RTO mandates: For collaboration or competitive advantage?

As return-to-office (RTO) mandates continue to dominate workplace discourse heading into 2025, a constant reason for why they are needed is that they can be a driver for workplace collaboration.

Much has been said about Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy’s decision to recall his workforce to the office, a rather treacherous move from the point of view of workers who have grown rather fond of hybrid working arrangements.

Despite the backlash, however, Jassy has stood firm on his decision, pushing the narrative that the decision is based on “strengthening our culture and teams”.

“When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant,” Jassy said.

“We’ve observed that it’s easier for our teammates to learn, model, practice, and strengthen our culture; collaborating, brainstorming, and inventing are simpler and more effective; teaching and learning from one another are more seamless; and, teams tend to be better connected to one another.”

On a recent HR leader podcast, Unispace senior principal for strategy Emma Davenport was asked about Amazon’s decision and whether Jassy’s reasoning had any merit to it.

“Obviously, we’re not privy to the inner workings of any particular organisation, certainly not Amazon. So, there might be some business challenges that they’re facing that create a unique set of circumstances for them that have prompted this five-day return,” said Davenport.

“But what I do note in the reasons for the return, which I think is really interesting, they’ve stated that the reason why they feel that people need to come in five days a week is to promote stronger connections and collaboration. And that came through in our research as well. Although they’ve taken an interesting route to improve connections and collaboration, it is something that came out of our research really strongly.”

A similar sentiment was discovered in Unispace’s research, highlighting the ability the workplace or office has when it comes to fostering collaboration – compared to a separated workforce, communication via technology.

“[In our research], we saw a higher level of sentiment towards the workplace being a good engine for innovation last year than what we did this year. So, what leads to innovation then? Well, innovation happens when people collaborate. Individual focus work is great. If your job or the task is very task-based. You’ve got a to-do list, you’ve got a series of activities that you need to achieve and you can tick your to-do list off by working alone. Fantastic. That’s a big part of work.

“But there’s another big part of work that comes under the title of innovation. And when we talk about innovation, it’s important to note here that we’re not talking about warm and fuzzy creativity or innovation for the sake of novelty. We’re talking about competitive advantage innovation, we’re talking about finding new solutions to old problems. We’re talking about adapting to change. We’re talking about innovation being the fuel that drives business success,” said Davenport.

“So, it’s not just a nice to have, it really is an essential ingredient. And honestly, if the workplace is not performing to support innovation, then change needs to happen. My instinct on the Amazon five-day return is that it is something to do with that, getting people back together more often so that the company can maintain its competitive edge.”