Won’t anybody think of the HR managers!? While companies the world over continue to end or curtail remote working arrangements, human resource leaders are finding the management of return-to-office (RTO) mandates one of the biggest challenges to handle.
That’s according to a new survey that asked more than 1,000 HR leaders about the leave and accommodations landscape within their companies – 1 in 4 respondents said that managing RTO mandates has been one of their top challenges in the last 12 months.
Yet despite an increasing number of employees being forced back into the physical workplace, working remotely remains the most common job accommodation request made to businesses.
Recruitment and Retention
Management platform AbsenceSoft carried out the survey for its 2025 State of Leave and Accommodations paper, which included a cohort of 1,200 HR and People Ops leaders at companies with no less than 500 employees.
One of its key questions was to ask respondents what their top challenges were in 2024, with ‘recruiting the right talent’ coming out on top with 57%.
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Other frequent responses were ’employee stress and burnout’ (54%), ‘retaining valuable employees’ (52%) and ’employee health and well being’ (41%).
Due to the changing nature of the working landscape, supporting remote employees has fallen from the second biggest challenge, with just over a third of those surveyed saying it was an issue they faced. 24% said managing RTO mandates.
“With the proliferation of return-to-office mandates, it’s no surprise that remote work is not reported as being as big a challenge in 2025. However, it’s clear that today’s workforce isn’t getting any less stressed, and retention is becoming an issue as employees leave roles for more accommodating work environments.” – AbsenceSoft
Jury Still Out on RTO
HR managers aren’t the only ones who are finding the ‘great return to the office’ problematic.
We reported in October on survey results revealing that RTO mandates are driving employees to look for other jobs, with 73% of respondents having moved on from jobs because they didn’t like their employer’s work policy.
That isn’t stopping companies from proceeding to force staff back to the workplace, though. JP Morgan is the latest big name to issue a five-day-a-week RTO mandate, following in the footsteps of tech giants like Amazon, Dell, and Ubisoft.
While others such as Microsoft and Spotify are resisting such heavy handed workplace strategies.
Requests for Leave Increasing
Other notable findings from the survey included 57% of respondents saying that requests for leaves of absence increased year-on-year in 2024, and the top three reasons for leave risks pertained to recovering from illness or injury (57%), managing mental health-related issues (47%) and caring for an aging relative (37%).
When it comes to job accommodations, 51% of those surveyed said that a desire to work from home or via teleworking was among the top three requests they receive.
“We often think of job accommodations as something physical an employee with a disability needs, such as a chair for back pain or wrist brace for carpal tunnel syndrome. Our survey found that it’s much more likely that an employee will request less costly accommodations related to when and where they work.” – AbsenceSoft
That was followed by intermittent leave or reduced schedules (46%), specialized equipment (35%) and additional breaks (34%).
