Free lunches! Unlimited snacks! Outdoor activities! Big work areas! Stocked fridges!
Back-to-office strategies include a lot of things to lure people back, and some are good. Amenities may nudge towards short-term employee happiness in this transition, but many employers are overlooking a number one reason people don’t want to return in the first place: the commute.
84% have said “not commuting” is the top benefit of working from home. The cost savings of not having to go to the office ranked second. In this survey, these two reasons even ranked ahead of avoiding COVID-19 exposure, as well as the prospect of being away from family and pets. Not having a commute being the top benefit of working from home is backed up by numerous other employee surveys and research (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).