BT Group toughens line on return to office after cashing in on remote work

The telecoms company that powered the nation’s remote workforce, BT Group, is now reversing course. That’s according to chief executive Allison Kirkby, who has become the latest leader to pull the plug on home working and demand a return to the office (RTO).

Over the weekend, the Financial Times reported that the firm had issued an internal memo confirming it will crack down on its existing hybrid work policy of “three together, two wherever” in order to encourage closer collaboration between colleagues.

Last fortnight, Starling Bank sent a similar memo to hybrid staff, ordering them to work for a minimum of 10 days a month in-office. The change reportedly triggered a wave of resignations, raising questions over how the BT Group policy will affect the workforce.

BT’s remote work irony

BT Group has made a lot of money from remote teams who rely on its network to work from home. But despite having boasted about “enabling hybrid and remote working across the globe for over ten years”, the firm is taking a tough stance for its own business model.

While its hybrid policy is not new, the business, which currently employs around 50,000 UK office workers, has said it will begin to hold staff “accountable for following” its hybrid rules. Kirkby’s memo was also sent out to office-based employees in Ireland, India and Hungary.

The memo reveals that 35% of BT’s admin staff were “only coming in one day a week or not at all”. On average, employees were working 1.7 days a week in-office.

According to the Financial Times, BT Group will now share badge ‘tap-in’ data with managers. When office workers scan in and out each morning, their movements will be recorded so that senior management can see who is following the new rules and who is not.

It is unclear what the repercussions for low office attendance will be at BT. Other employers who have introduced similar RTO mandates, such as Dell, have withheld promotions and pay rises from workers who continue to base themselves at home. Google has also previously said it will consider office attendance as part of their annual performance reviews.

BT bets on hybrid model

The ‘Dell approach’ has naturally led to backlash from employees on the side of at-home workers, who are loudly protesting the return to office. But Kirkby also seems confident that hybrid, rather than fully in-office work, will improve results for the FTSE 100 company.

She described findings from a BT report which apparently showed that workplaces where attendance is at least three days a week were highest performing and most engaged.

Kirkby said: “Current attendance levels are not going to help us to transform BT Group, or nurture a more integrated, collaborative culture. This is essential for the future of our business, the development of our people, and the service of our customers.”

Employers are increasingly accepting that a hybrid approach is the best compromise for staff morale and business performance. Startups data from the start of the year suggests that remote and hybrid jobs are less at risk of layoffs than full-time office roles.

Some large employers are clinging onto office work, however. That includes Amazon, which has demanded that admin staff return to the office full-time, also from next January.

Tech troubles?

Monitoring employee attendance might be increasingly normalised across UK workplaces, but that doesn’t mean it is without cause for concern. Chief among these concerns is the impact on organisational culture.

When Starling Bank mandated a minimum of 10 days of in-office work per month for hybrid employees, they began resigning en masse. Amazon has also faced criticism from workers after it wrongly accused some team members of not meeting attendance requirements.

Future hires could even be under threat. John Ferrett, a national secretary at the union Prospect, told the Financial Times the move could be “detrimental” for recruitment. “Of particular concern to us is the use of passcard data as an enforcement and monitoring tool for office attendance which we see as wholly disproportionate,” Ferrett said.

Relying on senior employees to enforce the rules is also a risky move for BT Group. Data from Owl Labs suggests that many line managers are secretly allowing their reports to work from home, in spite of an official return to office request.

Next year will likely deliver many learnings for SMEs. As more companies grapple with the evolving workplace landscape, the effectiveness of such mandates will be closely watched by companies seeking to establish their own flexible working policies in 2025.

Plenty of companies are doubling down on fully remote work. Read about seven companies that have rejected the return to office.