Does forcing employees back to the office actually boost productivity?

RETURN TO WORK: Nearly two-thirds of the workforce is?currently under a return-to-office mandate . But as employees continue to resist (and thrive in remote environments), what's driving the push from employers??A new Slack survey of 18,000 corporate employees found that two in three business leaders report they're under "immense pressure" to?get more productivity out of their workers . That pressure has manifested as return-to-office mandates across industries: 亚马逊 recently announced a required?three in-office days per week ; 华特迪士尼公司 a minimum of four days and 谷歌 three days. (Google has also suggested that?long stretches outside of the office could impact an employees' performance review.)

"Fear is driving this — fear that not being in the office is contributing to dips in productivity," says Cameron Yarbrough , CEO and co-founder of Torch Coaching , a people development platform."When fear drives decision-making, decisions usually aren't made with the facts in mind. The facts are: We don't know how much working in the office impacts productivity."?

Read: Are return-to-work mandates really the solution to productivity?

REMOTE WORK: More than a fifth of employees said that inflexible work schedules were the main reason they want to quit their current job, according to a recent survey from FlexJobs . Meanwhile, another 50% say they decided to make a career switch in want of more remote work options. Fortunately, with such increased demand, it's easier than ever to transition to a remote job and take charge of your schedule.?The company rounded up a list of jobs with the most remote work options and flexibility:

Read: 10 careers with the most remote work flexibility

EMPLOYEE RETENTION: According to career coaching platform?BetterUp , 96% of workers are looking to change jobs this year, with 74% of Gen Z and Millennial workers ready to quit due to a lack of professional development.?

It looks like a majority of employees are disengaged and do not feel like they are growing at their current workplace, and bad workplace transformation practices could be to blame, says Kristin Leimgruber, PhD , a psychologist and behavioral scientist at BetterUp .?She shares four reasons why organizations are failing to properly upskill their employees, leading to high turnover:

Read: 4 ways organizations fail to upskill and retain their talent