- Leveraging Total Rewards to Defeat the Four Horsemen of RTO, Journal of Total Rewards article
- Checklist: Evaluating EVP Delivery Across Work Arrangements, Workspan Daily Plus+ article
- Total Rewards Inventory of Programs and Practices, research
For Everyone
- How Total Rewards Might Enable ‘Workplace Balance’ Amid RTO Push, Workspan Daily article
- The State of RTO and What It All Means for Total Rewards Pros, Workspan Daily article
- Will Office Premiums Lure Employees Back to In-Person Work? Workspan Daily article
- Total Rewards ’25, conference
Any employer worth its salt knows, it takes work to optimize the experience of work. And in today’s diverse workforce/workplace environment, that’s a big challenge (and opportunity).
Even when employees are satisfied with their work arrangements — whether they’re using an in-person, hybrid or remote model — many still say their overall experience on the job needs to be improved. This is according to a new McKinsey & Co. survey of more than 8,000 American workers across 15 industries.
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The respondents specifically pointed to five areas: collaboration, connectivity, innovation, mentorship and skill development — all core practices that drive performance and strengthen organizational health.
“Leaders often cite [these five areas] as reasons to return to the office,” said Bryan Hancock, a partner at McKinsey & Co. and one of the survey’s authors. “However, [our] findings show that successful performance relies more on creating environments that actively support these practices regardless of the chosen working model.”
What Does the Survey Show?
Most employees in each of the three working models reported being satisfied or very satisfied with their working-model arrangement, indicating employees have largely sorted themselves into roles that suit them.
But the survey also revealed similar levels of intent to quit, burnout and satisfaction across the working models, indicating there is no one-size-fits-all solution that will singularly boost productivity.
Intent to leave across the models ranged from 38% (for in-person and hybrid) to 41% (remote). Additionally, one-third of all surveyed workers reported experiencing burnout (36% for remote workers, 35% for in-person and 28% for hybrid) — a trend that should concern employers, particularly because these levels are higher than the global average that was seen throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Improving the Work Experience
Regardless of an organization’s work model or return-to-office (RTO) status, the experts contacted for this article feel employers can improve an employee’s experience in several ways.
“The number one thing [is] communication — particularly, proactive communication,” said Toni Frana, a career expert manager at FlexJobs, a job listings site for remote work. “Building an environment where employees are motivated to collaborate and innovate must be one where they are able to trust their leaders.”
To establish trust and credibility, Frana said leaders should offer a combination of consistent larger staff meetings to share overall corporate goals and objectives, in addition to consistent one-on-one meetings between managers and employees.
“When done right, this gives employees the opportunity to provide feedback and have a direct line of communication with their manager, which is important to continue building strong working relationships,” she said.
The McKinsey survey also stated employers should clearly communicate answers to key questions including:
- Why is it important to come together?
- What is the ideal frequency for being in the office?
- How should employees balance time for connectivity with “heads down” work (e.g., completing actual work tasks versus administrative work such as answering emails)?
Therefore, the role of a manager is crucial, Hancock said.
“Goal alignment is the most important factor for effective collaboration across all working models, and managers are responsible for creating this alignment,” he said.
Hancock added effective mentorship across all working models also requires focused attention from managers, and skill development may happen most frequently “on the job” through the informal coaching of managers and peers.
RTO Trends to Watch
Even with more RTO policies going into effect, there is a rising demand for flexibility as a core expectation rather than a perk, said Gleb Tsipursky, the CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts, a hybrid work consultancy. (Editor’s note: Tsipursky authored a paper for the Q1 2025 Journal of Total Rewards about leveraging total rewards to lessen resistance to the return to office.)
Tsipursky noted RTO trends total rewards professionals should watch for, including:
- Increased customization of benefits and rewards to match diverse employee needs in varied work models.
- Technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance connectivity and productivity across distributed teams.
- A growing attention to equity issues, ensuring remote and hybrid workers receive equal career growth opportunities.
- More focus on mental health and well-being initiatives tailored to hybrid and remote workers.
“[Employers] should continue to watch employee engagement and satisfaction as work models evolve, especially if more companies implement RTO mandates,” Frana said. “Keeping an eye on attrition rates and measuring if there has been a notable change after switching work models will help [employers] identify any adjustments to policies or what other benefits they may consider if RTO is the goal.”
Editor’s Note: Additional Content
For more information and resources related to this article, see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics:
