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Key Takeaways
- Almost 80% of CEOs surveyed by KPMG predict that their staff will be in the office every day over the next three years; earlier this year, just 34% made that prediction.
- Only 17% said their workforce would be hybrid, well below the 46% who made that call earlier, according to the consulting firm’s insights from 1,300 CEOs at large companies globally.
- Nearly 9 in 10 said they’d be willing to reward employees who come into the office with raises, promotions or other inducements.
Amazon.com (AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy wants his workers in the office five days a week. He’s not alone.
Almost four-fifths—specifically 79%—of the global CEOs surveyed by KPMG for a recent report predict their staff will be in the office every day in the next three years. That’s a big change from earlier this year, when just 34% of company chiefs foresaw a fully in-office workforce.
Meanwhile, only 17% of CEOs reckoned their staff will be hybrid in three years, down from 46% earlier this year. KPMG’s insights came from 1,300 CEOs at large global companies, 400 who were in the U.S.
CEOs “increasingly favor a comprehensive return to office, but the need for flexibility still holds,” KPMG U.S. Chair and CEO Paul Knopp said in a statement.
KPMG found that the C-suite is willing to dole out incentives to achieve its face-to-face employee base: As many as 86% of the CEOs KPMG surveyed said they will reward employees who “make an effort to come into the office” with “favorable assignments, raises, or promotions.”
The list of companies seeking workers to come in every day into the office is, unsurprisingly, growing. Companies that have called for workers to return to the office full time include banks like JPMorgan Chase (JPM), retail giant Walmart (WMT), and, of course, Amazon.
Still, workers that like their remote lifestyle can take heart that the RTO shift will take time. Last month, office furniture maker Steelcase (SCS) reported a slump in quarterly orders and issued an outlook that lagged Wall Street estimates—the latest indication that remote and hybrid work arrangements are still very popular and may not be as easy as CEOs seek to remove.