RTO in New Zealand: Mixed Feelings

Research from Robert Half finds that 41% of Kiwi workers are mandated to be in the office five days per week, but most say there are pros and cons to in-person work.

By Maggie Mancini

As employers attempt to restore pre-pandemic office attendance levels, more than four in 10 (41%) workers in New Zealand say they are mandated to attend in person full-time, a new study from Robert Half finds.  

Attendance in the office five days a week is the most common mandate for New Zealand workers, followed by 18% required to attend three days per week and 16% mandated to four days per week. Only 15% of workers say they have total flexibility on when they attend the office in 2024.  

New Zealand workers have accepted that in-office days are necessary for their employee experience. Most (80%) of workers say they are satisfied with the number of days required for them to go in, while 20% say they are unsatisfied. There is no clear correlation between the number of mandated days and the level of employee satisfaction. Workers who are mandated to attend the office four days a week are the most unsatisfied (33%), while only 19% of those who attend three and five days a week are unsatisfied.  

Even though most office workers are satisfied with their in-office requirements, workers are in two minds about the impact working in the office has on their job. More than nine in 10 (93%) workers recognise the positive impact of working from the office. The positive impacts cited by workers include: 

• better collaboration and teamwork (57%); 
• better communication and relationship building (51%); 
• access to resources and support (47%); and 
• clearer boundaries between work life and personal life (42%). 

Just 7% of workers say there are no positive impacts. At the same time, 87% of staff also identify negative impacts of in-office work with the most common reasons being: 

• increased costs for commuting and meals (52%); 
• increased stress (37%); 
• challenges to manage healthy work-life balance (37%); and 
• lack of flexibility in work scheduled (31%). 

Only 13% of workers say there are no negative impacts.