When Sydney recruitment officer Annabelle Gonzales heads into the office, she packs lunch for herself and her furry friend Lola.

"Currently, I'm working Mondays and Fridays at home, and I'm working in the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays," she told 7.30.

"It makes me feel happy knowing that she's (Lola) with me."

"She can be a bit of a distraction but only like for pats and cuddles and stuff — and that only lasts a couple of seconds before everyone gets back to work."

With staff embracing working-from-home arrangements, employers have struggled to get them back into the office as the nation moves into the COVID recovery phase.

Ms Gonzales' boss David Jackson said with low unemployment he'd had to sweeten the deal for staff, and also offered birthday leave, lunches and holidays for high performers.

"To try to find employees to come back and work five days a week in the office was not easy," he told 7.30.

"I think employees these days are looking for other added benefits apart from the salary. So having a good, wide range of offerings, such as bring your dog to work, can assist with that attraction of the right employees and also retain the ones you want to retain."

Mr Jackson said he accepted work-from-home arrangements needed to continue.

"The future looks like two-three days from home, two-three days from the office.

"I think gone are the days of the five-day work-week nine to five, I think flexibility is key," he told 7.30.

S2M CEO David Jackson acknowledged Australia's cities will look very different in years to come.

"I think the future for the bigger corporates looks like, you know, smaller offices, more communal spaces, hot-desking," he told 7.30.

"They've come back post-COVID, realised none of their staff are coming back to the office, they've got these big towers that are empty."

Mr Jackson said he'd found it positive for staff and his business to continue allowing working from home, a few days a week.

"I think we were all quite scared about what was going to happen when everyone was working from home during COVID," Mr Jackson said.

"We've gradually gone back to three days in the office, two days work from home, productivity hasn't changed. We're still as flat out as ever.

"There's some techniques, obviously, that our managers have learnt to manage people remotely. Everybody's a little bit different. Some people like to have a face-to-face — their one-on-one — some people are happy over the phone. So it's really individualised I find."

Annabelle Gonzales also believed flexible working arrangements were here to stay.

"I don't see us ever going back to the way it was before COVID. This is the new age," she said.

Original Source:

ABC News

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-26/flexible-arrangements-future-of-office-work/101579494