Bosses are still ordering workers back into the office, but their biggest RTO push is already over

Although bosses are still pushing for their employees to come back into the office, the RTO wars look like they’re finally winding down.

Around 77% of employees at Fortune 100 companies work in hybrid arrangements, and 11% are fully in-office as of January 2024, according to real estate services company JLL’s U.S. Office Outlook report for the fourth quarter of 2023. Less than 1% of employees work at fully-remote employers. On average, workers commuting into the office have worked 2.96 days per week as of this month, based on attendance requirements.

Although JLL estimates that more than 459,500 U.S. employees will be subjected to new office attendance requirements in the first quarter of 2024, that number pales in comparison to last year’s mandates. For example, in the second quarter of 2023, more than 1,152,500 workers were called back to the office.

“The volume of new mandates will slow significantly in 2024, as fully flexible companies have become an extreme minority in the private sector,” the report states. 

Many large companies requiring RTO have adopted what JLL describes as “foot in the door” return to office policies, in which they initially announce softer attendance mandates, eventually introducing stricter ones over time. For example, UPS, JPMorgan, and Boeing all announced an initial three-days-per-week RTO policy, and have since mandated or announced five-days-per-week attendance requirements. The prevalence of this kind of policy is what could drive “incremental gains” when it comes to RTO, the report says. 

Job postings for fully-remote roles have also slowed down: Just 10% of all job openings on LinkedIn in December 2023 were fully remote, down from a peak of 20.3% in April 2022. But despite the odds stacked against them, workers are still vying for remote roles, as 46% of all job applications in December 2023 went to remote positions. And there is some good news for remote die-hards—WFH positions remain elevated above pre-pandemic levels. Just 5% of all U.S. job postings in 2017 and 2018 were remote, according to LinkedIn.

Despite the slow-motion pullback to the office, though, some Fortune 100 companies have indicated their intention to remain hybrid. Cigna, Dell, and Intel, all tout flexible or hybrid-first work arrangements on their websites. Allstate also allows managers and individual teams to establish their own office attendance arrangements. The company saw a 23% increase in job applications after adopting a flexible work arrangement. 

“I know there are all these articles about people thinking five days a week is coming back, and everyone’s going to the office—I don’t,” Bob Toohey, Allstate’s chief human resources officer, told me last fall.

Paige McGlauflin
paige.mcglauflin@fortune.com
@paidion

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