a friend of mine was HR head for a semi-big startup with about ~200 devs.
after the 1,5 years of corona they looked at the numbers and evaluated if they should get the devs back into the office
overall productivity stayed the same (after the chaos of the first corona lockdown has settled) for all measurable metrics.
but individual productivity showed major changes, some completely faltering, some performing much better. for most of them it stayed more or less the same. hypothesis: the loss of f2f communication was counteracted with more time to focus.
and yes, they did let go those of who did not perform any longer. also the hypothesis was that most of them were not so great from the beginning, but were able to "swim" with the rest of the teams. (some exceptions)
the upside was also they now they had a much bigger pool of pot. hires in eastern europe which they did not had before.
Seems to me like a good argument to give the performers a raise, promotion, what have you. Sounds harsh but maybe even let some of the slackers go.
All depends on the direction the company culture wants to take; more focus, more skill or more communication. Either is fine, but the leadership should pick one and stick to it.
after the 1,5 years of corona they looked at the numbers and evaluated if they should get the devs back into the office
overall productivity stayed the same (after the chaos of the first corona lockdown has settled) for all measurable metrics.
but individual productivity showed major changes, some completely faltering, some performing much better. for most of them it stayed more or less the same. hypothesis: the loss of f2f communication was counteracted with more time to focus.
and yes, they did let go those of who did not perform any longer. also the hypothesis was that most of them were not so great from the beginning, but were able to "swim" with the rest of the teams. (some exceptions)
the upside was also they now they had a much bigger pool of pot. hires in eastern europe which they did not had before.