Robert Half survey indicates that 1 in 3 employees would rather quit than return to the office

As the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the day-to-day lives of the workforce, staff the world over have either temporarily experienced or continue to work from home. These scenarios continue to challenge the way we work, the way we operate together as teams and of course, how companies hire.

Yet, a Robert Half survey recently conducted appears to indicate that the situation is a preferable one for one in three. The Robert Half survey, conducted with 1000 employees of American companies, asked employees: would you look for a new job if you had to again work in the office full time?

Astonishingly, 34% of those staff said that they would rather leave the company rather than be forced to return back to the office. Of course this can not work for everyone. Some companies, such as Netflix, have said that their plan is to bring their teams back to the office as soon as the pandemic is over or once local governments deem it safe to do so. The impact to Netflix remains unknown. If one in three suggests they would leave, this could suggest that Netflix would have second thoughts before adopting such a strict policy.

Not just the above statistic, but other insights gleaned from the Robert Half survey includes requests from staff to ease dress code, relax working hours and to provide some form of childcare.

The new world of work suggests that companies will have to provide new benefits if they are to keep the very best talent.

The benefits of remote work include:

• childcare — giving employees the opportunity to enjoy more time with their children
• location — staff can now work wherever they want; whether that’s at home or in a potential exotic location, anything goes
• tooling — new technology has enabled staff to work successfully from anywhere
• schedule — remote work has enabled flexible working hours, to better accommodate global teams from other timezones, as well as the obligations of family life
• financials — with less appetite for dining out, or being able to entertain oneself at sporting events and so on, employees are saving more money than before
• environmental impact — with less cars and public transport on the move, pollution levels are at modern day lows
• stress — which in turn means less stress for those who have to use public transport each day

For more information on this survey, head over to the Robert Half blog.

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