New Statistics On Return-To-Office Mandates Are Revealing New Leadership Gaps That Are Imminent

I have written a few articles on what the Return-To-Office Mandates will do in businesses.

All of the results have negative consequences.

Now, the idea that in "Theory" being in the office is better than being out of office is "Technically" true.

From a Psychophysiological standpoint, there are "Theoretically" more benefits from In-Office Mandates due to the potentiality of Group Flow States.

However, "Theory" isn't Reality.

The Reality of the workplace we are in is that the vast majority of offices are horribly toxic.

Due to this, we have seen the highest rates of Burnout in history - Over 75% of employees according to studies!

Now, "Burnout" simply means that employees are SO stressed out that their bodies have literally "Burnt-Out" and shut down.

The other 25% who aren't currently in "Burnout" are likely on a short track to it if work conditions aren't changed.

Out-Of-Office work has the ability to protect people from mass Burnout and Stress due to functions of our Neurocardiology, so it is no surprise that there is such a reluctance to go back to Toxic Workplaces.

Employees have literally felt what it is like to not be in a Toxic Environment, and they don't want to go back.

However, for businesses that are attempting to force employees back into the office, they are about to be in for a rude awakening from a Leadership Perspective.

The New Statistics

Deloitte and Workplace Intelligence have done some new research on executives in the Financial industry is showing a new challenge that will become imminent.

According to the data, if return-to-office mandates are pushed, over 65% of Executives will begin looking for new work.

These individuals tend to account for the most talented and highest-potential Leaders in an organization.

This is also an industry that is generally considered one of, if not THE, most stable industries to be in.

They won't have a hard time finding a job either, because businesses are in a panic to get employees currently to fill all of the vacancies that exist.

On top of this, the statistics around those most willing to leave are HEAVILY Skewed towards women.

Essentially, this means that if these mandates go through, the organizations that push them will begin to HEAVILY skew toward being male-dominated.

How This Makes Situations Worse

When I first started working and researching in the Leadership industry years ago, there were already some extremely troubling statistics for organizations.

For instance, years ago (long before the pandemic), businesses were only prepared to replace 10% of their critical Leaders if anything happened.

This means that if a Leader left, got sick, died, or had to be let go, 90% of the time it would be difficult or impossible for a business to replace that Leader.

I don't have new data that is post-pandemic, but I'm positive given the dramatic rise of Burnout since that time, the huge push against going back into the office, and the fact that "Leadership Development" completely fails 80% of the time (with only "limited success" the rest of the time), that this has only gotten worse.

Now, imagine that within a year 6/10 critical people in Leadership positions leave your organization.

Statistically, it will likely be more than this, especially as these numbers are coming from what is considered one of the most "Stable" industries to be in.

If you're lucky, and you're prepared for 1/10 of those Leaders (given extremely old data), then you are still losing 50% of your CRITICAL Leadership team.

What happens when a business, especially a LARGE business, loses 50% of its critical Leaders, or MORE?

Nothing good.

Other people will be forced to pick up the slack, chaos will ensue as there is no one prepared to take over these positions, incredibly important work will be lost, and stress will get even worse (which will be strange to see considering how many are already Burnt Out), which will further make the workplace more toxic.

The highest potential employees will see a toxic environment a mile away, and won't even touch these organizations as they see how much chaos is occurring.

This will mean that what typically takes 3-6 months (average time to replace executives), will take significantly longer as a revolving door effect will take place.

Can you imagine losing 50% of your critical Leaders for 6 months or longer?

Even worse though is the higher loss of Women Leaders.

Diversity in Leadership has been shown, time and time again, to be a huge boon for businesses.

From a political climate, businesses that have policies that negatively impact women, and that are greatly male-dominated, are viewed negatively.

This too will make hiring more difficult, and in certain parts of the world (places where many of these large businesses reside), not having a diversified employee base, especially at the Executive Level, can also come with Legal implications.

All of this spells a world of challenges for businesses that really don't need to happen.

If the organizations that are thinking about these policies were wise, they would fix their workplace environments while employees are working outside the office.

It would actually be significantly easier to fix any Leadership problems and the environment remotely than it would be to fix it with everyone back in-office.