Invest in People, Not Buildings
The co-founder of Bospar, Curtis Sparrer, headed off one of the main reasons that companies are getting employees back into the office – and that is because of their pricey real estate. “By investing in people and not buildings you can effortlessly scale your workforce and your footprint” he told Forbes.
As we reported in December, one in three companies (38%) say that using the office space they pay for is a reason behind their RTO push.
But money talks. The cost of maintaining office spaces is huge, especially in CBDs, and so CEOs need to justify owning or renting these spaces by filling desks. Plus, some C-Suites have issued mandates and then swiftly realized that they can’t house all of the employees returning, like Amazon did.
Staff at several companies enforcing return-to-office mandates have voiced their anger at being given these kinds of ultimatums, pointing out in many cases that disabled employees will be hardest hit by strict mandates, and that the increased flexibility that comes with remote working has a positive impact on productivity.
Unfortunately, despite protests and evidence it could actually be destructive for businesses to take such a hard line on remote working, the RTO push looks set to continue across almost all industries as 2025 rolls on.
