As the hybrid workforce has grown, so has the friction between in-person and remote employees.

Some 74% of in-person employees think working in the office may give them an advantage over their remote colleagues when it comes to promotions, and 72% agree or are on the fence that they should be paid more than their remote counterparts, according to a Checkr survey of 3,500 Americans who work in an office four or more days per week.

There’s an element of “proximity bias” here, said Sara Korolevich, head of digital content at Checkr. “[It’s] the visibility of managers seeing workers [physically] and seeing how they’re being productive” that leads in-office workers to feel like they’re more valuable than remote workers.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. One people leader offers insight into how HR teams can alleviate any location-based rivalries.

Crystal clear. HR leaders should set clear expectations for how many days employees should work in-office. Travel management company TravelPerk, for example, offers its nearly 1,200 global employees the option to work remotely two days per week, said Felicia Norman-Williams, the firm’s interim VP of people.

“Have that expectation clear out there, so that nobody feels like there’s preferential treatment either being in-person or being at home,” Williams told HR Brew. “The faction[s] feel a bit less intense, because everyone has the ability to work in the same way, so you don’t feel like you’re further ahead or left behind.”

If some employees feel as though they are more worthy of promotions, raises, or other rewards due to where they work, Williams recommended that HR teams reassess how the organization measures success, and communicate what success looks like to employees.

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