As companies attempt to lure workers back into the office, they'll need to strike a delicate balance between rewarding on-site work and penalizing noncompliance — offering "carrots" and prodding with "sticks," as Glassdoor put it in a Nov. 15 report.
The employer review platform predicted "carrot sticks" — RTO policies somewhere between gentle and strict — will become a workplace trend in 2024. Companies might offer meals and events in the office as "carrots," emphasizing the appeal of collaborative workspaces, then withhold advancement opportunities or added benefits for those that do not attend as "sticks."
But unspoken, inconsistent social codes will complicate this dynamic, Glassdoor predicts. Companies cannot afford to lose top performers and will tread lightly with them, but as the labor market softens, "sticks" may replace "carrots" as the more common back-to-office tactics.
"Often [carrot sticks] are the flexible or unspoken rules of corporate culture that are rarely codified or uniformly enforced. Think of activities like face-to-face peer mentoring, recognition for voluntary participation in social activities, and empowering managers to have greater discretion in advancement or compensation," the report says. "Even now, companies have still not figured out how to find the perfect balance of the benefits of in-person work with the desires of their workforces. In 2024, employers will continue experimenting with the right strategy for work arrangements as they settle on a new normal."