Remote-First Working vs Return to Office: What’s your stance?
Where do you stand on the work-from-home/return-to-office debate?
This Stress Awareness Month comes hot on the heels of growing pressure on staff to return to the office. Earlier in the year, you may remember comments from Marks and Spencer chief executive Lord Rose, who said WFH is creating a generation who are “not doing proper work.”
This was followed by concerns voiced by Sir Sadiq Khan about the post-lockdown decline in office working in London, urging employers to encourage staff back into the office or risk “hollowing out” the capital.
Perhaps as a result, nearly half of London’s workers expect to be back in the office five days a week this year, according to a 2025 Censuswide survey.
For those businesses in agreement with Lord Rose, employees working from home are contributing to a decline in productivity. But while some are calling for their employees to make a full return to the office, the reality now for many companies will be a hybrid set up.
This is what we have adopted at Neo PR, and we have no plans to go back.
From what I can see, there’s no compelling evidence to suggest that hybrid working models impact productivity. On the contrary, many report that hybrid working promotes better well-being and lower levels of stress, which in my experience, has led to an increase in output.
So what’s the real problem here? I would argue that what we’re dealing with today is not a productivity challenge but a leadership challenge. This is my experience…
Leadership caught off guard undermines productivity
Before the pandemic, I was firmly in the camp of the 9-to-5:30 office workday. I liked to see my team at their desks, as that way I had peace of mind they were being productive. But my lived experience during lockdown has changed that. What I saw was a team perfectly capable of working to their full potential wherever they were located. If anything, they were achieving even more, because they were happier with their work-life balance. And we are starting to see some evidence that supports this.
According to the Office for National Statistics Time Use Survey, those working from home save an average of 56 minutes that day from not commuting. Findings from March 2024 suggest that at least some of that time is spent on rest, exercise, sports and well-being. Respondents who worked from home on a given day spent an average of 24 minutes more on ‘sleep and rest’ and 15 minutes more on ‘exercise, sports and well-being’ on the respective day compared with those who worked away from home. And in my experience, the benefits were clear.
When did working from home become problematic? When new scenarios arose that required a different approach from long-held management styles. And it’s for this reason I say what we’re dealing with today is not a productivity crisis but a leadership crisis.
Many businesses still operate on what I call “proximity management”, which assumes productivity is directly linked to how often someone is in the office. But in today’s world, that logic no longer applies – at least not in my industry. Most of the time, it doesn’t matter where people are working. What matters is how they are working and what they are delivering.
When we were still finding our feet, any dip in productivity wasn’t due to employees working from their kitchen tables instead of office desks. It was because leadership hadn’t yet evolved to manage and support a remote team. Managers needed to shift from focusing on inputs, i.e., hours logged and office attendance figures, to focusing on outputs: results and added value.
How to shift from proximity to performance-based leadership
Good leadership is about managing outcomes. And the key to making this work is clarity. Employees need to know exactly what is expected of them. Research shows that this translates as setting clear objectives, providing regular feedback, and ensuring there’s transparency around how success is measured. Micromanaging people through endless check-ins or requiring them to be “always on” isn’t the way to go. Some studies show this leads to employees checking out and burning out too.
A remote-first approach is more nuanced than giving people the option to work from home a couple of days a week. It requires a complete rethink of how teams collaborate, how success is measured, and how managers lead. Leaders who aren’t intentional about making this shift will find it difficult to retain high-performing employees, especially as employees increasingly value the flexibility offered by hybrid working more than pay itself.
Another argument against remote-first working is that businesses lose their sense of culture. But culture isn’t about having an office. It’s about how people feel when they work for your company. It’s about having a shared purpose, strong communication, and a sense of belonging to a team.
To build a thriving hybrid culture, think structured virtual meet-ups, informal check-ins, and how you can ensure employees have a voice and feel connected to the wider business. It’s about recognising achievements, promoting collaboration, and ensuring people feel valued no matter where they work. But it’s also about having the practices and proof points in place if things aren’t going to plan and if remote working practices are indeed being taken advantage of. Businesses that get it right will create teams that are more engaged, more motivated, and ultimately more productive.
At Neo PR, we’ve opted for a remote-first model, which means we predominantly work from home, but meet in the office a couple of times a month for team meetings and socials. We also benefit from flexible working hours, giving our team a bit more control over the times they work in case they need to finish early on certain days or need to factor in appointments.
Head to this blog for more ideas on how to maintain a work culture while hybrid working.
Flexibility and trust are the cornerstones of a productive workforce
For years, flexibility was seen as a perk. Now, it’s a necessity for many. Employees expect to have more control over their working lives, and businesses that resist this shift could find themselves struggling to attract and retain top talent. But flexibility only works if it’s built on trust. If leaders don’t trust their employees to work effectively from home, they’ll resort to micromanagement, excessive monitoring, and unnecessary rules. And that’s a recipe for disaster. Nothing kills engagement faster than a lack of trust.
Instead, businesses should focus on creating environments where employees feel empowered to do their best work, where they have the autonomy to manage their own time and the support they need to succeed while looking after their well-being. This means giving people the freedom to structure their working day in a way that suits them, perhaps with flexible working hours, rather than forcing a return to the office onto a workforce that has proven it can be productive in different ways.
