Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported that despite stronger return-to-office (RTO) mandates across major U.S. companies (Microsoft, NBCUniversal, Paramount, The New York Times, among others), average office attendance has barely budged. Employers are struggling to enforce mandates. High performers often face minimal consequences if they don’t comply. Managers, too, are sometimes ambivalent. Many remote or hybrid workers continue to stay home, even when policies demand more in-office days.
This gap between policy and practice means there’s a real opportunity (and risk) for staffing and talent firms. Here’s what the data suggests about why RTO mandates are underperforming, and how staffing firms should position themselves to help both their client organizations and the talent pool especially in Canada.
What’s Going On: Why RTO Mandates Don’t Translate Into More Office Days
From U.S. evidence (and increasingly Canadian examples), several patterns emerge:
Commitment is weaker than the mandate:
When companies demand three or more in-office days per week, compliance drops below 75 %. Even with the mandates in place, often there is no strong oversight or enforcement. Managers may be reluctant to penalize high performers. Workers may schedule around mandates; travel, caregiving, commuting costs remain real constraints.Logistical and cultural friction:
Offices often aren’t prepared: shortages of desks, meeting rooms, parking; poor alignment of work schedules; or lack of amenities (transit, lunch options, etc.) make commuting painful without obvious payoff. Some mandates force employees to commute only to join Zoom calls or sit in virtual meetings rather than gaining anything uniquely in-person. These cultural expectations haven’t fully aligned: what in-person presence means in practice is fuzzy.Talent preferences have shifted:
Remote or hybrid work has become a valued part of compensation. Employees have grown used to more autonomy: choosing where and when they work. For many, flexibility is non-negotiable. Some would even accept lower pay over rigid office requirements.Mandates sometimes backfire:
Rigid return-to-office rules can lead to turnover (people quitting rather than complying), reduce job satisfaction, or damage morale. Also, inequities emerge: those who live far from the office, those with caregiving responsibilities, or with disabilities may be disproportionately affected. In many cases, firms find that productivity isn’t improved simply by increasing physical presence.
What This Means for Canadian Firms
Canada is seeing many of the same tensions. For example:
RBC has asked many staff to return to the office four days a week starting September 2025.
Starbucks will require its corporate staff in Canada and the U.S. to be in the office at least four days per week (for relevant roles), increasing from earlier hybrid norms.
The federal government of Canada, as of September 2024, requires most core public service employees eligible for hybrid work to be on site at least three days per week; executives at least four.
At the same time, many Canadian workers and unions are pushing back, arguing that mandates are poorly thought through, produce inequities, and sometimes simply aren’t enforceable.
How Staffing Firms Should Respond: Strategy & Positioning
Given this landscape, staffing firms, especially those operating in Canada, have a chance to add serious value, if they play their cards well. Here are ways to do that:
Educate clients about what RTO actually achieves:
Many employers believe increased physical presence automatically leads to better collaboration, supervision, innovation. But the evidence suggests that unless in-office policies are designed to enable interactions (not just presence), gains are vague. Staffing firms can present data, case studies, and benchmarks: what hybrid models work, what doesn’t, what employees expect, what trade-offs are real (commute costs, flexibility). Offering research or consulting services is a differentiator.Help define “meaningful presence” rather than just “days in office”:
One size doesn’t fit all. It may be more productive to tell clients that certain activities should happen in person: onboarding, team-planning, mentorship, customer meetings. Other work, especially independent or heads-down work, can remain remote. Staffing firms can advise clients on structuring work so that people feel the benefit of coming in, rather than seeing mandatory days as arbitrary.Support clients in measuring outcomes, not just attendance:
Presence is easy to track via badge swipes or seat allocation, but such metrics are coarse. More useful might be tracking collaboration outcomes, project output, employee satisfaction, retention, or innovation. Staffing firms that can help their clients set up sound KPIs and data systems will gain trust and offer real impact.Address talent expectations and retention proactively:
Staffing agencies are often closer to the candidate side of the market; they know what people want. Use that insight: many skilled workers now assume at least some flexibility. Candidates will ask about in-office requirements in screening. Staffing firms should push clients to offer flexibility, or at least options, and to communicate clearly how in-office expectations tie to well-being, commuting, costs, etc. Firms that ignore this risk losing in recruiting.Assist with change management and culture:
Rolling out stricter RTO isn’t just a policy shift, it’s a cultural one. Staffing firms can support clients with training, internal communication, and leadership modeling. For example: having managers themselves follow the office attendance norms they expect of others; recognizing or rewarding in-office collaboration; small pilots or phased transitions; listening to feedback. All of these help reduce resistance.Provide flexible staffing solutions:
For roles that require in-office presence, but are struggling with hiring or retention, staffing firms can offer hybrid roles, or help find candidates who would accept more in-office days (perhaps with compensation adjustments). On the flip side, for fully remote or hybrid roles, helping clients expand their reach geographically can widen the talent pool (e.g. recruiting from less expensive cities, or across provinces). This is especially relevant in Canada, where talent may be concentrated in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, but remote candidates elsewhere are available.Think of RTO mandates as part of employer branding:
How a company treats flexibility sends signals. If employers are too rigid, they may get reputational harm; if too lax, some leaders may worry about engagement or identity. Staffing firms can help clients articulate why their RTO policies exist (e.g. to foster collaboration, mentorship, culture) and how they fit into their employer value proposition. Transparency here matters.
Risks & What to Watch Out For
Over-rigid mandates can drive turnover (especially among those with longer commutes, families, or disabilities).
Mandates without supportive infrastructure (transit, office amenities, flexible schedules) can feel punitive.
If enforcement is inconsistent, or high performers are exempt, policies lose credibility.
Laws and union agreements differ by province; staffing firms must understand regional regulations.
There’s a risk of waste if firms rent or maintain real estate capacity they don’t use.
Bottom Line
The recent WSJ reporting makes clear that simply ordering people back to the office more often doesn’t mean they will show up, at least not in large numbers or in ways that meaningfully affect performance. In Canada, the same tensions between mandates and worker expectations exist, combined with cost and logistical challenges.
Staffing firms that help organizations navigate this complexity by educating clients, helping define what in-office presence must really deliver, aligning talent expectations, and tracking the right metrics will be better positioned to win business, retain clients, and help build workplaces that work for both employers and employees.