Employers are finding a middle ground between remote and onsite work

Gallup is reporting a transformation of the U.S. workforce, as hybrid work has firmly established itself as viable option for large numbers of workers.

“Approximately 40% of remote-capable employees have shifted from working entirely on-site to either a hybrid or exclusively remote work arrangement,” the report said. The public opinion research firm has surveyed 200,000 American workers in the past three years, and continues to survey approximately 18,000 employees every three months on their work/life relationship.

The COVID-19 pandemic was the triggering event for this change, as companies shut down and Americans went into isolation. Although not all workers could do their jobs remotely, the large numbers that could often found they preferred that approach. As workers returned to offices and worksites, a balance has been struck by many companies, and hybrid work—where employees work from the office some days and from home on other days—has become the norm for many workers.

“The future of the office has arrived: it’s hybrid,” the headline for the new report proclaimed, and Gallup researchers found that a strong majority of workers now expect their work to be hybrid or fully remote, and that hybrid workers have settled into new work patterns that they are unlikely to give up willingly.

Hybrid work by the numbers

The Gallup data showed that 80% of workers who could work remotely expect either full-time or part-time remote work arrangements. Fully onsite work has dropped from 60% of employees in 2019 to approximately 20% in 2023, for workers who are able to work remotely. Full-time remote work went from 8% of remote-capable employees to around 70% of those workers during the height of the pandemic. It has now fallen, but still remains higher than before the pandemic, at 29% (as of May 2023).

In addition, preferences of remote-capable workers are evolving. As of this month, polling showed that 53% of remote capable workers expect their future work to be hybrid, but 59% of that group would prefer hybrid work arrangements.

At the same time, 25% of exclusively remote workers expect their future work to remain remote-only, with 34% saying they would prefer it remain exclusively remote. And of the remote-capable demographic, 22% of workers say they expect to work fully onsite in the future; but only 6% say they would prefer to be back onsite full-time.

This strong demand for some degree of remote work seems to be acceptable to employers, the surveys have found. Gallup said that 80% of chief human resources officers from Fortune 500 companies said they have no plans of decreasing remote work flexibility in the next 12 months.

“While we can never assume that organizations will not change their policies as workplaces evolve, for now, the good news is that today’s close alignment between employees’ preferred and actual work locations tends to create a better employee experience,” the report said. “When employees work from their desired location, they tend to be more engaged at work; less burned out; [and] less likely to quit.”

“Based on our findings, it’s unlikely that everyone will return to the office five days a week in the foreseeable future,” the report added. “It’s also unlikely that fully remote work will become the new normal. But the more important story is this: Employees and employers have found a middle ground in hybrid work that appears to be working well when managed effectively — a work arrangement nobody would have imagined prior to 2020.”

Is two-and-a-half days a week the sweet spot?

The Gallup study also looked at shifts in the number of days spent working onsite as compared to remotely and found some changes over the past year. Workers who are onsite one day or less per week dropped from 32% to 29%. Those working two days a week onsite increased slightly, from 16% to 17%. The biggest change was for the group working three days a week onsite—that group increased from 18% to 24%. Those working 4 or more days onsite per week went from 35% in 2022 to 30% in 2023.

“On average, hybrid workers report coming into the office 2.6 days per week. The biggest change is that more hybrid workers are now coming in three days per week, while fewer are occupying the extremes of one or four days on-site per week,” the report said. “Notably, on average, employees prefer to be in the office two to three days per week — and this schedule tends to optimize employee engagement for many roles.”

“Ghost town” Fridays

The Gallup research found that hybrid workers are most commonly in the office Tuesday through Thursday, with only one-third of hybrid workers in attendance on Fridays, leading the report to say offices tend to resemble a ghost town on that day.

The study added that this traffic pattern has seemed pretty consistent since mid-2022, and that consistency is important for workflow. “It is critical that employees know which days of the week they should be in the office with their coworkers,” it said. “If this pattern naturally looks different for your organization or there is a schedule that is best for your business, employees need to know that. After all, who wants to endure a commute and sit alone on their floor in Zoom calls all day?”

Related: Hybrid work is here to stay: What does this mean for payroll?

The researchers added that it is important for employers to communicate when and why people are expected in the office, while allowing for some flexibility. The approach could be called “flexibility within a framework,” the authors wrote.

The report concluded by noting that many media accounts tend to portray the give-and-take of hybrid work as a power struggle between employers and employees. The authors say it might be more accurate to see the remote work question as an evolving process. “The reality is that leaders and workers have managed to find a pretty solid middle ground,” they write.