The report shows that 66 percent of U.S. companies continued to offer location flexibility to employees in the current quarter, while only one-third required staff to work full-time on-site.
That percentage represents a 2 percent decline from one year ago, when 68 percent of businesses offered flexible work locations. Still, the report shows that 5 percent of American companies are still more flexible than they were in 2023.
The index also demonstrates that fully flexible companies often outperform others, growing revenues at almost 2 percent faster than those firms mandating every-day office presence. Their analysis followed an in-depth look into employee performances in 493 public companies from 2019 through 2024.
“Even adjusting for industry and size, the growth advantage remains. Flexibility directly impacts business performance,” the report stated.
Flex Index research indicates that 71 percent of Fortune 100 firms remain flexible, with a three-day hybrid as the most common method, and the remaining 29 percent requiring full-time presence in the office. However, 45 percent of these businesses are starting to require more time in the office, in some cases, bumping that up to four days a week.
Breaking this down further, 42 percent of U.S. companies are now set up as structured hybrids—a big jump from just 20 percent in the first quarter of 2023 and 38 percent in the third quarter of 2024.
Full time in the office is the next most common model. However, fully flexible options, which have no standardized mandates, have dropped to just 24 percent currently.
The federal government is pegged as the single biggest driver of the “back to the office” movement over the past six months.
“If we look at the data excluding government agencies, they’ve accounted for half the change over the past year,” the report stated.
Since the first quarter of 2024, required office time saw a 12 percent uptick, but attendance increased by only 1–3 percent. As the job market weakens, the report noted, more flexible firms may account for almost all employment growth nationwide.
Employees who may resist company policy changes requiring more days in the office are still likely to retain their jobs, as the report shows many managers are not willing to terminate solid performers just on the basis of policy compliance.
Looking at the average U.S. firm, the report shows employers are requiring at least 2.87 days per week at the office location. Just 34 percent require full-time in-office work, while 24 percent have no weekly minimum in-office days. The report adds that it’s quite uncommon for firms to require only one day per week in the office.
Assigning specific days of the week for in-office presence has also declined in popularity, falling from 16 percent in the third quarter of 2024 to just 10 percent as of the second quarter of this year.
Tuesdays through Thursdays remain the most common days for in-office work, with Fridays being the least common. Only 8 percent of flexible firms were requiring Friday in-office attendance.
In terms of industries, the top most flexible were found to be technology, at 94 percent, followed by insurance, personal services, media and entertainment, and financial services.
Governmental offices were named among the least flexible industries at just 46 percent, followed by restaurants and food services, education, hospitality, and transportation and automotive.
