How Can Firms Enhance Perceptions of Return-to-Office When Restricting Autonomy Over Where Work Occurs?

As return-to-office (RTO) policies grow in popularity, firms are struggling to quell resistance from employees—especially since RTO policies inherently restrict autonomy over where work occurs. Integrating HRM system strength and signaling theory with our critique that firms are often depicted as far more passive in the work-life flexibility literature than they are in practice, we theorize a process of RTO conversion as to how firms address the recoil effect they create (i.e., employee resistance) when introducing RTO. We conceptualize employees' perceptions of RTO as a continuum ranging from “employer-friendly” (low) to “employee-friendly” (high) based on the extent to which firms consider and rectify how on-site requirements misalign with employees' preferences for autonomy over where work occurs. Our work underscores the complexity of how RTO unfolds in practice, involving ongoing, dynamic efforts across multiple business functions to convert and sustain perceptions of RTO as employee-friendly. A core theme throughout is that an emphasis on quality of work life—specifically, enhancing the physical and psychosocial features of the workplace to improve employees' extrinsic and intrinsic on-site experiences—functions as a potentially viable substitute for autonomy over where work occurs. We also discuss implications for CEOs, HR leaders, strategy, policies, and practices.