Five years ago, we published guidelines for what RTO might look like. Filled with hubris and optimism then, now we re-examine what’s relevant for employees and employers in today’s office landscape.
The Common Sense Guide for Returning to the Post Covid-19 Workplace was originally written from the employer perspective. What would the office need to offer for employees to want to return. The focus was on health/safety and how to re-tool office spaces to support new workplace strategies, such as mandated maximum occupancies, the 6’ rule, sanitary surfaces and plexiglass screens. However, employees were quickly “emboldened to push back on returning to the workplace until they felt it was safe to do so.” And here we are 5 years later, still trying to find the secret RTO sauce.
Certainly, much has happened since March of 2020. We have gone from WFH (work from home) to WFA (work from anywhere) to RTO (return to the office) to hybrid (whatever that means in your organization). We abandoned contact tracing and social distancing but continued to experiment with co-working spaces (and third places like your coffee shop and the library), daily badge reports, team agreements and Taco Tuesdays (but we have finally learned that you cannot purchase attendance).
We experienced quiet quitting, quiet firing, quiet hiring and quiet vacationing (maybe we’re still doing some of this), along with the great resignation of 2021-2022, over employment (where people hold down two full-time jobs) and new RTO mandates with consequences leading to workforce reductions.
The hub/spoke office location model never really got off the ground as underutilized office stories permeated the media. Employees then and now, eschewed commutes to boring, empty workplaces with nowhere to get focus work done or take a call, exacerbating the problem from the employer and employee perspectives. And big HR issues included the notion of proximity bias and psychological safety.
Perception is reality and transparency is still essential.
Hindsight is 2020: What Still Applies in the RTO Conversation
The RTO debate has transcended the threat of contracting Covid and now centers around five strategic factors.
1. Employee Sentiment, Perceptions and Trust
Remember the periodic town hall meetings from the CEO’s kitchen during the shelter in place period of the pandemic? There was an incredible sense of openness, camaraderie and trust. Employees still expect transparency and clear communication about workplace policies, rather than threatening emails about RTO or else.
The overall intention to leave (your job) is 39%, which is comparable to the pandemic high of 40% during the Great Attrition…this finding is important because although effort is linked to individual performance, one’s person’s extra effort can also raise the game of an entire group.
DeSmet, et al, 2025
“The applied psychology research is clear; trust between colleagues and for the organization that employs them, is crucial to achieving corporate performance goals,” (Milota & Augustin, 2020). In some organizations trust is granted and in others trust must be earned. “Authentic and transparent trust…offer(s) strategic and tactical benefits such as providing psychological safety, reducing turnover, increasing employee engagement, building a diverse and inclusive culture, and delivering a stellar employee experience,” (Milota & Cheval, 2022).
2. Data for Hybrid and Remote Work Considerations
In the first months of the forced WFM period, there was a plethora of research and information trying to make sense of the ‘new normal’ as it was being called. Spencer Levy/CBRE started his now famous podcast, The “Weekly Take” in March of 2020 in response to Covid. Leesman launched their “Home Working Survey” in September of 2020 with eventually over 30,000 respondents. Nick Bloom/Stanford published the first of several research articles in March 2020 on the RTO dilemma, “The productivity pitfalls of working from home in the age of COVID-19.” And Kastle Systems began their “Getting America Back to Work” weekly occupancy research in March 2021.
The industry was trying to manage disruption with data, “sizing up their unique needs to measure, estimate and anticipate the magnitude/difficulty of managing office space,” (Milota, 2020). Now motivations for full time work in the office are often an “imposition of rigid, top-down RTO mandates without employee consensus,” (Tsipursky, n.d.).
Findings reveal a notable deterioration in job satisfaction, work-life balance and perceptions of senior management post-RTO implementation.
Ding & Ma, 2024
3. Enhanced Air Quality and Ventilation
Discussing indoor air quality (IAQ) was a thing during the pandemic, as Joseph Allen/Director of Harvard’s Healthy Buildings Program became a household name with the publication of Healthy Buildings, in 2020. Buildings have an outsized influence on our performance and well-being and this book documents the science and makes the business case for healthy buildings to owners, developers and CEOs.
The push for improved filtration and ventilation systems remains a focus for creating healthier workplaces. A recent study published in the journal Science calls for IAQ legislation for public spaces. This demand is not going away. JLL’s research with MIT documents that:
Healthy building effective rents transact between 4.4 and 7.7% more per square foot than their nearby unhealthy neighbor peers. This premium for healthy spaces is independent of all other factors, such as LEED certification, building age, renovation, lease duration, and submarket.
JLL & MIT
4. Technology for Remote and Hybrid Work
Back when this notion of synchronous and asynchronous communications surfaced during Covid, we thought of technology largely in terms of Zoom®, Teams™ and Slack®. Organizations bolstered their VPNs, added multi-factor authentication for security and often required cameras on. And then in November 2022, ChatGPT™ was publicly released, and the workplace AI revolution was launched. AI assisted software proliferates in everything from virtual assistants to predictive resource allocation, to project management.
