- Employees more likely to leave a company after introducing an RTO policy, report says
- Companies find it slower and more difficult to hire with an office-based mandate
- Researchers find RTOs costly for businesses and harmful to workers
New data collected by researchers at universities in the United States and China has confirmed that return-to-office (RTO) policies are pushing some of the most skilled and experienced employees to leave their jobs.
The ‘Return-to-Office Mandates and Brain Drain’ report tracked more than three million workers in technology and finance roles across LinkedIn to see when they changed roles in relation to changes in company policies, noting that companies with strict RTO mandates saw higher employee rates. turnover.
Additionally, companies that push for office-based work are said to find it harder to rehire because potential employees value flexibility.
Employees want to work remotely
Researchers found that employee turnover rates increased by an average of 14% following the introduction of RTO mandates. Senior staff and highly skilled employees were the most affected by these changes, who are also the most difficult to replace.
Female workers were found to be three times more likely to leave a company after having to work in the office, and researchers largely attributed this to increased family responsibilities.
On average, companies are now taking 23% longer to hire new employees, while overall hiring rates have fallen 17%.
The study concluded: “Our evidence suggests that RTO mandates are costly for businesses and have serious negative effects on the workforce.”
The news comes amid a continued push to restore full-time office work, a trend that is largely reflected across the tech sector. Recently, Dell announced that its workers would have to come to the office full time. Amazon also confirmed similar plans.
At the same time, studies continue to be published showing that workers favor the flexibility of hybrid and remote work setups. We also recently reported that more than three in five workers are hybrid workers.
