The Location Equation: Rethinking Where Work Happens
For better or worse, employers and employees can’t assume that work is going to happen in the office everyday.
Yes—plumbers, cashiers (and the knights at Medieval Times) still have to go to the “office” everyday. But for everyone whose work happens on a computer most of the time, the reasons to go in or stay at home are murky these days. Employees want the freedom to work from home. Employers want to make use of expensive office space.
A lot of companies are pushing people back into the office, many of them 5 days a week—and while that may work for a while, many employees are starting to weigh their options and consider what they can do to stay at home at least a few days a week.
Maybe your organization has struggled with a similar question, one that seems to be at the heart of back to work policy: how do we attract and retain talent while limiting people’s work from home?
It’s not an easy question to answer. But here are some stats and ideas that can help you navigate the work from home conundrum.
1). The majority of workers prefer to work from home
According to Angus Reid’s 2025 survey, between 59% and 74% of surveyed workers preferred to work from home.
Now, if you asked me if I preferred to work from a lodge in the Swiss Alps or home I’d probably go with the former—but that doesn’t mean my employer is willing to spring for my airfare and lift tickets.
Which is to say—working conditions are inevitably a negotiation between employers and employees. What employees want and what employees get will depend on negotiation and compromise. Work from home is no different.
And those negotiations are certainly being influence by today’s weak job market. What we are seeing in the back to work shift today is how a relatively weak labour market is giving employers an upper hand in those negotiations, at least for now.
2). Flexible working arrangements are in the top 3 things candidates look for
LinkedIn recently surveyed top candidate priorities, and flexible work is a big one—with 44% listing it as a priority, behind compensation at 63% and work/life balance at 49%.
For employers, that makes flexible work a powerful inventive you can use to attract candidates, especially at lower salary ranges. And if you don’t offer some kind of remote work, it can push talent away.
Most hiring managers don’t decide their company’s world form home policy (if only!); and we’re only able to work with what we’re given.
If your organization has any wiggle room in offering remote or hybrid work, it can work wonders for your hiring. And if that isn’t possible and you are struggling with a search, it might be worth showing your leadership some data on how important flexibility is to today’s workforce.
3). International labour could be a big part of the remote work equation
Of course, if people can work remotely onshore, that means offshore staffing becomes an option too. And a larger talent pool typically means cost-savings for employers.
There is nothing new about offshore hiring; but improved communications technology, as well as advance in GenAI and other automated tools, are changing how people can do work.
We see this already in software development to lower production costs, but employers are looking at what other industries might be open to a global labour market.
Of course, it isn’t as simple as just hiring halfway across the world—opening dedicated hiring in multiple countries at once is a compliance headache, if not a total migraine. But for companies willing to take the plunge into some risk, research and lawyer fees, there look to be substantial benefits on the horizon.
Wrap
Hiring, for better or worse, never stays the same for long. Trends in remote and hybrid work are just one of many trending issues relevant to HR and procurement professionals today.
But if you can stay on top of what’s making headlines today, you might be a bit more prepared for what comes next.
