Employers in London would have to consider giving their workers a pay increase to entice them back into the office five days a week, according to Bloomberg.
In a series of Bloomberg Intelligence surveys, more than two-fifths of the Londoners said they would need a pay rise in exchange for full office attendance. More than a third said they would need an increase of 11% or more.
The results were similar in Paris and even more pronounced in New York, where 70% of respondents said they would need a pay rise to work in the office full-time.
Sue Munden, the director of research at Bloomberg Intelligence, said this is “putting pressure on employers as they look to retain talent in a changing market”.
“In global cities like London, Paris, and New York, workers are making it clear that reduced flexibility around working from home must come with increased compensation,” she said.
Commuting costs were also cited as a disincentive. In London, more than 62% of respondents cited transport costs as a deterrent, where 72% of workers said it took them 31-90 minutes to get to work. In Paris, this posed much less of a challenge because employers in the French capital were obliged to cover half of their employees’ commuting costs.
In London, where average attendance lags that in other cities, businesses are employing a range of strategies to encourage attendance, such as high-quality, sustainable offices and increased co-working.
Around a third are looking to expand their office space, while others have considered a move to more sustainable offices to entice workers back into the workplace.
The report also found opportunities to socialise were a critical pull factor, with almost half ranking networking as their primary reason for going into the office. Around 41% cited higher productivity, while 27% said they went into the office because of increased opportunities for knowledge transfer.
Image © James Veysey/Shutterstock
Send feedback to Dominic Plaskota
Follow Estates Gazette
