Most business leaders regret their RTO strategy, survey finds

Hybrid. Remote. In-person. RTO strategy has become an argument that’s reminiscent of the never-ending (alleged) feud between Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber.

Regardless of strategy, there appears to be a consensus among business leaders: Their approach didn’t work as well as it could have, and a lack of data may be to blame.

That’s according to a new report from workplace platform Envoy, which found that 80% of executives would have taken a different RTO approach if they had access to more employee data.

Just 7% of those surveyed used employee feedback to gauge the success of their strategy, while 59% did so by aggregating data from keycard monitoring, meeting-space utilization, and other similar sources, according to the press release announcing the survey.

“Many companies are realizing they could have been a lot more measured in their [RTO] approach, rather than making big, bold, very controversial decisions based on executives’ opinions, rather than employee data,” Larry Gadea, CEO and founder of Envoy, told CNBC Make It.

Some companies with strict in-office policies, like JPMorgan Chase, are reportedly using aggregated data to warn employees about their lack of attendance. But the data may not always be accurate, so Amazon employees, for example, have been encouraged to contact HR if they believe the data is wrong, Insider reported.

As companies try to figure out how to track employees without inciting an uproar, maybe HR should consider tuning out the noise with some Selena.