Duke’s Approach to Work Location Flexibility Continues to Pay Off

“Workplace flexibility meets the needs of both our workforce leaders and employes,” Lofton said. “Duke made a very good decision, in my mind, to allow the functional leaders to look within their organization to see what works for them.”

The ability to work fully remote in certain positions has allowed Duke to add talent from far beyond Durham, he said.

“We are able to be positioned as an employer of choice because we have many different options for what a Duke workday looks like,” Lofton said.

Nationally, remote and hybrid work has remained a popular option as a study by the Pew Research Center in January 2025 shows that 75% of employees with jobs that can be done from home choose to work remotely at least some of the time.

At Duke, where employees take on a vast variety of work, individuals and teams have been able to find the best fit.

Duke Associate Vice President for Translation & Commercialization Robin Rasor works fully on-site from her team’s offices on Erwin Road. She values the opportunity for easy collaboration with colleagues and more contact with the innovators whose ideas her team at the Duke Office for Translation and Commercialization can help move forward.

“I walk on campus almost every day for meetings, and I’ll run into one of our inventors, or a dean, or a chair, which is wonderful because I can learn about what they’re doing,” Rasor said.

For Ben Gildea, the Director of Fundraising Communications in Alumni Engagement & Development on the Marketing, Communications & Stewardship team, a hybrid schedule of three remote days per week has proven to be the ideal mix.

According to the Working@Duke survey, hybrid schedules have increased in popularity, up from 40% in 2023.

Meanwhile, the percentage of employees who do not work remotely at all dropped from 27% in 2023 to 22% in 2024.

Gildea, who has been at Duke for 13 years, said that working part of the week from his home in Raleigh allows him to be more productive while also being able to spend more time with his two children.

“Remote and hybrid work have been transformative for productivity, job satisfaction, and overall well-being,” Gildea said. “The flexibility to work from home allows for better focus, a personalized workspace, and a healthier work-life balance, all of which boost engagement and efficiency. … These benefits not only make work more enjoyable but also position our organization as a forward-thinking leader that prioritizes employee success and satisfaction.”

The percentage of Duke employees working fully remote has remained steady for the past three years with 34% working fully remote in 2022, 32% in 2023 and 33% in 2024.

When LaToya Outlaw, an Unemployment Claims Specialist, joined the staff of Duke Human Resources in 2022, it was the first time she’d worked in a fully remote position.

While she said it took some time to get used to working five days per week from her home in Clayton, she’s come to appreciate the fewer distractions and easy access to colleagues she has through Zoom meetings and Microsoft Teams chats.

And while she doesn’t come to Duke’s campus often, her team has organized in-person team-building visits to Duke University Chapel, Sarah P. Duke Gardens and the Duke Lemur Center.

“It’s been good for me,” Outlaw said. “I can get my work done within the timeframes we have set and I have a better balance. When you log off from work, your schedule is more flexible.”

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