2024 Trends - Boston College Center for Work & Family

Abstract

While formal return-to-office mandates wane and hybrid work becomes more permanent, leadership is focused on in-person collaboration, optimizing distributed work, and developing talent. The latter half of 2023 was characterized by a significant push to return employees to the office with nearly all employers (99%) expecting employees to be in the office at least two days a week and 80% expecting three days, according to EY’s Future Workplace Index. RTO mandates are likely to drop off and, according to the Conference Board, only 4% of CEOs are prioritizing a full return to office in 2024. However, many still want to see employees in the office more and are experimenting with a blend of carrots (commuter benefits, raises and promotions) and sticks (tracking attendance) to achieve this. In-person opportunities and salaries reflect this trend. According to a Ladders Q4 High Paying Jobs report, six-figure hybrid job availability dropped 69% at the end of 2023, while in-person opportunities increased 93%. The report notes, “Companies want their highest earners in the office for collaboration and leadership.” That said, many teams - especially in large, global organizations - work in a distributed way. According to an Atlassian survey of Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 executives, 100% say their teams work in a distributed way and are three times more likely to say that how teams work is a bigger problem than where they work. Their focus for 2024: low productivity, tracking progress against goals, and effective collaboration. With women, caregivers, Millennials and Gen Z employees among those who value flexible work the most, the most successful companies will be those who resist “proximity bias”, track outcomes across work arrangements and intersectional identities, and empower managers to lead distributed teams with a focus on results. “What return-to-office debates often miss is that how teams work has fundamentally changed, regardless of where individual team members sit. Whether a large organization is remote, hybrid, or fully in-office, most of their employees work in a distributed way”.