuting costs and expenditure on food.
Conclusion
It has taken many businesses time to settle into a comfortable working rhythm after the disruption of the pandemic. Now that they have had time to assess the impact that remote and home-working has had on their employees and the work they do, they can use this to decide how they want to continue in the future.
What is becoming apparent is that, for many, this involves a hybrid of both home and office working, maximising flexibility for their employees whilst preserving an office culture.
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