Businesses are reopening offices and welcoming back employees based on a variety of decisions and strategies. The surge of COVID-19 with the Omicron variant continues to cause uncertainty within the workforce and business community. The Charlotte Regional Business Alliance just completed its latest Return to Office survey, asking more than 100 participants, from local breweries to region-encompassing hospital systems, to assess their office operations.
Here are some of the key takeaways:
More companies are opting for hybrid work models and offering more flexible options: 45% of respondents are adopting hybrid working schedules, 16% are full remote, while only 3% are in the office full time. About 37% of respondents are combining all three working models, allowing employees to choose working preferences.
Continued uncertainty looms over plans to return to the office: Only 3% report that their current plans are permanent. Primary factors for increasing remote work options remain staff retention, employee safety, talent attraction, and productivity.
Most return-to-office plans remain the same despite the latest surge of Covid-19: About 61% of respondents reported that their return to office plans are unchanged.
Companies are planning to at least be half-staffed by March 2022: More than 60% of employers expect to bring back at least half of employees by March. Meanwhile, 19% are unsure and have no current plans to bring employees into the office.
No expansion on physical space over the next year: Only 7% plan to increase their footprint between 20 percent and 50 percent over the next year.
Employees are back on roads and planes: Most companies are resuming business travels. More than half of respondents have no policies restricting business-related trips.
A link to the full findings from the CLT Alliance Research Team can be found here.
