Remote and hybrid work arrangements have proven to deliver increased employee productivity, reduced attrition, and access to a global talent market. CEOs have reported difficulties in achieving the same degree of engagement and participation from remote employees as they did from their in-office counterparts. However, he said it also demands more effort from leadership across the organization, including a heightened need for intentional communication, collaborative work distribution, and relationship cultivation.

The survey describes how an engineering industry CEO stated that offering flexibility indeed makes it much easier to attract and retain talent.

So, this begs the question: what happened? Intriguingly, the 2023 survey revealed that a mere 5% of companies operating with remote or hybrid arrangements reported decreased performance due to the shift. The opposition to flexible work is rather unexpected, considering that in 2022, when CEOs were asked if they were content with their chosen work model, 60% of those using remote or hybrid models responded “yes.” A barely noticeable 0.5% expressed intentions to revert to in-person work once the pandemic subsided. However, retreating to familiar ground means sacrificing many of the benefits that remote and hybrid work arrangements offer. They find themselves in uncharted waters and, rather than learning to adapt, they’re tempted to go back to the cozy confines of the office-centric model. That’s precisely what’s happening with companies grappling with remote and hybrid work models. When faced with challenges in unfamiliar territory, it’s all too tempting to return to what we know. It’s no secret that humans are creatures of habit. The percentage of hybrid companies dropped from 61% in 2022 to 48% in 2023, while the proportion of entirely remote companies declined from 7% to 5% during the same time frame. However, this figure experienced a significant increase in 2023, reaching 46%. That included those unable to operate remotely due to the nature of their work, such as factories and retail. In an equivalent 2022 poll, a mere 31% of U.S. However, is this retreat to familiar territory the best course of action? As a result, some companies such as Amazon and Salesforce are pivoting back to traditional in-person work models to address these issues and enhance overall workforce engagement.

Resilience by Gleb Tsipursky