RTO mandates: What are the HR & tech challenges in 2025?

We are only 21 days into the new year, and the news headlines have been dominated by return to office (RTO) mandates from some of the world’s largest brands.

Amazon’s long-awaited five-day office mandate came into effect on January 2 2025, while AT&T and JP Morgan Chase also introduced new full RTO requirements in January.

The reasons the company have given for this switch from remote and hybrid policies to purely in-person work include strengthening company culture, improving communication and collaboration between employees, and enhancing learning and mentoring opportunities.

Unsurprisingly, there’s been a lot of backlash against these decisions from employees and remote work advocates.

Rather than replaying arguments about remote vs in-person work, UNLEASH wanted to look at the reality of implementing RTO.

What do organizations, and specifically HR teams, need to consider when they implement mandates? What are the some of the challenges they might face? How do they need to work with employees and technology vendors to ensure their RTO is successful?

We spoke to numerous HR and leadership experts about their views; here’s everything HR leaders need to know.

Inside the RTO talent challenges

There is no doubt that RTO mandates and requirements are impacting the relationships between employees and their employees.

“We’ve taken a lot for granted as HR leaders – we assume in-person means productivity. We assume it means collaboration. We assume it means people have a sense of belonging”, shares Ben Eubanks, Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research & Advisory.

The problem is that being in-person in the office doesn’t magically improve productivity, collaboration of belonging. In fact, data shows the opposite is true.

For instance, research from coaching company BetterUp found that mandates can reduce productivity and belonging, as well as lead to feeling of a loss of autonomy, higher burnout and higher resentment.

The key is for HR leaders to really focus on these areas and make employee engagement a priority – if they can this, they will create “the kinds of outcomes that RTO is hoping to achieve”, adds Eubanks.

“Greatness doesn’t happen by accident,” he continues.

This is particularly important as “the ripple effect of RTO mandates impact talent retention — those mandated to return to office are more likely to express more interest in switching jobs.” Those are the words of Dr Gabriella Kellerman, CIO at BetterUp.

While there has been some discussion about how Amazon, in particular, is using its RTO mandate in the hope it’ll push some people to quit, and they can avoid layoffs, for most companies, they are struggling to attract and retain talent in a challenging labor market.

This was argued by Lydia Wu, Founder at Oops, Did I Think That Out Loud.

She tells UNLEASH: “HR teams are struggling with being tactful in executing a business mandate”

“They are aware that it’s a matter of time before it becomes an employee-market again, and if they do not handle the RTO mandates and necessary accommodations well, they may be on the losing end in the long run.”

In this context, employers need to work hard to encourage people to stay irrespective of the mandates.

Kellerman says success comes from “transparent, honest communication”, while Alan Price, CEO of BrightHR, adds that there’s a “need to double down on things like employee benefits and engagement if they want to stay competitive in a job market that increasingly values flexibility”.

Price also shares with UNLEASH some of the legal challenges that employers could face by introducing blanket RTO mandates.

Employment contracts “typically specify a primary work location, so altering them may require a formal consultation process and a clear business rationale”.

“Without these steps, companies risk legal claims for breach of contract or unfair treatment”.

Plus, it is essential to remember that “some employees might have personal circumstances—like health issues or caregiving responsibilities—that legally protect their right to work from home”.  Reasonable accommodations exist in the US, as well as elsewhere in North America and across Europe.

Ultimately, “businesses looking to bring employees back on-site will need a careful mix of clear communication, legal know-how, and genuine respect for employee needs,” concludes Price.

HR tech and RTO mandates

For the past five years since the COVID-19 pandemic that forced remote working on large swathes of the labor market, employers have been grappling to introduce HR tech that enabled these new remote and hybrid working models.

HR tech has also innovated and improved in the past couple of years, spurred by the AI boom and employee expectations that workplace tech must be on par with consumer tech.

Therefore, with this RTO movement, HR leaders are not simply turning the clock back to 2019.

Also, RTO “mandates aren’t reducing the need for HR tech—they’re changing what businesses need from it”, notes Price.

HR leaders need to rethink “how they buy technology”. “While the fundamentals of the HR tech buying process remain, there’s a growing need to focus on the employee experience,” that’s according to Gartner’s Senior Director Analyst Harsh Kundulli.

Kundulli adds: “HR teams must double down on listening to employees – through surveys, interviews, and focus groups – to truly understand their needs.

“Forward-thinking organizations are already taking it a step further bringing employees into vendor demos to ensure their feedback and concerns are heard before any decisions are made.”

Cognexo’s CEO Dan Buckley agrees that HR leaders may direct “funds toward platforms that proactively improve engagement and retention, such as real-time feedback systems, mental health resources and AI- driven insights into workforce trends”.

“These tools address the heightened risk of disengagement and attrition tied to rigid RTO policies”.

Given the logistics of RTO, Orgvue’s CEO Oliver Shaw tells UNLEASH that “mandates require workforce visibility in real-time”. Data empowers HR teams to truly ensure they can solve those talent challenges already mentioned.

Wu shares that HR teams also need tools that don’t add to their heavy workloads – tech also must not  make employees lives harder.

For instance, if organizations want people to come back to the office, it is essential that the way they book desks is seamless and easy. Don’t put blockers in employees’ way on RTO.

For BrightHR’s Price, “businesses that successfully integrate tech into their return-to-work strategies will have a significant advantage in managing change effectively”.

To get this tech implementation and integration rate, HR leaders need the support of their vendors partners.

There needs to be more out of the box thinking – “HR teams are being scrutinized to prove the value of their tech decisions”, so, “vendors, more than ever need to think about how to take their tech to market in a more appealing and economic manner to their customers,” according to Wu.

Plus, Wu tells UNLEASH, “with RTO mandates coming in hot and HR needing to adapt faster than ever, vendors will start to see a lot more product roadmap requests that may not be aligned to their initial vision”.

Vendors ultimately, according to Price, “need to step up with solutions that strike the right balance between keeping things compliant and supporting employees”.