In the early days of the pandemic, companies made decisions about where work happened under extreme pressure—mandated closures, health concerns, and technological trial by fire. Remote work wasn’t a strategy; it was a lifeline.
But five years on, the conversation has changed. We’re no longer in reactive mode, and we’re certainly not driven by legal constraints. What we’re seeing now is something far more strategic: a long-term reckoning with what work looks like, where it happens, and how teams function best. In short, we’ve entered a new era—one where location is just one part of a broader talent and culture strategy.
Workplace Conversations Have Moved From Crisis to Continuum
Immediately post-COVID, there was a rush back to the office, as if normalcy could be found at a desk. But that impulse has softened. Most leaders now acknowledge a new reality: there is no single ‘right’ workplace model. Instead, we have a continuum.
On one end are companies that have returned to fully onsite operations, some across multiple locations. On the other end are remote-first organisations with no physical offices. Most others live somewhere in between—hybrid by design or by necessity. But the key is this: the debate is no longer whether remote work can function. It’s about how to make whatever model you choose sustainable.
It’s Leadership, Not Logistics, Driving the Conversations Now
We’ve largely settled the technical and operational questions. We know how to keep remote teams connected. We know how to serve customers digitally. We know how to collaborate across time zones. But what we’re still working out is the culture, communication and connection required to do it well.
If your team is hybrid or remote, how do you train and mentor? How do you ensure junior talent gets the exposure they need to grow? If you’re fully onsite, how do you compete for talent who expect flexibility? More than ever, leaders need to be deliberate not just about where work happens, but why it happens there—and how that environment supports the overall employee experience.
A recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report concluded that five-day in-office mandates are outdated—highlighting that flexible work arrangements improve retention, broaden talent pools and boost productivity by as much as 12%.
Workplace Option Worries: What About the Fairness Factor
One of the trickiest dynamics today is internal equity. What happens when your white-collar workforce can work from anywhere, but your factory or customer service teams need to be onsite? Leaders are being forced to have conversations they’ve never had before—about fairness, transparency and different employee experiences within the same company.
This isn’t just a policy issue. It’s a leadership one. Clear communication, empathetic decision-making and honest dialogue are all essential. And they must be supported by systems that reinforce—not undercut—your culture.
And while companies like Amazon, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs have mandated more in-office days, these decisions mostly affect white-collar roles—where flexibility is possible but increasingly contested. But that doesn’t mean the conversation is over. Some of these organisations are facing pushback from employees who now expect location flexibility to be part of their employment proposition.
Top Talent Wants Options (Even If They’re Not Sure What They Want)
It is also worth nothing that many employees themselves are unsure what they want. While younger workers may be digital natives able to work remotely technically, some junior employees crave the mentorship and networking that come with in-person work. Equally important—whether they want it or not, it might be important to the organisation that they have more supervision and on-site development
Others are drawn to the flexibility of remote life but may underestimate the trade-offs. As a leader, your job isn’t to choose for them—it’s to offer clarity, consistency and a value proposition that aligns with your company’s goals and their professional growth.
We’ve proven that remote can work. We’ve always known that onsite can work. The real question now is: what does your company want to be? And how do you create an environment—digital, physical, or blended—that supports that vision?
Beyond Location: Workplace Is A Changed Value Proposition
Whether you’re offering remote work or requiring in-office presence, the experience has to be worth it. People are no longer just going along with whatever the default is.
That means companies need to elevate the value of the whole arrangement. Remote-first? Consider quarterly in-person gatherings, intentional onboarding and curated networking experiences. Onsite-first? Invest in robust training, mentorship and an office culture that people actually want to be part of.
Location is now just one piece of your employee experience. Leaders must think more broadly: what are you offering–beyond a desk or a Zoom link–that makes your workplace compelling? Because neither of those are a reason for top talent members to want to come into the office. Can you make them? Sure. Can you keep them? Maybe, maybe not.
Dropbox, now a ‘virtual-first’ company, has criticised rigid return-to-office policies—its CEO compared forcing people back into the office to dragging shoppers back into malls, according to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
This is the shift. We’re not debating whether people can work remotely or should be onsite. We’re discussing how to design an ecosystem—virtual or physical—that people want to be part of. The workplace, in whatever form it takes, must be designed with intention.
And it must be seen as part of a broader system that includes corporate culture, technology (including the growing and yet undetermined impact of AI), leadership strategies and growth in a global economy. That’s a lot.
Choice is now the norm—but alignment is the mandate.
No matter what your model is, success will depend on how well your systems, expectations and values align to support it. You can lose talent because of your choice, and you can gain talent because of it. But you can’t avoid the responsibility of defining and supporting it.
Whether you’re attracting early-career professionals seeking mentorship or experienced hires looking for autonomy, your model must speak to more than just where people sit. It has to show them what kind of company they’re joining.
It’s Not About What Arrangement Can Work, But Why It Works.
We’re no longer designing work around constraints. We’re designing it around opportunity. The strongest leaders today aren’t picking sides in the remote vs. onsite debate—they’re building ecosystems that reflect their strategy, their culture and the people they want to attract. In that world, choice isn’t just the new normal–it’s the new advantage.
In case you missed it, I wrote recently about how AI might be changing the conversation on workplace arrangements. Looking for more about how the workplace is changing? Read more about how leaders think about the new workplace here.
In terms of my background and expertise, I have spent my entire career working as a trusted advisor to senior leaders wanting to improve the effectiveness of themselves, their teams, and their companies. Prior to starting my own consulting firm, I led the global executive assessment and development team for Cisco. Earlier in my career,r I held leadership roles with RHR International, PepsiCo, Ashridge Executive Education, Hult International Business School, and the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary.
