As the workforce adapts to a “post-pandemic” landscape, it could be in the interests of both employers and employees to return to the office full-time, Steve Cadigan, LinkedIn’s first chief HR officer, has said to CNBC.
Younger workers — those in Gen Z and the lower range of the millennial age bracket — looking to advance their careers could especially stand to gain from a return to pre-pandemic norms, according to Cadigan, whose book “Workquake” explores how the pandemic could could pave the way for a better workplace model.
Remote work policies, implemented in the early days of the pandemic, have facilitated major steps forward, including increased workforce participation and still strong productivity levels, Cadigan said.
While many workers have already been asked or have chosen to return to the office, the number of people working from an office full time is still well below pre-pandemic levels.
As of April 2022, two years on from the start of the pandemic, just over a third of workers (34%) had returned to the office full time, according to a study from Slack’s research consortium Future Forum.
Even then, less than half were there of their own accord, with 55% of in-person office workers saying they would prefer a more flexible arrangement.
