'Return to office' demands falling, as hybrid work becomes new normal, survey finds

Australia Broadcast Center

21-04-2025

'Back to your desk' demands for full-time workers? That's so 2023.
New research shows despite a political furore and media reports of a push by major employers for staff to return to the office, demands for a certain number of 'in-person' days are falling.
"It appears that there has been this stabilisation," says Sarah McCann-Bartlett, chief executive of the Australian HR Institute, pointing to new research that shows no increase in the share of employers enforcing office attendance rules.
The organisation represents 18,000 people who manage staff through the corporate function of 'human resources'.
"The data is very, very clear, and it reflects international research that says there are very strong benefits to hybrid working.
"They include employee work/life balance and wellbeing, and for the organisation there are productivity gains, better recruitment opportunities and better retention."
Sarah McCann-Bartlett from the Australian HR Institute says hybrid work "has reached a stabilisation phase".
(
ABC News: Andrew Ware
)
Research by the Institute shows more than 80 per cent of respondents say hybrid working — a mix of in-person, remote and work from home (WFH) — will increase or stay the same in the coming two years.
It says the benefits are better work/life balance, higher retention rates, greater ability to attract staff and "enhanced health and wellbeing" for employees.
The downsides are a feeling of "disconnection" from colleagues, staff collaboration and monitoring performance.
Cumulatively, the benefits came through more strongly in the survey responses than the negatives.
According to the data in the report, 'Hybrid and Flexible Working Practices in Australian Workplaces in 2025':
44 per cent of workplaces require in-office attendance at between three and five days a week — down from 48 per cent of employers in 2023
The most common model for in-office attendance is around three days a week (30 per cent of respondents)
The next most common model for in-office attendance is 'no minimum requirement', but with encouragement to attend
The Institute surveyed 994 HR professionals from Australian companies in January and February this year, with around half of the respondents working in the private sector, with the remainder split between public and not-for-profit.
Balance has benefits for staff and managers
David Portway's job is, in many ways, about getting people home safely.
NDE Solutions is a national company that does non-destructive testing, to ensure that everything from bridges to boats is working properly and not about to fall apart.
In his role as head of culture, it's about making sure the business is working properly for its staff.
"
[That's] the way we behave towards our people, the way we treat our people, that we want the best for our employees so they provide the best for the business.
"
David Portway works for a company that doesn't mandate how many days employees spend in office.
(
ABC News: Justin Hewitson
)
With staff working across the nation and in remote areas, he sees the debate about work-from-home as too simplistic, when the focus should be balancing the business' needs, individual's needs and "striking a balance and making sure that it's a win-win" for both parties.
The company doesn't have mandates about the number of days staff need to be in the office.
"What we have found, though, is that people do gravitate to the office for meetings and for contact with their colleagues," he says.
"
We let people set their own level of what that balance is, and for some people they're in the office much more than others.
"
"So it's really 'one size does not fit all'. It's: How can we adapt to suit the business and the individual?"
Big cities with poor infrastructure and long commutes are a key reason work from home and flexible working have remained popular.
(
ABC News: Phoebe Hosier
)
Having changed jobs several times in recent years, Mr Portway has seen the "softening" of hard-and-fast mandates, which he sees as both workers and employers becoming "a little bit more mature" in their approach to what has been a substantial change.
He himself works four days a week, spending time with his family and helping to care for his elderly mother.
In addition, work has pushed back a daily management meeting to 9.15am, to allow him to drop his daughter to school.
"These are the little concessions that a business makes to make sure that someone like myself is catered for when it comes to flexibility," he says.
It doesn't just make him enjoy his work more and his life run more smoothly, Mr Portway adds, it makes business sense in a tight labour market that doesn't have enough skilled workers available.
"One, it's the attraction factor, and two, it's the retention. And the battle for retention is huge at this point in time."
A 'foundational shift' from full-time office attendance
Caitlin Guilfoyle's work has taken her into businesses across Australia, both before and after COVID took WFH from a rare perk to an accepted part of around one-in-three jobs in the nation.
She calls the past five years a "foundational shift" in how work gets done.
"Despite recent headlines, we haven't seen workplaces increase their requirements for in-office attendance," the future of work specialist says.
"
People don't want to be 'anti-workplace'. They do want some time in the office. What they don't want is to be mandated or told which days.
"
Modern work expert Caitlin Guilfoyle has been involved in shaping the workforces of companies large and small.
(
ABC News: Simon Tucci
)
Ms Guilfoyle says there is an increase in people leaving organisations when they do mandate a particular number of days people must attend.
She says the best mix is a blend that sits around three days a week.
"But really it's how the work happens in that time and how it's designed, and how we get the right mix of activities for when we're in the office and when we're not in the office."
'Flexible work' becomes election flashpoint
Ahead of the election campaign, the Coalition announced it would axe the jobs of 41,000 public servants in Canberra, and force the rest to work from the office five days a week.
Making the announcement in early March, Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume said
"
It will be an expectation of a Dutton Liberal government that all members of the [Australian public service] work from the office five days a week.
