Organizations Risk Losing High-Performers and Women Due To Strict RTO Mandates
Organizations are increasingly mandating their employees to return to the office. However, according to Gartner’s recent study, they risk losing high-performers and female employees. Check out the study’s insights in detail.
- Companies are increasingly mandating their employees to return to the physical office. However, many employees are feeling uneasy about these policies.
- So, how can mandatory return-to-office (RTO) policies affect high-performers and female employees? Gartner’s recent study sheds light on it.
On one hand, more organizations are pushing forward with return-to-office (RTO) policies. On the other, more employees are feeling uneasy about these policies. According to a recent Resume Builder study, less than 50% of employees are happy or comfortable with returning to the physical workplace full-time. That’s not all; according to a recent study by Gartner, organizations are at a huge risk of losing high-performers, millennials, and women.
The following are the study’s insights in detail.
See more: Return-to-Work Policies Are Leading To Increased Stress Levels
Strict RTO Mandates Reduce Employees’ Intent To Stay
As part of the study, Gartner surveyed 2,080 knowledge workers and measured the impact of RTO mandates on employee outcomes among various categories. The study found that the intent to stay among average employees became 8% lower with strict RTO mandates. Intent to stay saw a steeper drop among high-performance employees; it dropped by 16% among them. Among female and millennial employees, the intent to stay dropped by 11% and 10%, respectively. According to Caitlin Duffy, director, Gartner HR Practice, the costs far outweigh the moderate benefits related to employee efforts and engagement.
Regarding strict mandates, many employees believe RTO mandates show what business leaders want instead of what employees need. In fact, according to a Gartner study in 2023, 48% of respondents said RTO mandates prioritized what employers wanted instead of what employees needed to perform their tasks well. Similarly, according to the Resume Builder study mentioned above, only 24% of companies seemed to have surveyed their employees about their RTO policies, which implies organizations didn’t take employee input regarding the policies.
While in-office work yields a few moderate advantages, companies are finding it challenging to get their employees to return to the physical workspace. This has led to organizations and HR teams resorting to stricter RTO mandates. However, this significantly impacts retention.
Effect on high-performance employees
For high-performance employees, strict RTO mandates may send a signal that their companies don’t give them enough autonomy to decide how they get their work done. Many believe they have proven themselves and maintained a high level of performance throughout their remote working tenure. Losing these employees to attrition can seriously cost organizations in terms of productivity, loss of high-quality talent, and difficulty in backfilling the role.
Effect on female employees
The flexibility and ability to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic became a massive boon for many female employees as they could manage both work and life priorities. Beyond flexibility, many female employees also prefer remote employment due to fewer biases and microaggressions than when working in the office.
Due to stricter RTO mandates, female employees face greater monetary costs related to caregiving responsibilities and schedule complications.
Effect on millennials
At this point, millennials may be the generation with the most caregiving responsibilities and hence benefit from the flexibility remote and hybrid work offer. Though going to the physical office may benefit them in a few ways, such as improving focus, Gartner’s study found that their performance became lower at companies with strict RTO mandates.
With higher experience than Gen Z employees, millennials may become annoyed with RTO mandates as they understand which environment supports their work better, yet cannot customize their environments when forced to work within rigid on-site requirements.
See more: Considering Return to Work? Time to Re-imagine Your Workspace and Technology
Best Practices for Designing a Successful RTO Policy
Companies should avoid implementing rigid RTO mandates to prevent employee attrition. Instead, they should design policies and strategies that maximize business and talent outcomes. The following are a few best practices for designing in-office and RTO strategies.
- Motivate workers to return to the physical office rather than mandating it. This can be done by designing the office space and policies to make employees connected, capable, and autonomous.
- Design policies that focus on in-office attendance per year rather than per week. According to Gartner’s research, companies making a minimum in-office attendance per year compulsory achieve higher employee performance than those making it compulsory per week.
- Involve employees in designing RTO policies. Employees who contribute to their company’s RTO and hybrid work policies and feel their needs are considered demonstrate better engagement and performance.
- Show clear reasons behind RTO requirements. Companies that are transparent in communicating why employees should return to the physical office see a positive impact on employee engagement and retention.
In essence, be transparent in your RTO policies, actively involve your employees in creating them, and create employee-friendly RTO policies to improve engagement and retention of high-quality talent.
Is RTO necessary? How can these policies be designed better? Share your thoughts on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn. We’d love to hear from you!
Image source: Shutterstock
MORE ON RETURN TO OFFICE POLICIES
80% of Organizations Will Track Their Employee Office Attendance in 2024
How To Navigate the Ever-changing Work Environment
The Great Disconnect: How Employers Can Bring Employees Back to Their Desks
