iOCO scraps ‘work from home’ – and says it’s boosting productivity

South African tech services company iOCO has eliminated its work-from-home policy, requiring all 4,300 employees to return to the office full time. CEO Rhys Summerton and CFO Ashona Kooblall report measurable gains including higher productivity, fewer errors, faster client delivery, and reduced customer complaints. The move faced internal pushback, especially from senior staff, but resulted in virtually no unwanted attrition. Summerton dismissed the idea that developers need home-office quiet and argued that AI-driven productivity gains mean workers have capacity to handle in-office demands. The decision aligns iOCO with a broader corporate trend including Amazon, Dell, Meta, and TikTok mandating office returns, though academic research — including a Stanford study published in Nature — suggests hybrid work delivers comparable productivity with significantly lower turnover.