Riding The Workplace Revolution Wave With Ryan Stoltzfus From ADP

The shift to hybrid work is the biggest change to how offices operate since the pandemic sent everyone home in 2020. Employers are still working out how much flexibility to offer, how many days to ask people in, and how to explain those decisions to a workforce that now expects a say.

Ryan Stoltzfus, Director of Human Resources Business Partner at ADP and founder and Chief Career Strategist at the Job Hackers Network, works on keeping stakeholders and employees satisfied at the same time, so retention doesn’t suffer.

With extensive experience mentoring business leaders on career strategy, Ryan offers practical guidance to companies deciding how work should get done after the pandemic.

Hybrid work is a model where employees split their week between a physical office and a remote location, usually home, instead of being on-site five days a week.

Here’s what we get into with Ryan:

• How return-to-office plans depend on the way work actually gets done
• The gap between what leaders expect from returning workers and what employees want
• Why the workplace won’t snap back to how it looked in 2019

Several years past the peak of the pandemic, the picture has settled rather than reversed. Among US employees in remote-capable jobs, Gallup’s 2025 data puts 51% in hybrid roles, about 28% fully remote, and 21% fully on-site, splits that have stayed stable since 2022.

ADP’s journey through the pandemic and beyond

Before the pandemic, ADP was an in-office organization with a significant physical footprint.

The company saw real gains from everyone working closely in-office five days a week. Teams built and shared knowledge in person, and that setup worked for them.

Then COVID forced the world to shift to remote work overnight. What ADP once thought it could never do became what it had to do. Skeptical at first, the company found a workable balance.

When offices reopened, a new problem showed up: people didn’t want to come back full-time.

Ryan wanted the in-office setting of the pre-COVID days back, but he realized that might not be fair or realistic.

“The way that work gets done is something that needs to be considered now more than ever.“

He had to figure out how to serve both stakeholders and employees. That came down to one skill: active listening.

After hearing out employee and stakeholder values, needs, and concerns, ADP adopted a hybrid work schedule.

The hybrid work policy asked employees in three days a week and let them work from home the other two. That kept in-person collaboration without pushing people away. The 3:2 split is one of the most common hybrid patterns, and it fits companies that want a steady office rhythm without a five-day mandate.

By coaching company leaders to make the most of this setup, ADP got good results. Human relationships matter, Ryan explains, and the job is finding the balance between what the individual needs and what the company needs.

Ryan offers some questions to help leaders find the right setup:

• Does someone need to be present for this project to get done?
• Does it require physical stakeholders?
• What does it actually take to finish this work?
• Are there gaps between leadership expectations and employee preferences?

Why does the workforce want more transparency now?

Employees want to understand the “why.” They value flexibility, and without a clear reason for the work setup, they’ll look elsewhere. That risk is real: Pew Research Center found that 46% of people with home-capable jobs say they’d be unlikely to stay if they could no longer work from home.

That’s why explaining why people need to be in the office matters. With a proper explanation, individuals are more likely to accept that delivering a certain level of service means visiting those “knowledge banks” and forming “in-tact teams.”

“The way in which employees expect to not only serve the workplace, but the workplace to serve them has changed.”

Employees have more power in their decisions, and leaders who want to keep people need to listen.

Employees have to see value in their work and feel connected to and appreciated by leaders. Ryan urges organizations to build a peer-to-peer relationship and to do it from the start.

The workplace revolution sparked by the pandemic

According to Ryan, the workplace will never snap back. Employees decided they liked the flexibility they had at the height of COVID, fears and all.

Workers came out of it with a different view: they can earn a living and hold onto a healthy work-life balance.

People learned that work doesn’t have to happen in the office to be good work.

Having gained an appreciation for flexibility, employees now weigh it in their job search. The bottom line: a workplace that works for both employee and employer is not out of reach.

“Pause. Think about what is foundational and what is emotional. Figure out what your North Star is, figure out what you want to accomplish from a goal’s perspective.“

People realized they have a choice, and employers found that hybrid and remote work don’t cost them quality or productivity. The evidence backs this up. A 2024 randomized controlled trial of 1,612 employees, published in Nature and led by Stanford’s Nicholas Bloom, found that a two-day-a-week hybrid schedule had no measurable effect on performance, promotions, or output while cutting attrition by about 33%.

Because of that, the workforce won’t look the same again. Some of these changes are here to stay, whether leaders like them or not.

On the technology side, running a hybrid model well takes reliable hybrid work software. OfficeRnD Workplace lets employees book desks and meeting rooms and see who’s in the office, without leaving Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Google Calendar, or Slack.

Frequently asked questions

What is a hybrid work schedule?

A hybrid work schedule splits the working week between the office and a remote location, usually home. Many companies ask people in two to three days a week. ADP settled on a 3:2 model, three days in, two at home.

How many days a week do hybrid employees come in?

On average, hybrid workers spend about 46% of their week in the office, roughly 2.3 days, according to Gallup. That figure has held steady since 2023.

Does hybrid work hurt productivity?

The Stanford-led trial published in Nature found no measurable drop in performance, promotions, or output for employees on a two-day-a-week hybrid schedule, and a 33% reduction in attrition.

Will employees quit if you take flexibility away?

Many say they would. Pew Research Center found that 46% of people with home-capable jobs would be unlikely to stay if they could no longer work from home. That retention risk is the main reason most employers keep some form of hybrid rather than mandating five days on-site.

What software helps manage a hybrid office?

A workplace management tool handles desk booking, meeting room scheduling, and space analytics. OfficeRnD Workplace runs inside Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Google Workspace, and Slack, so there’s no separate app for employees to adopt.

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