The work from home versus returning to the office post COVID debate is one that’s not going away any time soon. And it’s one that’s very divisive between employees and employers and there really appears to be no clear path moving forward.

Many of us have seen the examples of zoom asking their employees to return to work or Facebook or Apple.  Some recent statistics from Finder helped bring this debate back into the spotlight with 29% of Australian adults working remotely in 2022 but interestingly 44% of Gen. Y working remotely in 2022.

What this tells us is that the younger generation is expecting workplace flexibility to become the norm. Despite this, LinkedIn global talent trends 2023 survey indicated that the number one employee priority was still compensation and benefits with work life balance coming in at #2 and flexible work arrangements #3. Now undoubtedly all of these remain important when it comes to our recruitment and retention efforts.

To further muddy the waters many of us have heard talks around they compressed or four day working week miraculously without sacrificing productivity becoming the new norm. We are going to have more to say about this moving forward and we’re working on some suggestions and left  thinking for businesses to consider.

For now our position remains the same as it has been throughout COVID if you’re going to ask your white collar employees to come into the office make sure there is structure around these days to foster the collaboration. If you continue to direct employees to come to work without this structure, from where we sit you are making your recruitment and retention efforts a whole lot harder.