Afsoun Rastegari heads to her office job because of an added incentive.(ABC News: Billy Cooper)
Afsoun Rastegari spends more than two hours each day travellingto her office job in Sydney's east and back home again.
That commute from the south-west suburbs once felt like a burden, but the people operations assistant has a good reason to travel in.
Her employer, a financial technology company, now offers up to seven days extra annual leave a year to workers who come to the office.
When I wake up I'm thinking, 'Do I want to work from home today?' she said.
But then I think, 'If I come into the office, I'll bank up more leave and get a longer holiday.'
Some businesses are offering extra leave. Others are providing virtual golf in the office.(ABC News: Lucas Hill)
Post-pandemic many employers are trying to entice their workers back into the office, arguing that working face-to-face fosters collaboration and drives innovation.
In Australia,close to 90 per cent of employers have mandated weekly office days, according to a survey of recruitment firms conducted last year.
But it has been a tough ask for workers: that same survey found about one-third of those workplaces reported at least one person quitting over office mandates. In the US,recent research showed enforcing office days led to lower job satisfaction.
So businesses are upping the ante, offering everything from free kombucha to bonus leave to get employees in the building.
Earning more leave by working in the office
Giving workers extra time off for each day they work in the office is one measure offered by Ms Rastegari's employer, Stake.
Stake's global head of people, Aline Van Koninckxloo, said the flexible conditions offered after COVID-19 were not effective.
Aline Van Koninckxloo said the company had to think of ways to refund commuting as it was time taken away from family and hobbies.(ABC News: Billy Cooper)
People were coming to the office, but on different days and it didn't enhance any collaboration, she said.
We are trying to recreate the office environment that we used to love before COVID, but also giving people the time back to spend doing what they love.
And it appears to be working: more than half of Stake's 73 Sydney-based employees have taken up the offer.
Ms Van Koninckxloo said the changes had also helped retain staff.
We found the turnover increases the more people work remotely and from home, she said.
So having people to the office more often and working closely with each other means that the staff turnover is going down, which is obviously a really good outcome for us.
Free lunch, golf driving range, kombucha on tap
Other companies have introduced extra perks at the office itself to try and win workers back.
In Brisbane, cryptocurrency firm Swyftx has stepped up its workplace incentives to get staff into the office for a minimum of two days a week.
There's an in-house barista, free catered lunches and kombucha on tap — as well as free weekly tennis lessons and a virtual golf course in the office.
Swyftx employers are offering perks to get workers to come into the office on anchor days.(Supplied)
Most of the company's workforce were tech workers who did not want to come into the office often, said Swyftx's talent acquisition manager, Danielle Arrebola.
We have a lot of introverts, especially software engineers, she said.
They are the type of people that love working from home.
They love routine and creature comforts … so investing in state-of-the-art office chairs and having perks like catered lunches helps bring people back into the office.
Software engineer Adam Chalmers likes the kombucha on tap as well as the weekly tennis lesson.(ABC News: Lucas Hill)
Senior software engineer, Adam Chalmers, said there were benefits to being together.
Engineers aren't exactly the greatest socially, he said.
Being able to communicate face to face and really hash things out in person makes a bit of a difference.
Flexible work... for some
Despite the extra perks on offer, research shows most employees simply value flexibility.
The University of Sydney led a national qualitative study involving 500 people over the past four years, discussing what they want from work.
The key takeaway was the desire for flexibility — regardless of location, gender, or industry, said lead author andprofessor Rae Cooper.
Whether people work in the city or work in the outer suburbs or regionally, she said.
[Or] they are with or without kids, or in professional or frontline jobs, there is a very strong demand for flexible work.
Professor Cooper's national study found that workers regardless of location, gender, or industry want job flexibility.(ABC News: Geoff Kemp)
The study also found flexible work opportunities were not evenly distributed.
Contrary to what you would expect, men actually have better access to flexible working arrangements and they actually use them more than women do, Professor Cooper said.
That reflects the structure of the labour market that when you're in more senior jobs, you have more capacity to control where you work and when you work.
For workers like Afsoun Rastegari, she's happy to trade the convenience and comfort of working from home to bank that extra leave.
I love a work-life balance and I think it's so important, she said.
Having that extra time off, it makes all the difference.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-05/companies-want-staff-to-work-in-office-and-giving-jobs-perks/103646842
