Back to the future of office working

Blog posts

22 Jul 2025

Astrid Allen, Senior Research Fellow

A return to in-office working has remained in the news over recent months, with businesses enforcing ‘return to office’ mandates. A House of Lords’ inquiry into Home-based Working has brought the practice of remote and hybrid working under scrutiny in the Palace of Westminster, as well as in boardrooms across the UK (click here to see IES’ submission of evidence to the House of Lord’s enquiry on remote and hybrid working). We know that collaboration and human interaction is good for us and good for business, so is it time to enforce a return to the office?

A 2023 KPMG survey found that 63% of UK CEOs predicted a full return to in-office work by 2026 and 83% surveyed expressed a likelihood of linking financial reward and promotion opportunities to a return to in-office working practices. As well as perceived business benefits, some leaders are concerned about the potential negative impacts on employee wellbeing and the lack of equity for staff who can’t work from home (more about flexible working for frontline workers here).

However, despite the desires of many leaders just a couple of years ago and all the hype about return to office mandates, data from the Office for National Statistics shows that there is no mass return to in-office working. In fact, the last three years have seen a continued gradual decline in the number of people that do all their work away from home.

UK working adults not hybrid or remote working

Source: IES analysis of ONS data on working arrangements in the UK

So, what is really going on? The truth is that the reality of implementing return to office mandates puts HR leaders and people managers in a difficult position. Work after Lockdown research found that over time, following Covid-19 lockdowns, people who were remote and hybrid working increasingly wanted to continue to work in this way. This suggests that remote and hybrid working is habit forming and that many workers will resist a return to in-office working.

There are good reasons why people want to retain some remote working in their week. 2023 Ipsos Karian and Box research showed that hybrid/remote workers commonly identified benefits as: better work-life balance, saving the cost of commuting, flexibility with their time and saving the time of commuting (with over 30% identifying each of these as benefits, when asked to select up to three options). Employers have been realising benefits too. In his oral evidence to the Committee for Home-based Working last month, Stanford’s Professor Nicholas Bloom cited a 35% increase in retention rates. This is a massive saving for employers in terms of hiring and training new staff and a boon for retaining the knowledge and skills of existing workers.

Enforcing in-office mandates also risks marginalising swathes of the labour market. Separate research from King’s College London and Lancaster University demonstrates the need for greater job flexibility for disabled people, a growing group in the labour market (disabled people now make up around a quarter of working age adults). The Hybrid Work Commission also found that enforcing a return to in-office working is likely to have a disproportionately negative impact on women, as women that mainly work from home are much more likely to work full-time than those that work mainly away from home.

However, as much as workers recognise the benefits of remote and hybrid working, many also recognise the value of in-office days. Previously mentioned Ipsos Karian and Box research found that 53% of workers want to work three or more days at their employer’s location. This suggests that, left to their own devices, most employees will work hybrid or fully onsite, rather than fully remote.

It seems that there is no ‘right’ amount of in-office working. Individuals, job roles, teams and businesses will all have different, and often changing, optimum levels of remote and hybrid working. Maybe the answer is more about choice and voice. Interestingly, the 2025 ADP Global Workforce Review found that workers who had complete flexibility to choose where they work each day were more engaged than workers who were less empowered (regardless of where they actually worked). Work after Lockdown research also concluded that worker autonomy and choice over working preferences is key to a successful workplace. Working with our HR Network, we have recently been investigating opportunities for creating ‘unbound working’, and found that trust and employee consultation are key.

So, while fully hybrid and remote working comes with challenges, limitations and downsides, they are an important option for many and there are huge personal, business and societal benefits when workers are enabled to strike the right balance. The way forward is for employers to openly discuss with employees the level of remote working that is good for them, their teams, and the wider organisation.

If your organisation needs support on remote or hybrid working, please contact Astrid.Allen@employment-studies.co.uk

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Any views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Institute as a whole.