Workers are willing to return to the office, but a one-size-fits-all policy means companies risk losing their top talent

CEOs are bringing employees back into the office, but they’re still struggling to find the sweet spot when it comes to a successful RTO push.

A new report from Boston Consulting Group sheds light on what companies are getting wrong—and right—about their hybrid work arrangements. The management consulting firm surveyed more than 1,500 office-based workers across the globe, and found that employees who have less control over their office schedules are more likely to be unhappy, which could lead to higher attrition—especially for diverse workers.

First, the good news. Both workers and managers believe they should be in-person at least one-third of the time, according to the study. They also agreed that tasks like trainings, social events, or collaboration in general were better done in person.

But hybrid work is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor, and employee contentment varied significantly based on the version companies implemented. Around 70% of employees were satisfied with a hybrid model that had set days every week. That number rose to 82% when workers’ office schedules varied each week, and reached 99% when they were asked to attend only key in-person events. Employees want their time in office to be used meaningfully, to do things like connect with coworkers, instead of “focus work,” which they could do better remotely. 

Employees were also more likely to be unhappy with work models that come from top management and apply to everyone. Company-wide guidelines made around 24% of employees unhappy, compared to manager-led guidelines which dropped that number by 10 percentage points. And when teams or individual employees were able to decide what their hybrid policy would be, only 6% of workers were unhappy. 

“All of a sudden, for the first time in our lives we’re being told, like children, ‘You need to show up, I’m taking attendance.’ What does that say about trust?” says Debbie Lovich, head of people strategy at Boston Consulting Group and a lead author of the report. “It’s about agency, and control. And what makes people the least unhappy is when we’re deciding together as a team.”

The stakes are high for companies when it comes to getting their RTO plans right. Employees dissatisfied with their work model were more than 2.5 times more likely to consider leaving their organization in the next year, compared to those who were satisfied. Females, caregivers, LGBTQ workers, and disabled employees were also more likely to say that flexible work options were a key driver in deciding whether to stay or leave. 

“It’s less about the days per week in the office,” says Lovich. “It’s about: How do you build the muscle as an organization to create work that delivers the joy, flexibility, trust, accountability, and productivity to the organization? If you don’t, you’re at risk of losing your best.”

The researchers outlined five steps organizations can take to start getting hybrid work right:

1. Make sure the leadership team agrees on the company’s needs, and the amount of freedom that individual teams and managers will have about how to work.

2. Empower the heads of different business units to identify the kind of hybrid model that works best for their own team. 

3. Allow individual team leaders to customize work models—and prepare to further modify them as work and personal priorities shift.

4. Invest in “key enablers” to make the models work, including teaching managers to build work routines and schedules that allows their teams to do their best work when together, and get them the collaboration tools they need. 

5. Don’t monitor badge swipes or track workers online. Instead, make sure that KPIs are about quality, innovation, productivity, growth, and engagement. And adapt as needed.

Paige McGlauflin
paige.mcglauflin@fortune.com
@paidion

Reporter's Notebook

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Today is Mom’s Equal Pay Day, which highlights national pay discrepancy. All working mothers earned just 62 cents for every dollar that working fathers earned in 2022, though that gap is bigger for Black, Latina, and Native American mothers.

“Employers must be on the frontlines addressing contributors to the motherhood pay gap,” says Noreen Farrell, executive director of Equal Rights Advocates, a civil rights nonprofit. This includes paying mothers based on the value they bring to their jobs and not their previous salaries, establishing salary transparency practices, tracking pay equity data, and embracing flexible and remote work options, she says.

Around the Table

A round-up of the most important HR headlines.

- A.I. job openings have surged this year and they’re promising massive payouts. One of Netflix’s machine learning roles offers up to $900,000 a year in total compensation. Wall Street Journal

- Holly May, chief human resources officer at Walgreens Boots Alliance, wants people to realize the importance of emotional honesty and transparency in the workplace. Business Insider

- A majority of professional and retail investors believe companies that offer unlimited PTO will outperform the S&P 500. Bloomberg

Watercooler

Everything you need to know from Fortune.

Full-employment stagnation. A surge of early retirements could lead to labor force shortages starting in 2024, two BlackRock researchers warned on Monday. With the labor force expected to grow at 0.5% on average per year, instead of 1.5% before the pandemic, the U.S. could see a “full-employment stagnation,” leading to weak growth and rising inflation. —Will Daniel

Legal turbulence. Three Southwest Airlines lawyers must undergo “religious-liberty training” after a former employee won a lawsuit claiming the airline fired her for her antiabortion beliefs. But some people are criticizing the judge for having a conservative Christian legal group administer the training. —David Koenig, AP

Make the workplace work for you. Ben Waber, a prominent behavioral researcher, believes strict RTO policies and completely remote options are both “totally incorrect.” Instead, he thinks physical offices should be treated “as a management tool” to encourage collaboration and actively adapt to the needs of different teams. —Geoff Colvin