Dutch Employees Are Returning to the Office: Working from Home Is on the Decline

Summary:
More Dutch employees are returning to the office, with the number of remote workdays expected to drop by 11% this year. After years of growing popularity, working from home seems to be declining as companies encourage more in-office presence. Employers still value flexibility but are setting clearer expectations, aiming to balance productivity, team spirit, and office capacity.

It seems that Dutch employees are heading back to the office more often these days. The number of days people work from home is dropping—by about 11 percent this year, according to mobility provider Shuttel, who shared their data with BNR.

For quite a while, especially after COVID-19, working from home was becoming the norm. Many companies fully embraced hybrid working, where people would spend part of the week at the office and the rest working from home. It seemed like this setup was here to stay.

But now things are shifting. Shuttel, which tracks the travel patterns of around 250,000 employees through their mobility cards, sees a clear change. In the first five months of this year, the number of home working days dropped by nearly 11 percent compared to the same period last year.
Looking at the trend, Shuttel expects the number of remote workdays will be down by about 11 percent for the whole of 2025.
“Maybe we’ve already passed the high point of working from home,” says Klaas Pieter Roemeling, director at Shuttel.

Shuttel provides mobility cards that employees can use for both public transport and car travel. Companies like FrieslandCampina, KraftHeinz, Decathlon, and even the Dutch government use these cards, so their data offers a pretty good look at how Dutch employees are moving around.

The Labor Market Played a Big Role

After the pandemic, working from home was especially attractive because the labor market was extremely tight.
“Good employees were hard to find, and offering the option to work from home made it easier to hire people and to keep them on board,” explains Roemeling.

Another factor: many people moved further away from the city in recent years. “People traded city life for more space and a bigger house outside of urban areas,” he adds.

But now, working from home seems to be losing some of its appeal. More people are choosing, or being encouraged, to come to the office more often.
According to Roemeling, employees who used to come in two or three days a week are now adding an extra office day.
“Companies are actively promoting this, and it seems this shift is here to stay.”

At ING, for example, they openly support the idea of being in the office part of the week. “We truly believe that when our employees spend some time working together in person, the atmosphere and creativity improve,” says an ING spokesperson.

No Strict Office Mandates (Yet)

Most companies are still reluctant to formally require a fixed number of office days. They fear that forcing people back could drive them to find jobs elsewhere.
Still, some companies are introducing guidelines, like ING. They now encourage employees to come in at least two days per week, with one of those days falling on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday.

And that’s not a random choice. Data shows that these are exactly the days when most people prefer to stay home. Tuesdays and Thursdays, on the other hand, are typically the busiest days in the office.
“With this guideline, ING hopes to spread office attendance more evenly across the week,” says the spokesperson.

The proposed guideline is currently under review by ING’s works council, but the company expects that not much will actually change in day-to-day practice.
“It has always been the idea that employees spend about half their time at the office,” the spokesperson says. “We think that’s good for team spirit and for creativity.”
That said, flexibility remains key. “Teams can still decide their own schedules and make their own arrangements.”

Office Attendance Still Mostly Voluntary

Employers' association AWVN also sees that companies are starting to worry about the effect of too much remote work on their company culture.
“For example, it’s really hard to properly train and integrate new employees if they’re mostly working remotely,” a spokesperson points out.

That’s why more and more companies are setting expectations about office attendance. But most of these agreements are made at the team or department level, which actually fits the Dutch work culture.
“In the Netherlands, employers and employees usually solve these things together through discussion, without needing formal rules,” says AWVN.

In the United States, this is a hotter issue right now. Some large employers, including the U.S. government, are cutting back on remote work options.
But in the Netherlands? It’s not heading in that direction. “We haven’t seen any signs that Dutch companies plan to stop offering work-from-home options,” AWVN emphasizes.

Seasonal Effects on Working from Home

Shuttel also notices that remote work habits follow the seasons.
People tend to work from home more often just before the holidays. After vacations, though, they seem to enjoy being back in the office and seeing their colleagues again.
“There’s definitely a seasonal rhythm to how people work from home,” says Roemeling.

One final note: it’s hard to say exactly how many people worked from home before the pandemic.
Shuttel didn’t have reliable data from before 2019 because most companies only started accurately tracking remote work after COVID-19.

Since July 1, 2024, Dutch companies with 100 or more employees are required to track and report CO₂ emissions from commuting and business travel to the government, which means accurate tracking of where people work has become even more important.