UCL School of Management Associate Professor Anthony Klotz has recently featured in an opinion piece from Salon assessing the recent rollout of return to office mandates across a number of large companies. The article argues that hybrid and/or remote work structures are mutually beneficial for both employees and organisation and that enforcing strict office policies will ultimately impact shareholders in the long run.
Known internationally for coining the term ‘The Great Resignation’, Anthony’s research focuses specifically on organisational behaviour and monitoring trends in the labour market. Discussing return to office mandates, Anthony notes that they are often enforced by some of the most technologically sophisticated organisations in the world, which – ironically – typically rely on analytics and data science to make decisions.
Exploring this further, Anthony notes that, “from an economic policymaking standpoint, hybrid work is one of the few instances where there aren’t major trade-offs with clear winners and clear losers. There are almost only winners.” For him, it’s important for organisational leaders to explain their rationale for return to office policies so that employees can see the explanations. All too often, employees can interpret these requests as efforts to control and restrict them.
