COVID-19 has opened "the talent door" by proving that people can work from anywhere in a stressful environment and deliver big projects, new Worley chief executive Chris Ashton said after revealing the engineering group will not force tens of thousands of staff back to the office.

"What we've learned through this experience is in fact that there is a different way of working open to us now," Mr Ashton told the Macquarie Australia Conference after connecting by video from Houston, Texas, where he has been stuck since the outbreak of the pandemic.