In September, Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy told workers they had to come to the office five days a week starting in January.
The announcement from the tech giant, which employs more than a million people, follows new data revealing that a majority (83%) of CEOs surveyed globally predict that companies will demand a “full” return of employees at work in the office. over the next three years, an increase from 64% the previous year. This is according to the international tax, auditing and consulting firm KPMG, which reported the results of a survey of 1,300 business executives in July and August.
This has workers across all sectors, including the trade show industry, discussing and wondering how and if this will impact their organization’s policies.
To find out what’s happening in the trade show industry, we interviewed three HR managers working for independent trade show organizations about their policies. Here’s what we learned.
Janice Rogers, Corporate Vice President, Human Resources and ESG, Diversified Communications
Context: Diversified Communications (DC) is a global media company that employs more than 400 people across seven offices in five countries. DC offices are located in the Eastern United States, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.
What is your current policy regarding working in the office or remotely?
DC US Division: We require everyone who works our “regular” hybrid schedule to work in the office two days per week if they live within commuting distance. However, if someone would like to apply to be fully remote or work less than 2 days per week in the office, even if it is within commuting distance, we allow them to do so. Our remote staff consists of remotes based in Maine and remotes across the country.
Pri-Med in Boston requires all Boston-based employees to be in the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
DC UK requires all employees to be in the office Monday to Thursday, four days a week. They provide additional work during home days that people can use as needed. I think this is a more typical schedule for UK-based companies, and employees seem to like it.
DC Australia recently stopped requiring its employees to be in the office three days a week instead of two.
Have you made any changes to the policy this year?
DC UK and DC Australia have changed their policies this year.
Do you foresee any further changes in your policy for 2025? Over the next three years?
Maybe 2025, but I think for the most part we’ve decided where each division wants to be.
Macy Fecto, Director of Human Resources, Access Intelligence
Context: Access Intelligence is a privately held B2B media and events organization employing over 200 people. It has offices in Rockville, Maryland; Arlington, Virginia; Norwalk, Conn.; New York and Houston.
What is your current policy regarding working in the office or remotely?
Our current policy is to encourage those who live near an office to come 2-3 days a week. We have had limited success with this request.
Have you made any changes to the policy this year?
Earlier this year we asked everyone to be in the office 1-3 days a week. Before this, we were completely flexible and didn’t require anyone to be in the office, although some chose to be.
Do you foresee any further changes in your policy for 2025? Over the next three years?
We balance our feeling that everyone is more productive and collaborative if they spend time in an office, with the desire to get rid of some of our larger spaces and save the associated facility costs. We’ve tried to focus our recruiting on people from one of our two main offices. For 2025 this will not be a mandate, but over the next three years it will likely become a priority.
Heather Crovo, Vice President of Human Resources, Clarion Events Inc.
Context: Headquartered in London, Clarion has a portfolio of events and media brands across a range of verticals. Clarion Events employs almost 2,000 people across 13 countries, with offices in the UK, US, Germany, Singapore, China, South Africa and the Netherlands.
What is your current policy regarding working in the office or remotely?
In the United States, we have prioritized opening our candidate pipeline across 30 states to seek and retain the best possible diverse talent. We have offices in three of these states, so most of our staff is considered “fully remote.” We ask those who live within a reasonable distance of an office to come in 1-2 days a week to chat face-to-face with their teams and managers. Because in-person time is essential to what we do, our office demands are balanced by employee travel to trade shows, industry and competitive events. Additionally, we encourage teams to come together during planning meetings, team outings and customer visits. Clarion’s work culture prioritizes trust, belonging and flexibility. We have found that employees and managers are satisfied with our current hybrid environment.
For our UK colleagues, most of our workforce is based in our West London offices and, like most businesses in the UK, we have opted for a three-day in-office guideline for hybrid working. For us, hybrid working offers employees a combination of working from different locations, for example in the office, from home or another suitable environment in the UK.
Have you made any changes to the policy this year?
Overall, we have maintained our regional policies for several years and it works well for us.
Do you foresee any further changes in your policy for 2025? Over the next three years?
When it comes to US and UK policies, we are willing to adjust our policy, but for the foreseeable future we feel comfortable with the balance we are achieving and will continue to do “checks” with our staff and with our management team on how things are moving forward.
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