It’s hard not to notice the massive return-to-office (RTO) push taking over corporate America. Many of the largest Fortune 500 companies, including Amazon, AT&T, JPMorgan, and Dell, have recently required workers to come back to the office five days per week. And just a few weeks ago, President Trump released an executive action requiring federal workers to return to the office full-time or look for employment elsewhere. 

The number of workers going into the office at least four days per week rose from 34% in 2023 to 68% in 2024, according to new research from consulting firm Mckinsey & Company, based on responses from thousands of professionals. Meanwhile the number of people working remotely for four or more days plunged from 44% to 17% during the same time period.

Leaders in both the public and private sectors claim similar reasons for this push: Employees are not as productive working from home as they are in an office. But the survey challenges that belief; it found that insisting on where employees work is actually far less important than the environment leaders create. 

“Companies that hope to reach their stated organizational-effectiveness goals should look beyond RTO policies themselves to address the chronic problems that continue to take a toll on employee experience and productivity,” says Brooke Weddle, a senior partner at McKinsey.

There’s not a lot of daylight between satisfaction rates of workers that are mostly remote (90%), or workers that are mostly in-person (80%). And quit rates for both groups, which measure an employee’s intention to leave, are around 39%. Burnout rates are also high across all types of flexible work groups: 36% for remote workers, 35% for in-person, and 28% for hybrid workers. 

Instead of focusing on location, McKinsey singles out five core practices that define a strong workplace: collaboration, connectivity, innovation, mentorship, and skill development. Critically, employees across remote, hybrid, and in-person work categories didn’t show any gap larger than 9 percentage points when it came to grading their organizations on these categories. In short, it’s not about where employees work; it’s about what workplaces do to improve their cultural pillars. 

Successful organizations can improve on those five practices by increasing the intentional time managers and senior leaders spend with employees, and making sure that employees receive regular check-ins, according to the report. Outside HR leaders agree. 

“RTO is not a silver bullet for engagement and performance,” KeyAnna Schmiedl, chief human experience officer at HR software company Workhuman, tells Fortune about the McKinsey report’s findings. “Mutual trust, personalized recognition, frequent 1:1 check-ins, opportunities for growth and development—these are the key drivers of performance and well-being.”

Brit Morse
brit.morse@fortune.com

Around the Table

A round-up of the most important HR headlines.

The Trump administration is expected to begin laying off thousands of employees at the IRS as Elon Musk and DOGE begin to target their efforts towards tax collections. Washington Post

Mass firings are expected to hit the Energy Department soon as the new administration accelerates plans to sack the federal workforce. New York Times

DOGE received approval to use software that could potentially transfer large amounts of workforce data from the U.S. Labor Department. NBC News

Watercooler

Everything you need to know from Fortune.

Cutting costs, cutting workers. Major oil company Chevron announced that it’s laying off up to 20% of its employees amid efforts to stash billions in costs. —Jason Ma

Axing more employees. Nearly 1,300 probationary employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are being let go by the new administration. —Mike Stobbe and The Associated Press

More federal layoffs. The Trump administration ordered agencies to lay off nearly all probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protection. —Chris Megerian, Michelle Price, and The Associated Press