Growing number of companies demand employees return to office 5 days a week: Domino effect

A growing number of Australian workers are being ordered back into the office five days a week as employer mandates create a “domino effect” of widespread acceptance that the work-from-home party is winding to a close.Thirty-nine percent of businesses have mandated five days a week in the office in 2025, a 3 percent jump from the previous year, while the average number of required office days has increased from 3.43 to 3.64, according to a survey of 500 Australian employers by recruitment firm Robert Half.“The medium- to large-sized businesses mandating four to five days versus one to two, that has a domino effect on those larger corporates,” said Robert Half director Nicole Gorton.“What I am also seeing which plays against that, kind of a dichotomy in the employment market, is that the smaller-sized enterprises are taking advantage of this domino effect as a lever to attract talent.They are more likely to be one or two days in or even fully remote.

Smaller-sized enterprises don’t always have the capacity to uplift remuneration so they will lever benefits.”Twenty-two percent now require four days, 20 percent require three days, while just 8 percent will allow two days — the working arrangement that saw the biggest decline, down from 13 percent last year.Only 4 percent mandate one day in the office — unchanged from last year — while 7 percent of employers allow full work from home, a decline from 9 percent in 2024.Five days in the office was the preferred option among the employers surveyed, followed by four days and three days.Eighty-four percent of respondents said they were influenced by other businesses ordering staff back to the office, while 63 percent said resistance from workers continues to fall five years on from Covid.Gorton said employers were definitely “back in the driver’s seat” and dictating office attendance, knowing others were doing the same.“As workers adjust back to the pre-pandemic way of working and observe similar ...