‘The office is primary’: Real estate boss defends end of hybrid work

Domain owner CoStar has told its Australian staff to default to working from the office full-time, but has denied that its retreat from the hybrid model adopted by most white-collar firms after the pandemic would reduce flexibility for workers.

From September 21, the multinational data business – which last year bought Australian digital property marketplace Domain – will require that about 800 of its 1200 employees move from at least three days’ office attendance to five.

Domain president Jason Pellegrino said working in person was important for the business to help its customers by helping staff collaborate, make decisions quickly and learn from each other.

“We have communicated to our employees that from 21 September we are moving to an arrangement where the office is our primary place of work,” Pellegrino said. “We are implementing this change in a way that reflects the needs of different roles, functions and locations. Flexibility remains a core part of our culture for all employees.”

Some CoStar employees, including photographers, on-the-road sales representatives and those without set office spaces, will be exempt. But most office-based staff in major cities such as Sydney and Melbourne will be expected to be in their respective offices five days a week.

The company will potentially have to grapple with a proposed new law in Victoria that could give employees in the state a new statutory right to work from home for two days a week if it is reasonable to do so. Those laws, if they eventuate, will come into effect no earlier than July next year.

Under CoStar’s new policy, employees will be able to go through a formal process to request flexibility for personal circumstances not limited to childcare or caring duties.

The options for flexible work at CoStar include job-sharing, where multiple employees can “share” a job by each working part-time and have flexible finish times, or compressed hours, where staff can work longer hours on certain days and have a full day off in exchange.

CoStar purchased Domain from Nine, the owner of this masthead, and the two companies have ongoing partnerships.

CoStar is among the few companies in Australia bucking the trend of allowing employees to work from home at least one or two days a week.

Last year NAB confirmed its senior leaders would be expected in the office five days a week, while tech giants such as Amazon and Dell – which set many of their policies at a global level – have also ordered staff back to the office full-time.

Meanwhile, Australia’s biggest bank, CBA, has cracked down on the number of hours staff are expected to be in the office, requiring them to be in the office three days a week for at least four hours each day, after discovering last year that some staff were clocking into the office just one hour a day.

Western Australian mining giant Mineral Resources has also been keeping a closer eye on office attendance, with managers receiving information about specific times that team members arrive at the office.

The Fair Work Commission has made several rulings on requests for workplace flexibility.