Amazon’s recent call for employees to return to the office (RTO) five days a week is the latest example of high-profile companies pulling back from their remote-work policies. RTO advocates often cite the importance of in-person connections, with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt even claiming, “Google decided that work-life balance and going home early and working from home was more important than winning.”
One Company A/B Tested Hybrid Work. Here’s What They Found.
The six-month experiment reversed managers’ opinions on hybrid work — and offers three important lessons.
October 29, 2024
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Summary.
Since the pandemic, executives have had to rethink their work-from-home policies to better support their companies’ bottom line. Recent research conducted in a real company showed that employees who worked from home two days a week experienced higher satisfaction and lower attrition rates compared with their colleagues who worked from the office. This reduction in turnover saved millions of dollars in recruiting and training costs, thereby increasing profits for the company. Business leaders can learn valuable lessons from this study to implement a successful hybrid work model: establishing rigorous performance management systems, coordinating team or company-level hybrid schedules, and securing support from firm leadership. Additionally, executives should A/B test their own management practices to find what works best for them.