Bosses forcing RTO may regret it

In a survey, companies whose workers do their jobs from more than one place reported higher revenue.

Chalk one up for compromise at work.

It turns out that having workers in the office, at home, or in any one place for too long might be a drag on a company’s growth.

The Goldilocks approach of spending a little time here and a little time there could be the best path to boosting sales.

In a survey from McKinsey, companies whose workers stayed in the same spot for most of the week, regardless of where that was, reported lower revenue growth than employers that used hybrid models.

The consultancy surveyed nearly 4,000 execs at companies whose customers are other businesses. Respondents included heads of sales, chief marketing officers, and chief financial officers.

Among respondents at companies that sanctioned hybrid work, 35% said their top line had grown by more than 10% from the prior year. Twenty-eight percent of respondents at companies that didn’t use or allow hybrid setups reported an increase above 10%.

Jennifer Stanley, a McKinsey partner, told B-17 that the difference in growth rates between the hybrid and less flexible arrangements was “very meaningful.” That’s because making big sales gains year over year is often difficult for many so-called B2B companies.

“If you’re in a sector that’s struggling for two or three points of growth,” she said, hybrid work “could be actually a really meaningful lever.”

Stanley also said the results suggest that much of the return-to-office discussion is binary — and that workers spending most of their time either in a cubicle or somewhere else isn’t necessarily best for growth.

“It’s probably not so black and white, and that’s what the data show,” she said.

Respondents who worked from the same place four or more times a week were considered to work from a single location. Any setup with more variety — maybe two days here, three somewhere else — was considered hybrid.

The findings are good news for workers who have settled into a hybrid setup years after pandemic lockdowns forced a grand experiment in remote work. It’s also a welcome morsel for the bosses who have acknowledged, perhaps grudgingly, that remote work is as much a fixture of office jobs as email and Teams calls.

Stanley said hybrid work arrangements could represent a penchant for flexibility that may spill over into other ways of addressing work imperatives, including how companies serve their customers.

“It’s just the agility coming full circle,” Stanley said.

Many workers want a choice

It’s also possible that some of the growth comes from workers who can better balance the demands of work and their lives. Some Gen Z workers value flexibility in their jobs almost as much as a good salary.

More-seasoned workers also often prize having autonomy over when and how they do their jobs. In a survey from the research firm Gartner, about one in three people looking for senior-level positions said a return-to-office mandate was part of what prompted them to look for a new job — even when they had reason to go back to the office.

Caroline Ogawa, a director in the HR practice at Gartner, previously told B-17 that the firm’s snapshot of exec sentiment made clear that having a rationale for going back to the office wasn’t always enough to sway some workers.

“They overwhelmingly felt like the organization provided a convincing reason” to return to the office, she said. “But they still would leave if they were asked” to come back.

McKinsey’s Stanley argued that businesses that demand a less flexible work style risk being out of step with the adaptability many of their clients seek.

“It makes it very difficult to be customer-first and to be operating in a way that the customers themselves want to behave,” she said.