![\"\"](\"https:\/\/strategicchro360.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Rebecca-Cenni-Leventhal-Headshot-Chief-Executive-magazine-827x1024.jpg\")
\u2014Rebecca Cenni-Leventhal, Founder, Atrium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
BambooHR also bumped up its in-office requirement, adding a fourth day to its previous three-day hybrid mode. \u201cWe want to be explicit with what we think success looks like,\u201d says Anita Grantham, head of HR. \u201cWe see salespeople come in and achieve their quotas faster and make more money than people who work at home. We think that\u2019s what\u2019s required for them to succeed on the job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others aren\u2019t making mandates, instead finding ways to encourage and entice employees back. The hybrid policy at Marvin Windows calls for two or three days a week in the office, but CEO Paul Marvin says \u201cmany employees prefer to work in the office full-time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Helping tremendously is the fact that, just before the pandemic, a renovation of company headquarters in Warroad, Minnesota, added amenities, including an employee food garden, local cooking demonstrations, an outdoor walking path and club, an on-campus bike-sharing program and a room equipped with a hospital-grade breast pump and accessories for nursing guests and employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company also augmented its collaboration areas with \u201cme\u201d spaces. One called Northwoods Retreat is stocked with puzzles and books, with an environment that encourages meditation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Home Team Advantage<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, many chiefs still swear by a fully remote model. Paycor retains a remote-first model for its 2,800 employees and has even announced plans to sell its 136,000-square-foot headquarters. The company is creating a hub for training sessions, large-group meetings, corporate events and hosting workers from across the U.S. \u201cHaving the space for in-person collaboration remains crucial for maintaining strong connections and productivity,\u201d says CEO Raul Villar Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Worksuite is also sticking with a a remote-only model. \u201cMy entire development team is in Poland, but they know exactly what my expectations are,\u201d says Ray Grady, CEO of the San Francisco-based provider of workplace software. \u201cYou need to have the right tools, be super thoughtful on culture and vision and get an aligned culture. It\u2019s more difficult remotely than if everyone is together. But if you\u2019re able to build the right infrastructure and true culture, it opens up more opportunities to grow and scale that business than traditionally being in the office.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remote models can also be a recruiting advantage, says Elin Thomasian, senior vice president at labor-market consultants TalentNeuron. \u201cCompanies take advantage of skill sets they can acquire that otherwise they wouldn\u2019t be able to. They\u2019re sticking to a remote type of environment because they\u2019re seeing they can attract wide and diverse talent globally, with all the advantages of skills and lower costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Exploring Options<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The key to navigating the whether-to-return conundrum is understanding the business drivers for your decision, says Thomasian, who advises designing a clear strategy, with unambiguous communications and a value proposition. Things CEOs should take into consideration:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forging your own path.<\/strong> Having the right security architecture enables AvidXchange, the largest software company in Charlotte, North Carolina, to maintain remote work, says CEO Michael Praeger, \u201cnever letting any third parties come into our network infrastructure to work on a portion of our code.\u201d The company has settled into a hybrid mode of three days a week. While engineers \u201cwith a whiteboard in a room are 50 percent faster in their innovation cycles than if you have them working Zoom, those types of collaboration sessions for engineers don\u2019t happen five days a week,\u201d explains Praeger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As BambooHR\u2019s Grantham notes, \u201cPeople don\u2019t need to follow the trend of Big Tech [for more RTO] but ask the question: What work mode is best for your mission, customers and people? So often, tech companies let Amazon and Google set the pace. Let\u2019s be independent thinkers and figure out what works best for our own products and services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Junior-level employees can benefit especially from RTO mandates. \u201cIt\u2019s a detriment to start their career in a remote environment where the only office culture they have exposure to is on the screen,\u201d Thomasian says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Performing soft layoffs.<\/strong> A great suspicion of Amazon\u2019s in-office mandate is that it\u2019s an easy way to trim a bloated workforce amid recent tough times for tech giants. \u201cSome companies certainly are using RTO as an attrition tool,\u201d says Thomasian. \u201c\u2018Strong performers who are loyal to us will return,\u2019 they say. That\u2019s probably not the best talent strategy and doesn\u2019t lead to the best outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That approach can affect morale. In a BambooHR survey, 37 percent of respondents in leadership roles believed their employers had undertaken layoffs in the past 12 months as a result of too few people quitting in protest of RTO mandates. Nearly the same number thought their management wanted employees back in the office just to monitor them more closely. A full 42 percent of respondents said they show up solely to be seen by bosses and managers, not to work more effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Making the place a magnet.