"
Photo shows
Three people walk up stairs
Peter Dutton has wound back the opposition's promise to bring all public servants back to the office — but experts say he may not be the last boss to backtrack on office mandates.
Senator Hume said the workforce had shown a "lack of respect for the work that went into earning the taxes they spend".
The next day Opposition Leader Peter Dutton responded to questions about whether the directive would disadvantage women, who more frequently take advantage of flexible arrangements.
He rejected that it would.
"It doesn't discriminate against people on the basis of gender. It is for public servants. It doesn't have an impact, and we are not going to shy away from the fact that this is taxpayer money," Mr Dutton said.
Read more about the federal election:
Want even more?
The opposition leader added for women who could not be in the office five days a week, there were "plenty of job sharing arrangements".
The issue exploded.
Beyond the practical impediments — such as laws that allow people to ask employers for flexibility and an enterprise agreement running until 2027 — polling, internal research and responses logged by Liberal candidates and volunteers suggested private sector workers thought they might lose the option too.
Some
The policy was walked back, reduced and
Catch the latest interviews and in-depth coverage on
WFH entrenchment 'really happened overnight'
Future of work adviser Caitlin Guilfoyle says it's natural the issue has attracted attention on the election trail, because hybrid and flexible work has gone from being rare to common at incredible speed.
"
This the biggest shift that we've seen in work in probably over 100 years... and it really happened overnight.
"
Photo shows
A woman of Asian heritage sits at the kitchen table resting her chin on her hand, exhausted. Children play behind her.
The 'right to disconnect' aims to end the creep of work into home life. Is it working?
The pandemic forced people home, and they made it work.
As questions arose about how sustainable the model was, global research increasingly showed benefits to both employers and employees.
"It has become a politicised issue... influenced by a political conversation," Ms Guilfoyle says.
In recent years senior staff at the Big Four banks
Employees at Tabcorp and Perth-based Mineral Resources, whose
"But really the thing is organisations talking with their people and understanding what is right for them in how they work, understanding how they deliver value to customers, how to get the most out of their employees, how to enhance engagement and improve on workplace wellbeing," Ms Guilfoyle says.
Who wants full-time office attendance? The boss
Issues about people's 'connectedness' to work, collaboration and the mentoring of employees remain.
But the increasing weight of evidence is that so-called hybrid models of work bring financial and other benefits to workers and businesses that outweigh the negatives.
So where is the push coming from? It's management.
"We asked a question about who is driving 'return to the office', and it very clearly came back that it's the most senior leadership, the CEO of an organisation," the Australian HR Institute Sarah McCann-Bartlett says.
"I think that there are some people who perhaps make decisions based on personal preferences or not using the data.
"And of course, it is every organisation's right to decide what their working patterns are."
What she finds interesting is that anecdotally members are telling the Institute they now have the data to spell out what the consequences will be and some of the benefits the organisation has seen.
Dr Blair Chapman, senior economist for jobs website Seek, says there will always be a tension between the views of management and employees about culture, work and how best to be productive.
Dr Blair Chapman of job site Seek says their data suggests "a little bit of a pullback" in offering work from home in job ads.
(
ABC News: John Gunn
)
"I think the tension means that we will see most businesses requiring some office attendance and some ability to work from home.
"I don't think you're going to see a lot of businesses doing this 'five-day return to the office'," he says.
"They do see that productivity can sometimes be better when people are working from home, because you're not going for coffees with colleagues, you are more focused.
"There is a bit of a balance to be achieved between that sort of 'water cooler chat' you get in the office and a more focused working time at home."
What employees want is not 'one size fits all'
As a job search site, Seek is an arbiter of workplace trends, and Dr Chapman says candidates "gravitate" towards advertisements that offer remote and hybrid models.
"They definitely are looking for those," he says, with surveys of job candidates finding they value work/life balance and the ability to work from home.
Photo shows
A woman with red hair sits at her home computer.
Tech giants have split over WFH rights, with many Australian businesses adopting hybrid approaches to when and how people need to attend work.
The government's think-tank, the Productivity Commission, found approximately 35 per cent of workers had jobs that were amenable to working from home, with the potential to do so higher among full-time and female workers.
But it's not for everyone.
"
A plumber, they just can't work from home, so we see very little 'work from home' offered in the trades and services space.
"
Dr Chapman says what he calls "more professional, computer-desk-based industries" offer a much higher share of positions with the potential to work flexibly.
In addition, tight job markets like the legal industry are more likely to offer the option.
There could soon be more rights around WFH
In a submission, the Australian HR Institute has
The Australian Council of Trade Unions is pushing for all workers to have a specific right to request to work from home in industry awards, with employers only able to refuse on reasonable business grounds and the commission to arbitrate disputes.
The issue is contentious.
Even the structure of a survey that was meant to inform proceedings drew
"Given the public profile of these proceedings, we expect that the material filed will attract significant media attention and we anticipate that this may impact the responses provided by survey participants," the Ai Group contended.
The next hearing is set for June 6.