While smaller companies may offer more flexibility over where employees can work, larger companies are less flexible— and that can have implications for promotions and pay, Fast Company reported.

Nearly three-quarters of organizations that employ fewer than 500 employees offer full flexibility over where to work, compared to 35 percent of those with 500 to 5,000 employees, 25 percent of those with 5,000 to 25,000 employees, and 17 percent of those with more than 25,000 staff, a recent study conducted by hybrid work software provider Scoop found. The survey also found that only 12 percent of businesses with fewer than 500 employees require their staff to be in the office full-time, compared to 32 percent of those with 500 to 5,000 employees, 33 percent of those with 5,000 to 25,000 employees, and 23 percent of  those with more than 25,000.

“As a startup, you are often not profitable, you have less cash flow coming off of operations, it’s harder for you to hire because you don’t have a big brand and machine and inbound recruiting, so the ability to recruit employees that live in any location—and not spend money on offices—is attractive,” said Scoop’s CEO and cofounder Rob Sadow. “When you’re a much bigger company, operations get more complex, you have lots of teams and groups that are trying to interface and collaborate, and being in-person becomes that much more valuable.”

Larger companies tend to have more entrenched workplace norms and processes, making it more difficult for them to transition to a flexible work arrangement, compared to those with a shorter history, Sadow said. Requiring staff to transition back into the office often comes with added pressure to provide a more competitive salary and benefits package.  

In recent months job postings at the highest end of the pay scale have increasingly come with in-office work requirements, especially within industries where top earners are concentrated within leadership roles, Fasy Company reported. In the last quarter of 2023, Ladders, a job site for six-figure salary jobs, saw a 93 percent increase in top-paying positions that required five days in the office, a 12 percent drop in fully remote roles that offered at least $200,000, and a 69 percent drop in high paying hybrid jobs.

“When we look at the slice of $200,000-plus income earners, for them in-office job postings increased substantially,” said John Mullinix, the company’s director of growth marketing, in an interview with Fast Company, warning that the data are specific to job postings and do not necessarily reflect final agreements.

Employers can offer greater flexibility to top earners if they cannot compete on salary alone, as a recent hybrid work technology provider Owl Labs analysis found. Forty-six of employees earning $150,000 or more would not accept a job that requires them to be in the office full-time, compared to just 30 percent of those earning $75,000 or less. Employers that enforce a return-to-office mandate among existing employees are also more likely to lose their top-paid talent.   

“More than a third of employees [who] make over $150,000 a year would start looking for a job if their flexibility was taken away, whereas [among those making] under $150,000 it’s closer to 30 percent,” Owl Labs CEO Frank Weishaupt told Fast Company.

Weishaupt added that despite the increase in high-paying job postings with in-office requirements, he doesn’t believe the most in-demand talent will accept roles that require them to be in the office five days a week.

He said that while employers may offer as much as possible, including remote work flexibility, in order to lure workers with specialized skills, employers may still require those in leadership roles to be in the office frequently for the purposes of mentorship, oversight and training.

“I could see a world where larger, more established companies that are paying leaders of people more significant salaries require them to be in the office full-time as part of their job requirement,” he said. “Our data indicates the more you make, the more flexibility you’re going to demand, and I don’t think there’s any question about it.”