South Africa's Return To Office Gets Middle Finger From Employees Office-Based Work Policies Increase in 2024

By Giuliano De Leon

Mar 13 2024, 11:31 AM EDT

South Africa's return-to-office efforts got the middle finger from employees who want to remain working from home. OfferZen, an employment agency in Cape Town, conducted research to determine how many workers are against office-based rules.

Based on the survey, over 50% of respondents are against office-based policies, saying that they are ready to leave their jobs if their employers force them to return to office.

South Africa's Return To Office Gets Middle Finger From Employees

According to Business Tech's latest report, 52.3% of participants in OfferZen's survey are strongly against return-to-office policies.

The South African employment group said that WFH has become the primary non-money-related benefit employees seek when searching for jobs.

"It follows that you should involve your teams in the discussions of a workplace shift and make heading into the office as attractive as possible if it is a requirement for your business," explained OfferZen.

"For example, compensating developers for their travel costs and making your office hours flexible could go a long way to make a return to the office more appealing," it added.

Meanwhile, OfferZen explained that businesses offering the WFH benefit should put this perk in front and center of their job posts since it could be their secret weapon to attract more employees.

But there's one problem. Companies in South Africa that are implementing office-based work policies are increasing. In 2023, firms with office-based work policies spiked to 7.9%. This further increased in 2024, reaching 9.6%.

Over 50% of Bosses Claim Rejecting Return-To-Office is Major Red Flag

Euronews reported that 56% of bosses consider rejecting return-to-office policies as a major red flag. A survey conducted by Checkr revealed this.

The poll asked 3,000 American workers, both business leaders and employees. Around 56% of these managers said that employees who passionately reject returning to offices are red flags.

Meanwhile, only 38% of the surveyed employees agree. These details show that employers and applicants are still in conflict when it comes to office-based policies.