Return-to-office policies are still tricky. How H&R Block made its decision

Four years have passed since COVID-19 hit and up-ended the way employees across the globe work. Its impact remains, as many employers continue to tweak their return-to-office policies , which range from mandatory days in the office to a fully flexible policy that allows employees to decide whether and how often they will return to the office.

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H&R Block is among the employers that have altered their hybrid return-to-office plans in recent years. The tax consulting giant has approximately 70,000 employees globally, including part-time and seasonal workers and about 2,000 who work at the company’s corporate headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri.

In March 2021, H&R Block requested its corporate employees work in the office Tuesdays through Thursdays but noted this was not mandatory. But when the pandemic resurged with the Omicron strain of COVID in late 2021, the firm—and many others—delayed return-to-office plans until 2022.

Throughout 2021 and beyond, H&R Block continued to hire employees and executives for its corporate office as remote workers, despite the request for in-office work three days a week. And in early 2023, CEO Jeff Jones announced at an H&R Block town hall meeting that the organization would operate as a fully hybrid workplace. The company also announced that all associates would have the flexibility to work remotely to the extent their job allowed, says Tiffany Scalzitti Monroe, chief people and culture officer at H&R Block.

Today, 42% of H&R Block’s 2,000-strong corporate team works remotely full-time, says Monroe, who recently discussed the company’s return-to-office policy in a video interview with Human Resource Executive .

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