As employees return to the office, by choice or mandate, many organizations either do not have enough workplace real estate to support full time office attendance or would like to better optimize their real estate assets. AI assisted desk reservation and utilization softwares, once the centerpiece of Covid contact tracing, are seeing a resurgence as they manage workplace analytics and office space optimization.
Organizations deploying AI at an operational level, rather than a skills-based level, outperformed their peers by 44% when it came to metrics such as employee retention and revenue growth.
Downie & Hayes, 2024
5. Flexibility in Workplace Design
The question is how to make the office experience fresh? The pre-Covid “set it and forget it” mentality of workplace design when the office re-fresh was financed by the lease renewal is inadequate.
The IFMA Experts’ Assessment study outlines how Facility Managers are leading change by leveraging new operating models. Taking a proactive approach with quick, less expensive office micro interventions informed by organizational direction and employee sentiment can refresh ancillary furniture settings, curate spaces for special programming and seasonal events.
We will also see the appeal of mixed-use (live/work/play) space
IFMA Experts’ Assessment, 2023
So, What Now?
Whether your organization is in the office full time, hybrid or fully remote, “the policy mandate itself is far less important than the work environment organizations create and the practices that accompany a policy’s implementation,” (DeSmet, et al, 2025).
The McKinsey Quarterly Report from February 2025 advises organizations to “look beyond RTO policies themselves to address the chronic problems that continue to take a toll on employee experience and productivity,” (DeSmet, et al, 2025). The report outlines five key practices that “help fuel performance and organizational health, no matter which working model leaders chose,” (DeSmet, et al, 2025). They are summarized here:
- Collaboration that regularly clarifies priorities and connects the dots on how work fits together.
- Connectivity that clearly communicates answers to questions about why it is important that we come together, the frequency in the office and the balance between connectivity and heads-down focus work.
- Innovation in a culture that supports psychological safety, experimentation and iteration, to test ideas and learn from shortfalls.
- Mentorship that is a combination of formal programs and informal peer coaching, especially for hybrid and remote staff.
- Skill development that invests in opportunities for learning, such as reskilling/upskilling, investing in apprenticeships, job rotations and flexible career paths.
The McKinsey article reports that there was “no clear winner when it comes to a working model” (of how much to be in the office) and that even when an employee’s work arrangements (whether in person, hybrid or remote) are satisfactory, their overall work experience still needs improvement. (DeSmet, et al 2025).
People cost 10x more than space – get the people part right.
References
Davis, K. (November 2024). “Why are we still talking about return to office?” Retrieved from: https://www.fastcompany.com/91229401/why-are-we-still-talking-about-return-to-office
DeSmet, A., Weddle, B., Hancock, B., Mugayar-Baldocchi, M., & Lauricella, T. (February 2025). “Returning to the office? Focus more on practices and less on the policy.” Retrieved from: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/returning-to-the-office-focus-more-on-practices-and-less-on-the-policy#/
Ding, Y. & Ma, M. (December 2024). “Return to office mandates.” Retrieved from: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4675401
Downie, A. & Hayes, M. (2024). “AI in the workplace: Digital labor and the future of work.” Retrieved from: https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/ai-in-the-workplace
L’Estrange, J. (October 2024). “Here we are, still talking about return to office.” Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenlestrange/2024/10/08/here-we-are-still-talking-about-return-to-office/
IFMA. (January 2023). “IFMA’s ‘Experts’ Assessment, vol 2’ Points Toward Significant shifts in how organizations operate in the future and the implications for FM.” Retrieved from: https://www.ifma.org/news/whats-new-at-ifma-new/ifma-s-experts-assessment-vol-2-points-toward-significant-shifts-in-how-organizations-operate-in-the-future-and-the-implications-for-fm/
Milota, C. & Augustin, S. (2020). “Tactical Applications on Returning to the Office After the Covid-19 Crisis.” Retrieved from: https://officeinsight.com/officenewswire/tactical-applications-on-returning-to-the-office-after-the-covid-19-crisis/
Milota, C. & Cheval, M. (2022). “2023: Trust the essential metric.” Retrieved from: https://www.workdesign.com/2022/12/2023-trust-the-essential-metric/
Milota, C. (2020). “Sizing up workplace metrics during COVID-19 – Refining what to measure and how to measure it.” Retrieved from : https://www.fmlink.com/articles/most-important-workplace-meterics-during-the-pandemic/
Tsipursky, G. (n.d.). “The real reason that leaders disregard data in RTO decisions.” Retrieved from: https://chiefexecutive.net/the-real-reasons-that-leaders-disregard-data-in-rto-decisions/
