'Four days a week seems to be the norm', but businesses want more staff in the office

Businesses are asking staff to work at the office more than at home now that the height of the Covid-19 pandemic is over, but many employers says flexible working options will continue to be offered.

The government said yesterday that remote working arrangements for public servants were not an entitlement and should be closely monitored, following similar moves by many businesses.

Early this year, 2degrees ramped up the number of days it expects office staff to be in the workplace, from two to three and a half days a week.

Chief business officer Andrew Fairgray said that was because more time in the office improved work output and communication.

"We leverage the benefit of collaborating and people being together and working together, not just from a pure productivity perspective, but I think there's also a social, mental health benefit of actually engaging with other people."

Fairgray said staff needed to be productive to sustain business costs and wages.

But he said flexible working allowed them to excel in their jobs and a return to a mandatory five-day week in the office was unlikely at 2degrees.

"For some that may be being in the office nine to five. For others that may mean they do want the flexibility of coaching sports teams or having a day at home where they clean up administrative tasks, where they feel they can be more productive in a quiet area."

Business Canterbury said an increasing number of its members - such as marketing and web agencies - wanted people working in the office more than at home.

Chief executive Leeann Watson said remote working was helpful during the worst of the pandemic, but it had left businesses siloed.

"What they're finding is having some people working from home and some people in the office that actually provides some very real challenges to get greater collaboration, get a greater sense of working across the organisation."

Employers and Manufactures Association head of advocacy Alan McDonald said working from home also meant junior staff lost opportunities to upskill.

"For example, we're aware of a legal firm that has asked their people to come back more often, because they're missing out on some of those conversations and some of those interactions with clients and things where they see senior people interacting with them and they learn from those interactions on how to deal with client relationships."

But the EMA's 2024 workplace wellbeing survey found more than 80 percent of employees wanted flexible working options.

McDonald said it would be a big mistake for businesses to force a return to the office full time, without consulting staff.

"You'd need to talk it through with your employees I think before you wanted to mandate something like that, or you might get a fair bit of push back."

Recruitment firm Robert Walters Australia and NZ said with far fewer jobs on the market than there were candidates right now, employers had the power.

But chief executive Shay Peters said they were not asking potential hires to work a full week in the office, and he thought it would be silly to do so.

"I just don't think it's realistic for employers to demand or mandate five days a week working in the office again because I think New Zealand has got to that happy place in the middle where four days a week seems to be pretty much the norm."

He said unemployment would have to rise significantly before job seekers would stop prioritising roles with flexible hours.