<\/strong> Some companies spare no expense in trying to lure people back to the office. \u201cWe make sure the food in the cafeteria is good, and we subsidize\u2014 though not provide free\u2014meals,\u201d says Nathalie Grenache, CHRO of French drug maker Sanofi, with U.S. headquarters in Bridgewater, New Jersey. \u201cAnd from a tech perspective, we make sure the Internet is very good, and we have the right technology in place. People say they come to the office because it\u2019s quieter, and they have all the space they need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Northwestern Mutual keeps adding to the appeal of its downtown Milwaukee campus, where it opened a 550-foot-high, $450 million new tower in 2017 and is now investing another $500 million in consolidating 2,000 employees from a suburban office. The Tower and Commons were constructed with collaboration in mind, with plenty of flexible workspaces and amenities, so the pandemic delivered a blow. While maintaining its three-times-aweek hybrid policy, Northwestern Mutual has sweetened the pot with recent moves, such as opening a 4,000-square-foot convenience store on the campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BambooHR just turned over 100,000 square feet of space\u2014of which it was using only 30,000 feet\u2014to lease 50,000 square feet in a new building. \u201cWe went from 50 people a day to 200 a day, especially on Tuesday and Thursday,\u201d Grantham says. \u201cThey\u2019re flocking because all the people are there, with great food and amenities, light and bright and new and airy and fun.\u201d However, basics may be the most important element of a compelling workplace. \u201cIt can\u2019t anymore be just meals or CEOs acting as baristas,\u201d says Brandon Holden, CEO of Eptura. \u201cIt has to be around creating a frictionless experience to drive their productivity, with technology, space, desks and rooms that allow workers to collaborate more efficiently and be more productive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But making buildings nicer is far from certain to lure people back, cautions Michael Silver of Vestian. \u201cThere\u2019s a feeling that if I\u2019m a CEO and we\u2019re going to move to a nice building, my employees will come back to work because they have amenities they didn\u2019t have before, including better cafeteria facilities, maybe gym facilities, maybe a more inviting lobby,\u201d he says. \u201cBut those things haven\u2019t been working. People are investing in buildings and repopulating it that way, and it hasn\u2019t been worth the money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Allow a slow crawl.<\/strong> Many CEOs believe workers will continue to come back to the office voluntarily. \u201cThey realize they miss the camaraderie, they\u2019re not as productive and can\u2019t coordinate with team members,\u201d says Fred Burke, CEO of Guardian Pharmacy Services. \u201cOn their own, they\u2019ve decided to be in the office more. It has resolved itself without a mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n This approach can include some tugging. Corpay, for example, has a policy that \u201csays that if you\u2019re going to work remotely, you\u2019re going to work remotely where you don\u2019t move to another state or country,\u201d says Crystal Williams, CHRO for the fintech with about 5,000 U.S. employees. \u201cWe want you to be within commuting distance of the office to which you\u2019ve been assigned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Proceeding with caution.<\/strong> \u201cThe way the company treats employees affects their loyalty,\u201d Thomasian says. \u201cIf they believe there\u2019s no empathy for employees and it isn\u2019t a people-first culture, and is more business-driven, companies will see some good people look for other opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Corpay\u2019s Williams says, \u201cAlmost everyone I interview asks if they\u2019re required to be in the office full-time, and we\u2019ve had a few say, \u2018Thank you very much, but no thank you\u2019 if they\u2019re required to be here full-time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At particular risk are employers with workers proficient in AWS, Javascript, Microsoft Azure and other computing skills. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of scarcity of skills, and companies making blanket rules are doing themselves a disservice,\u201d Thomasian says. \u201cOn average in the U.S., 50 percent of those skills are remote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stricter RTO policies may also hinder DEI goals. \u201cWomen gained a lot of flexibility with Covid,\u201d Sanofi\u2019s Grenache says. \u201cSo there\u2019s a balance between creating the right culture for employees and making sure it doesn\u2019t affect diversity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keep pushing.<\/strong> Most CEOs still yearn to be able to see their employees for real. \u201cIf you keep putting pressure on in a subtle way, one of these days you\u2019ll end up with 75 percent [attendance],\u201d Silver says. \u201cThis is the condition that businesses will have to wait out.\u201d OneStream Software CEO Tom Shea is willing. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing more and more attendance,\u201d he says. \u201cIf employees are doing complex engineering, for instance, they need to be in the room together. It\u2019s the best way to convey thoughts. We see teams adapting to what makes them efficient. It works best for us as a company to be around each other.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your employees still want the opportunity to work remotely, but you want them in the office. Now what?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":359850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[871,879,2130],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leadershipmanagement","category-strategy-2","category-talentmanagement"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/strategicchro360.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/whos-back-chart.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/strategicchro360.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nathalie-Grenache-Picture-1.jpg\")
\u2014Nathalie Grenache, CHRO, Sanofi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n