IMD World Talent Report 2023

Figure 7: Share of respondents that answered “No” to the question “Is full-time presence in the office a necessary condition for career progression and development in your company?” By company sector. (IMD Executive Survey, 2023).

negative impact on performance evaluation, employee rewards and recognition, collaboration with colleagues, lines of communication with management, and inclusion in organizational activities. Such an impact will ultimately affect the possibilities of employee promotion. More broadly, a company that experiences this trend can see its capacity to attract and retain talent diminished. Employees looking for a greater work-life balance may lack incentives to join a particular organization that offers limited opportunities for career progression. In addition, the lack of career advancement can even tually impact other aspects of talent competitiveness, such as worker motivation and quality of life. Ultimately, it can negatively affect the available talent pool. For instance, as we have seen, in countries where there is greater skepticism about the new work models, the share of women in the labor force is lower. Women, in other words, may be further discouraged to enter the labor force. Such a trend can have strong consequences, not only for the size of the talent pool, but also for its diversity and quality.

shows the existence of an inverse relationship between the percentage of executives who assert that remote work is detrimental for a successful professional career vis-à-vis the prioritization of talent attraction and reten tion. Economies where remote work is considered as less harmful for career progression and development are, on average, also those that most excel in the attraction and retention of highly skilled professionals. Similarly, figure 9 highlights how economies where executives tend to consider in-office presence as not mandatory for professional advancements also show higher levels of female participation in the job market. To put these findings into context, arguably, both remote work and hybrid models increase the isolation of employees, while at the same time minimizing their in-company visibility. The latter may benefit employees who follow the traditional in-person work model because of proximity biases. That is, managers may see employees with greater in-office presence in a different light and may be more willing to mentor them, thus facilitating their career advancement. Proximity biases can have a

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