When Sydney recruitment officer Annabelle Gonzales heads into the office, she packs lunch for herself and her furry friend Lola.
A dog-friendly workplace is just one of the perks being offered by her employer S2M to lure staff back to the office after COVID lockdowns.
"Currently, I'm working Mondays and Fridays at home, and I'm working in the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays," she told 7.30.
"It makes me feel happy knowing that she's (Lola) with me.
"She can be a bit of a distraction but only like for pats and cuddles and stuff — and that only lasts a couple of seconds before everyone gets back to work."
With staff embracing working-from-home arrangements, employers have struggled to get them back into the office as the nation moves into the COVID recovery phase.
'Other added benefits'
Ms Gonzales' boss David Jackson said with low unemployment he'd had to sweeten the deal for staff, and also offered birthday leave, lunches and holidays for high performers.
"To try to find employees to come back and work five days a week in the office was not easy," he told 7.30.
"I think employees these days are looking for other added benefits apart from the salary. So having a good, wide range of offerings, such as bring your dog to work, can assist with that attraction of the right employees and also retain the ones you want to retain."
Mr Jackson said he accepted work-from-home arrangements needed to continue.
"The future looks like two-three days from home, two-three days from the office.
"I think gone are the days of the five-day work-week nine to five, I think flexibility is key," he told 7.30.
'A right to disconnect from work'
Australia's peak union body, the ACTU, said the shift to more flexible working arrangements needed to be reflected in updated workplace laws and enterprise agreements.
President Michele O'Neil said there was a danger employee rights could be eroded without proper protections in place.
"One of the things that happens in a working-from-home environment is that sometimes workers are expected to work longer hours and not be paid for that, or they're expected to work really unfriendly hours," Ms O'Neil said.
"We've got to still have workers who have a right to have set working hours, to know that they have a right to disconnect from work. We've got to think about things like data collection and surveillance, which can be big issues to do with workers' privacy if they're working from home."
"Any additional costs to do with working from home should be the obligation from the employer," she told 7.30.
Any employee can ask for flexible working arrangements but under the Fair Work Act, only certain employees have a legal entitlement to make a request, including carers, those with a disability, workers 55 and over or victims of domestic violence.
Employers can refuse if there are reasonable business grounds.
Tomorrow, the federal government will unveil in parliament a raft of changes to industrial relations laws. Employment Minister Tony Bourke was unavailable for interview, but 7.30 understands the bill will address flexible working arrangements.
'The impact will be on small business'
Alexi Boyd from the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia said while suburban shops had received a boost from work-from-home arrangements, CBD's were still feeling the impact.
"Especially in the major cities like Melbourne and Sydney, Melbourne, in particular, there's been a lot of closures, particularly those areas that rely on heavy and high levels of foot traffic," she told 7.30.
"When we think of the different industries that are impacted by that, it's those who might have a presence in a CBD such as hairdressers, or perhaps master grocers, or retailers."
Ms Boyd said businesses were still adjusting to the implications and costs of flexible working arrangements and governments needed to keep encouraging workers back to the office.
"There needs to be a focus or refocus, if you will, about what the future of those workforces look like, because the impact will be on small business," she told 7.30.
"Nobody wants to see a situation where we lose those small businesses, the real architecture, the real heart and soul of even a CBD area, nobody wants to see them lost."
'Big towers that are empty'
S2M CEO David Jackson acknowledged Australia's cities will look very different in years to come.
"I think the future for the bigger corporates looks like, you know, smaller offices, more communal spaces, hot-desking," he told 7.30.
"They've come back post-COVID, realised none of their staff are coming back to the office, they've got these big towers that are empty."
Mr Jackson said he'd found it positive for staff and his business to continue allowing working from home, a few days a week.
"I think we were all quite scared about what was going to happen when everyone was working from home during COVID," Mr Jackson said.
"We've gradually gone back to three days in the office, two days work from home, productivity hasn't changed. We're still as flat out as ever.
"There's some techniques, obviously, that our managers have learnt to manage people remotely. Everybody's a little bit different. Some people like to have a face-to-face — their one-on-one — some people are happy over the phone. So it's really individualised I find."
Annabelle Gonzales also believed flexible working arrangements were here to stay.
"I don't see us ever going back to the way it was before COVID. This is the new age," she said.
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