The merits and demerits of going back to the office have been debated for several years post-pandemic, with conflicting views about the relationship between office presence and productivity.
Employers and employees alike see value in returning to the office to collaborate with peers, according to a new survey by Randstad, a global human resources services provider.
Workmonitor 2026: The Great Workforce Adaptation found that many employers and employees view connection and collaboration as essential components of productivity. Additionally, failure to nurture collaboration has now become a retention risk for companies.
“Despite continued debates about office returns, nearly half of talent (48%) feel that working in the office — with their team — boosts their productivity,” the report said. “Employers are also aligned on the value of real-life collaboration, with 81% stating that remote or hybrid work has made collaboration more challenging.”
Nearly 4 in 5 employees (78%) said they believe that they are more productive when multiple perspectives are involved in collaboration. Moreover, 74% said they rely on people from different generations to broaden their perspectives.
Generations are leveraging collaboration as a way to teach each other, with older generations able to provide younger generations with soft skills and industry knowledge, while younger generations guide older generations through their knowledge of technological tools and artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
Leaders echo this sentiment. Ninety-five per cent of employers highlighted generational diversity as a productivity lever, and 90% want to see management spend more time improving team collaboration.
The report surveyed over 27,000 workers and over 1,225 employers in Asia-Pacific, the Americas, and Europe.
As technology and AI workflows become more embedded in day-to-day work, collaborative workforces can promote idea-sharing across both generations and teams in their organisations.
“Beyond human connection, collaboration is becoming a technical necessity, with demand for AI trainers (+247%) and prompt engineers (+97%) surging and mobility in these roles reaching over 50%,” the report found. “The most effective AI teams are now operating as fluid networks rather than static silos.”
Disconnection with leadership
Resources that promote collaboration are no longer nice to have — they’re essential for keeping talent, the report stated. Almost a third of employees (31%) have quit a job because of a lack of collaboration, with non-office workers (33%) slightly more likely to say so than office workers (29%).
While most employees believe their companies and teams are collaborative, they are far less optimistic than employers when it comes to growth projections. Ninety-five per cent of employers believe they will grow over the next year. On the other hand, only 51% of employees share that optimism.
Employees are on “a quest for time flexibility and greater autonomy”, according to the report, and nearly half of the office workers (47%) believe AI will benefit companies more than employees.
“Talent are recalibrating what they expect from work as they rise to the challenge of an increasingly volatile world,” the report said. “As employers look to the future with optimism, they need to reflect talent’s shifting focus in their recruitment and retention strategies to maintain a motivated workforce and support workers as they augment their skills through AI.”
— To comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another article, contact Steph Brown at Stephanie.Brown@aicpa-cima.com.
