Zoom, the video communications company that has been one of the main beneficiaries of the remote working trend, has ordered staff back to the office.

The firm said it believed in a "structured hybrid approach" and that people living within 50 miles of an office should work in person at least twice a week. The new policy will be rolled out in August and September, on a staggered timeline that varies by country.

Zoom said that the new policy would place the company in a "better position to use our own technologies, continue to innovate, and support our global customers".

According to a survey by Stanford University that has been conducted monthly since the pandemic, about 12% of workers in the US, where Zoom is headquartered, worked fully remote in July, while another 29% had hybrid policies. Earlier research by the university found that remote work is more common in English-speaking countries, but far less common in Asia and continental Europe.

At the end of January, Zoom employed about 8,400 people, more than half of whom were based in the US. But company growth has slowed sharply since the pandemic and the company subsequently announced it was cutting 15% of its staff and that top executives would be taking major pay cuts.

On an earnings call in May, Eric Yuan, the chief executive said he was confident in the future of workplace flexibility and the benefits it had brought for his company. “I think hybrid work is going to stay,” he said. Nevertheless, the company’s shares are trading at $68.68 today, down from $559.09 at the peak in October 2020.