Return-to-office rates stabilised around June 2023. In Australia, 36% worked from home regularly in August 2024 and 37% in 2023, up from 5% pre-pandemic. In Europe and North America, about 30% of employees use hybrid schedules and 8% are fully remote. Employers and unions continue to contest return-to-office policies and some jurisdictions consider legal rights to remote days. Hybrid work can increase productivity, improve work-life balance and reduce attrition, with a 2024 trial finding 33% lower quit rates and notable benefits for women, non-managers and long-commute employees. Fully remote work links to a 10% productivity drop, while hybrid work appears to have no impact on productivity. Employees generally prefer hybrid models and often accept trade-offs such as lower pay for remote options. Face-to-face time supports informal learning and spontaneous knowledge transfer.
Return-to-work tensions aren't simply resistance to change. They reflect deeper questions about how different people work best and what modern organisations actually need to succeed. After COVID, return-to-office rates stabilised by around June 2023, without much movement since. In Australia, 36% of Australians were working from home regularly in August 2024 and 37% in 2023. This is a dramatic shift from pre-pandemic levels when only 5% of Australians worked from home regularly. In Europe and North America, around 30% of employees now work hybrid schedules, with 8% fully remote.
Hybrid work can increase productivity, improve work-life balance and reduce attrition rates. A 2024 randomised controlled trial found hybrid work arrangements led to 33% lower quit rates. There were particular benefits for women, non-managers and employees with long commutes. Research tracking individual productivity found fully remote work was associated with a 10% drop in productivity. However, hybrid working appeared to "have no impact on productivity".
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