Four days in the office? What candidates in Brussels and Flemish Brabant are telling us

As Managing Partner at Skill&Will, I speak with candidates and employers in Brussels and Flemish Brabant every week. One topic comes up in almost every one of those conversations: the number of days in the office.

The numbers confirm what we hear. According to Acerta’s latest survey of 600 Belgian companies, 16.6% now expect their people in the office at least four days a week, up from 11% a year earlier. SD Worx sees the same trend among larger employers. At the same time, remote work is far from over: nine in ten companies still allow it.

The former standard of three days in the office and two at home is under pressure.

But candidates are not willing to give up their two remote days.

In Brussels and Flemish Brabant, that tension weighs more heavily than anywhere else. Here’s what we’re hearing, and how employers can find the middle ground.

More and more employers are asking for four days in the office. In our intake conversations, we map this out in detail: how many office days, which days, how much flexibility in hours and whether it differs by role.

The reasons behind a stronger office presence are understandable:

• Collaboration and speed. Decisions are made faster around a table than over Teams.
• Company culture. A team that rarely sees each other becomes a collection of individuals.
• Onboarding and learning. New and junior employees learn the most by sitting next to experienced colleagues.
• Engagement. Employers feel that people’s connection to the organization weakens as they spend less time on site.

These are legitimate arguments.

The problem isn’t the ambition itself. It’s that it clashes with what the labor market expects today.

Earlier this year, we asked our network what would be the key differentiator in the war for talent in 2026. Flexibility and remote work came out on top with 46%, ahead of salary and company culture (23% each).

Our daily conversations tell the same story. Because we know the office policy before we contact a candidate, we can discuss it openly from the very first conversation, and what we hear is strikingly consistent:

• Two days at home is the norm. For most mid- and senior-level profiles, it’s not a perk but a baseline expectation. One remote day feels like a step backward.
• Flexibility matters more than the number of days. Candidates want to manage their own hours: start early, leave after rush hour, pick the kids up from school and finish a few things in the evening.
• Not too far from home. Candidates increasingly think in terms of a radius around where they live. A job that looks perfect on paper drops off their list as soon as they calculate the commute.

Candidates who are happy today with three office days won’t easily move to an employer asking for four.

And people who already work for such an employer are noticeably more open to a conversation.

Because every extra office day means an extra day in traffic.

The Brussels Ring has been one of the busiest roads in the country for years, and the renovation of the Vilvoorde viaduct doesn’t make things easier. Since January 2026, traffic has been disrupted in both directions: the emergency lane is closed and the lanes have been narrowed. According to the Flemish Traffic Centre, the current phase runs until the end of November 2026, and the renovation as a whole will keep causing disruption for several more years.

Candidates turn this into a very concrete calculation. Someone with a commute of 1 hour 15 minutes each way loses an extra 2.5 hours a week in the car with one additional office day. Over a working year, that’s more than a hundred hours, or roughly three full working weeks.

A salary increase rarely makes up for that feeling.

Public transport only partly solves the problem. For people who live close to a station and work near Brussels-Central or Brussels-North, the train can be a good alternative.

But many candidates tell us they don’t want to depend on it. Delays, cancelled trains and missed connections make their commute unpredictable, and that stress weighs just as heavily as time spent in traffic. For those who live in the Flemish periphery or work on a business park along the Ring, the car is often the only realistic option anyway.

Employers who move from three to four office days usually notice it first in their recruitment:

• A smaller candidate pool. Part of the market drops out as soon as the office policy is on the table.
• A longer time-to-fill. Vacancies stay open longer, especially for scarce profiles in finance, HR and sales.
• A higher risk of counteroffers. Candidates who hesitate are more easily persuaded to stay by their current employer, who does offer two remote days.

There’s an internal effect too.

Employees who joined under a 3/2 arrangement experience a shift to 4/1 as a deterioration of their working conditions.

And that’s often the moment they start opening up to new opportunities elsewhere.

Employers who want more people in the office don’t have to give up that ambition.

It’s all about how you approach it.

Here’s what works in practice:

• Explain why. “Four days in the office” creates resistance. “We meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays for team meetings and project work” gives candidates a reason they can weigh up.
• Make office days worth the commute. Nobody wants to sit in traffic for an hour only to spend the day on video calls with headphones on. Deliberately plan meetings, collaboration and team moments on office days.
• Offer flexible hours. Starting at 7:00 and leaving at 15:30, or arriving at 9:30, is the difference between the worst of rush hour and a smooth drive. That’s often as valuable as an extra remote day.
• Look at the role, not the organization. A team leader on the shop floor has a different reality from a controller or an HR business partner. A policy tailored to each role is more credible than one rule for everyone.
• Recruit locally. Candidates who live closer to your office find an extra office day much less of a barrier. Focus your search on the region around your location.
• Think about mobility. A mobility budget, full reimbursement of a train subscription or a bike lease lowers the barrier for those who can’t or don’t want to come by car.
• Be transparent from the start. Make your office policy clear in your job posting and in every first conversation. Candidates appreciate honesty, and those who say yes do so with full knowledge of what to expect.

The message from candidates is clear:

“We don’t want to work less. We want to organize our work more smartly.”

Two days at home, flexible hours and a job within a reasonable distance have become the new baseline for many mid- and senior-level professionals. In Brussels and Flemish Brabant, with an overloaded Ring, a viaduct under renovation and trains that aren’t always reliable, that weighs even more.

At Skill&Will, we believe a strong match needs both skill and will: what someone can do, and what drives them. An office policy that ignores how people want to organize their lives doesn’t just shrink your candidate pool.

It weakens the motivation of the people you do hire.

Employers who want more presence gain the most by making office days valuable, offering flexible hours and communicating honestly.

Those who simply raise the number of days usually notice it first in their vacancies.

From our local office, we talk to candidates in Brussels and Flemish Brabant every day and know what’s going on in the regional labor market. Here’s how we help:

• In a thorough intake, we map your office policy, flexibility and expectations in detail, so every candidate knows exactly where they stand from the first conversation.
• We benchmark your remote work and office policy against what candidates in your sector and region expect.
• We find candidates who live close to your location and are open to your model, drawing on our local network.
• We advise you on how to phrase your policy clearly and attractively in your job posting.

Curious how your policy compares to the market?

Feel free to get in touch and we’ll look at it together.