Over the past five years, shifting workplace expectations have given employees whiplash. The abrupt shift to remote work in 2020 was monumental and well received. Businesses maintained continuity and employees found themselves easily adjusting to a new and more flexible workday structure. In fact, among employees we surveyed this year, 60% of remote/hybrid employees say they would leave their current employer if required to go back in office full-time and 47% of remote/hybrid employees said they would take a pay cut to continue working remotely.
But, in spite of the clear indicators that remote and flexible work arrangements are better for business, many C-suite executives seem dead set on bringing people back into the office with strict return-to-office (RTO) mandates.
Most concerning is the growing number of C-suite leaders using badge swipes and IP addresses as measures of
As I see it, a badge-swipe leadership strategy is a fast track to losing talent, dollars and productivity. It's the wrong way to lead an organization.
Employee badge swipes are a poor proxy for real engagement and productivity in the workplace. While it can track the number of times employees come to a physical office, badge swipes can't measure motivation, satisfaction or collaboration.
Presence and engagement aren't the same thing
After a decade of our organization's research into workplace empathy, employees have consistently and overwhelmingly prioritized flexibility at work above all else, including base pay. In that same vein, I'm concerned that organizational leadership has a very narrow definition of what flexibility is. The conversation here must evolve.
Flexibility at work is much more than working remotely or buffering in an hour in the morning for traffic. In fact, a large percentage of today's workforce — such as retail, hospitality or manufacturing — simply can't work remotely due to the nature of their job.
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Often, flexibility can shine in small ways. Having input into schedules, job-sharing or shift-swapping are ways employers can honor a diverse array of needs for making work and life co-exist.
Relying on strict attendance standards as a measure of business performance assumes that presence means engagement and proximity produces productivity. Yet, organizations spent the pandemic years proving that workplace flexibility
Rigid control over in-office attendance often creates the opposite of the intended effect. It diminishes the autonomy and perception of top-down trust that is needed to truly drive engagement. It was telling that 75% of CEOs and 69% of employees we surveyed were in agreement that companies enforcing RTO mandates are doing so to
As many as 68% of those same CEOs agreed that being in an office is outdated in today's modern workforce. There's a reason that terms like "quiet cracking," "quiet quitting" and "resenteeism" have now emerged in the workplace lexicon.
The real question CEOs must consider for business performance isn't "Are employees in the office?" but "Are employees present, energized, motivated and able to perform at the top of their game?"
Building a better performance scorecard
Additional studies are also proving that RTO has an impact on organizational grown and stability. According to Revelio Labs, since mid-2022, companies mandating full-time office attendance have expanded by an average of 0.3%, whereas those embracing flexible work models have grown at a 0.7% rate — twice as fast. RTO policies have also been linked to higher attrition rates.
At the heart of successful
Attendance only tells you whether people walked in the door. Human-centric data tells you whether they want to stay, how productive they are and how supported they feel.
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I believe the following set of metrics far outweigh badge swipes when it comes to engagement and retention. It is what our own organization has used for the past five years as direct measures of organizational and financial performance.
- Employee and client retention rates. When employees and clients stay, it signals trust and a healthy environment — two outcomes that cannot be forced through physical presence alone. Attrition can cost an organization up to 30% of an employee's salary, but listening to feedback about what will make them stay costs nothing.
- Engagement and productivity trends. True engagement shows up in steady performance and teams that meet goals without burning out. Organizations must examine how flexibility policies, like remote or hybrid, drive steady productivity across teams and work models.
- Employee and client sentiment. Sentiment analysis, through tools like employee net promoter score surveys or pulse polls, reveal what badge swipes cannot: how employees feel about their work and leaders. When employees feel heard and supported, they're more likely to deliver the same experience to clients.
- Wellbeing and health outcomes. Understanding which benefits employees actually need provides deeper insights into whether support systems align with real needs. Increased investment into and utilization of mental health, caregiver support or financial wellness resources can signal both need and trust in company support.
- Inclusion and belonging. Belonging is one of the strongest predictors of engagement and 91% of employees who say they work at empathetic organizations also said they could be their true, authentic selves at work. When people believe they can succeed as themselves, commitment and performance follow.
- Perception of management and leadership empathy. If empathy is important to your client's organization (and your own agency), you can't assume employees feel understood and supported — you have to ask. Measuring empathy perception can identify leadership gaps and strengthen manager training.
Will 2026 be the year employers begin to understand that
The most successful companies won't lead with swipe-and-see policies. It will be the ones who understand what badge swipes can't show: the hearts and minds of the people behind them. That's the real metric of employee engagement and one I hope will define the workplace of the future.
