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The 2024 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) jobs report shows a year-over-year increase in the number of employees who work from home, either some of the time or all the time.
Some 22.8% of workers reported remote working for some or all of their job in August 2024, up from 19.5% in the same month the previous year.
Among hybrid workers the share climbed from 9.2% to 11.7% over the same period; those who worked remotely all the time increased to 11.1%, up from 10.3%.
In addition, a recent survey from the Conference Board found that nearly half (45%) of HR professionals in companies with strict in-office mandates reported difficulties retaining employees. By contrast, only 15% of HR professionals in companies offering flexibility faced similar retention challenges.
Hushed hybrid working
One HR expert commented: “The media has become obsessed with the idea that flexible working is dying off and that’s partly driven by the US President's love of that narrative.
“But as you can see from the data around open positions offering it and the number of companies committed to it, it's not going anywhere, it's actually growing and becoming a competitor driver for smaller organizations to compete with bigger ones.”
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How can we adopt these tools to stay competitive and efficient while retaining the human touch that remains critical to optimizing candidate experience, making informed decisions, and, ultimately, building strong teams and cultures?
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A variant of this pattern is the “hushed hybrid” trend, where workers collaborate secretly with their managers to come to the office less frequently than leadership wants. 2024 also saw the rise of “coffee badging,” where employees might follow the letter of the law but undermine its spirit, coming into the office the required number of days a week, long enough to grab a coffee and meet with a colleague, then going home.
The myth of the "Great Return"
Research shows the persistent narrative of a more universal return to the office is not only misleading but also fails to account for the growing body of evidence that suggests a preference for flexibility is reshaping the modern workplace. A recent report from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School in partnership with Great Place to Work identified strong positive links between flexible work models and employee wellbeing.
The study analyzed the percentage of a company's workforce permitted to work remotely for part of the week.
Companies where at least 75% of employees had the option to work remotely part-time reported the highest levels of wellbeing.
