It’s no secret that return-to-office mandates can create employee backlash, but many senior leaders push on anyway, believing that once employees are back in the office, productivity will rise.
I’ve been working on the front lines of this office culture war for years. I can tell you that, in most cases, demanding presenteeism without fundamentally changing your culture doesn’t work. Forcing inflexible office time is a formula for losing talent.
Research shows that mandates do not lead to improved financial results either. For example, a recent University of Pittsburgh study found that mandates hurt employee satisfaction but do not improve firm performance. The research paper also reports that many managers admit regret about forcing employees back to the office, saying they would have pursued different strategies if they had better data.
Focusing on the tug-of-war between the ideal ratio of in-office vs. out-of-office work is distracting us from the more fundamental question of how to build strong, flexible cultures that meet the demands of today’s workplaces and workers.
So, what can senior leaders do to address these issues in their organizations?
Flexibility First
First, provide a foundation of flexibility. Regardless of the changing headlines, the case for flexibility has remained unchanged for decades. Flexibility is as good for the organization as it is for its employees. It is a driver of talent, productivity, profitability, diversity, engagement, sustainability and business continuity. Flexibility is not a tradeoff for performance; instead, it is providing a culture that expects accountability while allowing for autonomy, one of the keys to employee engagement and loyalty. Workplace flexibility is also flexible! There are many ways to create flexible workplaces that can be aligned with your specific culture, values and goals.
In this time of ongoing talent wars, it pays to focus on the needs of employees. Many organizations are acknowledging this. The 2025 World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report shows that organizations are prioritizing employee well-being (64 percent) and offering remote and hybrid work (43 percent) along with opportunities for career progression to attract and retain talent. When organizations balance what they expect from employees with what they offer them, they win.
Let me give you an example of a firm that got this balance right.
Saul Ewing is a leading global law firm that implemented a results-driven, flexible culture change initiative because of the pandemic. Prior to that time, their partners and employees worked in the office. The pandemic showed them that employees valued the autonomy they had working virtually, and they were productive working flexibly. I helped the firm’s chair, Jason St. John, and his team through a five-step culture change process that started with reflection—a step many organizations skip. They developed clarity about what was most beneficial in virtual and in-office environments and what business goals and values were important to them. They focused on leveraging flexibility as a fundamental business driver that aligned with their goals.
In an interview for The Flexibility Paradigm, St. John explained, “Clients care about whether their law firms retain people who are happy, because that leads to continuity of service, which leads to more productive, efficient work for clients.” The company’s goal was to “create a workplace that balances autonomy with the benefits of being in person without compromising our high standard of excellence and performance for our clients.” The hybrid policy they created did just that. In a notoriously competitive talent landscape, employee attrition decreased, and engagement rose, driven by this client- and employee-first focus.
Return on Experience
With flexibility in place, employees still need to get some return on the experience when they go into the office, regardless of how many days per week they’re asked to show up. Nothing makes employees angrier than suffering through a long, expensive commute only to work alone at their desk all day doing video calls with employees in other offices or, worse, down the hall. Or being forced to go to meetings where they are “talked at,” with no opportunity to interact. Return on Experience at an organizational level means developing your culture and creating the experiences your people and organization need to thrive.
If you’re asking people to commute to the office, give them opportunities for connection, collaboration and contribution.
Connection. Consider connection opportunities at every level and create formal practices that promote them. These don’t happen automatically; they need to be intentional, made by design. These could include training programs and mentorships, employee resource groups, onboarding and integration programs for new employees, and regular in-person events and retreats. Remember, these opportunities should be available both in-person and virtually to accommodate everyone, anytime.
Collaboration. Collaboration doesn’t just happen when you put people in a room together. Collaboration is best when it’s hyper-intentional. I often recommend Smart Collaboration, a system developed by Dr. Heidi Gardner at Harvard University School of Law. This system has been proven to tie to higher profits, greater innovations and employee engagement. She focuses on intentionally bringing people with different backgrounds together in an atmosphere of trust and incentivizing people to help each other. Research shows that this type of collaboration can be just as effective in person as it is virtually or a combination of both, and in fact, it can be more effective when there is an asynchronous component.
Contribution. Employees do their best work when they feel they are valued, given opportunities and given feedback to help them grow. When I work with senior leaders, I often ask them, “Are you FOR your employees?” FOR is an acronym for feedback, opportunities and relationships, essential elements for employee satisfaction and engagement. These are areas that can be formalized into regular practices that support employees. When employees are given this support, they work at a higher level, feel more purposeful and engaged, and stay at their firms longer.
Now, Make It Stick
McKinsey research shows that 70 percent of change doesn’t stick. That’s because leaders are going straight to policy changes without shifting their own mindsets. In typical human behavior change, you have thoughts first, thoughts inspire your beliefs and beliefs lead to action. If you want to change action, you have to get at the thoughts and beliefs that precede it.
When leaders react to news and trends (like DEI backlash or RTO mandates) and move too fast to action without evolving their own thinking first, this leads to failed initiatives. To align your workplace with your workers and your own goals, take a step back and evolve your thinking first. Who do you want to be for your customers, clients and people? What is your purpose? What are your values? This values-, purpose- and goal-driven approach shifts leaders from reactive policies to evolved leadership.
Make sure you’re informed and consider data in your decision-making. Study after study shows that mandates to work in the office lead to a mountain of negative results: increased attrition, especially among high-performing employees, and lower employee engagement. Leaders, take time to reset your mindset by leveraging data and your own cultural values and organizational goals. From here, you can pursue change that sticks and drives results.
