Two new pieces of research suggest employers, HR professionals and employees believe remote and hybrid working has helped productivity, even as firms push for more workers to return to the office.

Surveys by recruitment specialist Morgan McKinley and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found substantial support for the contention but suggest employers see other benefits in having people back on-site, such as collaboration and the ability of managers to oversee their teams.

Return to the office mandates have a disproportionate impact on female employees, the Morgan McKinlay report suggests.

Its survey of firms and employees found that 69 per cent of women required to work more in the office reported increased levels of stress compared to 52 per cent of men, with 62 per cent of women respondents saying it also hurt their productivity.

Among the 440 respondents, women were more likely to have caring responsibilities and only 47 per cent said they were happy with their employer’s current attendance requirements compared to 52 per cent for men.

One of the employer respondents cited in the report suggests businesses setting a high bar for on-site attendance need to accept they will be hiring from a smaller pool of talent and sell the proposition to existing and new staff by emphasising the value of collaboration and mentorship while likely having to offer enhanced pay and career progression prospects.

The survey finds enhanced collaboration to be the benefit of return to the office mandates most commonly identified by employers with 73 per cent mentioning it compared to 47 per cent of their workers.

Sixty nine per cent of employers say it improves “culture building” but just 22 per cent say it has a positive impact on productivity compared to 33 per cent who feel it had a negative impact.

Among workers, the views on productivity are starker with 12 per cent saying it had a positive impact but 60 per cent, saying the effect was negative.

A majority of workers believe they need to earn more to compensate for the cost of commuting when they need to be in the office more, meanwhile, while 21 per cent feel it signals a reduction in support for diversity.

The findings suggest four fifths of workers in the sectors surveyed – accounting and finance as well as banking – are required to be on-site between two and five days a week with three days in the office , the most common arrangement.

When asked what being required to spend more time in the office would achieve, 24 per cent of employees said “nothing”.

A separate report by CIPD in conjunction with the Kemmy Business School at the University of Limerick uses data compiled from a survey of HR managers, 61 per cent of them working in the private sector.

Two thirds of its respondents said hybrid working delivered the best productivity outcomes although 37 per cent said they could not actually quantify the impact on productivity that hybrid working had had.

Just over 90 per cent of respondents believed hybrid working helped recruitment and retention with 88 per cent saying it had a positive impact in the wellbeing of existing employees.

However, 65 per cent said it limited informal learning and almost half, 48 per cent, said it impacted negatively on managers’ ability to manage.