Returning to the Office in 2021: What Tech Leaders Say

Return to the Physical Office

As the percentage of individuals vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus rises and stay-at-home orders are lifted, organizations in many geographies are planning when, or even if, employees
will be able or willing to return to the physical workplace. How are tech company decisionmakers approaching the situation, and what do they think is the best way to proceed with a safe return to headquarters?

In this One-Minute Insight Report, Pulse surveyed over 200 tech decision-makers about:

• Whether employees have been consulted regarding a return to the office
• Their personal preferences regarding a return date and future remote flexibility
• The safety protocols they want in place to protect employees

The data was collected between May 10 and May 24, 2021. Total respondents included 210 technology leaders.

Summary

Key findings from this report include:

• Most organizations are asking employees about the return—while decision-makers themselves want to be back within 1 – 6 months time
• Over two-thirds (67%) of decision-makers report that they or their organization have surveyed employees to discover how staff feel about returning to the physical office.
• 47% of tech leaders report their organization has set a return date within the next 1-6 months, while 20% have already returned to the physical office.
• When it comes to software-based safety solutions, most want the ability to book meeting rooms on-demand (52%), followed by the ability to see real-time office density maps (43%).
• Keeping with the idea of creating office density awareness, reduced office capacity (65%) is the most desired non-software safety solution, followed by touchless entries (60%).
• When it comes to vaccinations, over half (53%) say this isn’t a requirement for returning to the physical office, though over a quarter (26%) are unsure, perhaps indicating that a decision is yet to be made.
• Following a year of remote work, decision-makers favour maintaining some flexibility: Over a third (35%) want to let individual employees decide for themselves, while many prefer to keep working 2-3 days remote (41% overall).

Going forwards, tech leaders say: Let employees decide their work from home ratio for themselves.