Leaders and employees both agree that hybrid work is the future, yet differ on how much structure companies should put in place around it. Here is what some are doing to address the issue.
Intel will sell its Bengaluru office while entering into a leaseback agreement to ensure business continuity, creating additional capital release while meeting key business goals.
What this means for the future of Hybrid Work
As employees return to work, many have taken to adopting hybrid work models of the future - some working entirely from home while others come back into the office on select days for meetings and so forth. It is increasingly becoming a priority among companies to strike a balance between flexibility and productivity in their workplace environments.
Employees, on the other hand, have demonstrated a preference for companies that respect their time and promote inclusive work environments with initiatives like sustainability at their core - in line with an emerging workforce trend toward greater autonomy and better work-life balance.
Most employees prefer a "hybrid" model of work that combines remote work with some days spent at the office, according to research from WeWork and Workplace Intelligence. 95 percent of workers want more control over their schedules while three to five days a week would like the flexibility of working remotely.
Finding out what that looks like can be challenging. C-suite executives tend to believe it necessary for at least four days per week of office work compared to employee preferences for flexible arrangements. Furthermore, nine out of ten leaders foresee hybrid work becoming necessary over time but approximately a third lack consensus on an overall vision for it.
While some businesses are moving toward traditional models that require employees to spend most of their time at work, many others are exploring more flexible arrangements between remote work and in-office arrangements for employees. Therefore, the definition of hybrid work will continue to change as companies experiment with what arrangements can work.
As businesses face an ever-evolving global business landscape, determining how best to meet the needs of today's workforce is of the utmost importance for success. To help get you started on this path, we've assembled some of the latest research and insights about hybrid work's possible impactful presence in workplaces today and tomorrow.
The Future of Office Spaces
Future office spaces will be broken up into smaller suites of offices, "focus rooms" for work that requires long periods of concentration, and areas designated specifically for video meetings. Open areas will be transformed with features like intelligent lighting, temporary dividers, and central hubs designed to foster collaboration. Workers can expect real-time dashboards reporting how many people are present within each space as well as its temperature/CO2 levels/and when it was last sanitized.
Companies that thrived during the pandemic experienced higher productivity when they focused on supporting small interactions between employees -- opportunities to discuss projects, exchange ideas, network and mentor each other. Two-thirds of companies that experienced productivity gains versus 9 percent that saw productivity decline supported these interactions between workers; organizations hoping to maintain productivity gains should consider creating space in their hybrid working models for these moments of connection between colleagues.
However, for now the physical office remains an integral component of workplace. While the number of those who work from home has decreased since the pandemic hit, most of those who worked some or all of the time during it continue to do so today. While some choose to remain permanently homebound while others simply have reduced business travel expenses and thus will return less frequently to the office.
As such, office values have declined substantially in value; some developers have already abandoned new building projects or converted existing ones to other uses, like hotels and retail outlets. And those remaining will look vastly different than before the pandemic: collaborative spaces will become more agile to meet the needs of a hybrid workforce; while wellness-oriented touches, Zoom rooms, and desk reservation will continue to provide top talent with incentive to stay.
The Future of Workplace Culture
Forward-looking companies were already experimenting with work from anywhere policies before the COVID-19 pandemic hit; once lockdown ensued, however, many employees found themselves forced to work from home during its entirety. While some found working from home to be beneficial and challenging in equal measures.
At the end of it all, many companies made changes to their remote work programs or adopted hybrid models in response to recent political events. Now that business operations have resumed as normal, it's time for us to reevaluate how we run workplaces.
One thing is clear: hybrid work is here to stay. According to a survey by Global Workplace Analytics, most employees want hybrid settings as their workplace. Most respondents said hybrid or work from home models made them happier (83%), felt more trusted (82%), and provided improved work-life balance (81%).
But for hybrid models to work successfully, companies must adopt an even-handed approach when structuring their teams. Furthermore, clear expectations must be established about when employees must be on site vs when working remotely and what sort of support is necessary when working remotely.
To gain an idea of the future of hybrid work in your organization, start by speaking to team members. Discuss which tasks they perform best face-to-face and ways in which their workflow could be improved.
Data you gather should then be used to inform decisions on how your organization should develop, as well as what type of office space will be necessary. Hybrid work should offer the best of both worlds - flexibility of working from home combined with collaboration and socialization of the workplace - but only if the necessary systems and infrastructure are put in place so teams can work efficiently together - this includes setting clear definitions of "working from home", investing in communication tools and creating policies governing how teams should communicate.
The Future of Equity
COVID-19 may have drastically reshaped the work landscape, yet working remotely and in hybrid environments remains an ever-evolving reality. Therefore, companies must acknowledge its impact on employees as well as continue developing flexible policies to meet employee demands.
One of the greatest difficulties associated with working in a hybrid environment is maintaining communication and collaboration between in-office employees and remote employees. To do this effectively, employees need access to strong internet connections as well as the capability of making virtual calls when necessary; unfortunately this service may not always be readily available, particularly given that many remote workers reside in areas with unpredictable environmental factors (e.g. weather) which make maintaining consistent connection quality challenging.
An additional challenge presented by hybrid environments lies in striking a balance between productivity and maintaining strong culture and team dynamics. This can be particularly difficult when teams are split between those who spend most of their time at the office and those working remotely, especially when some members find adapting more difficult than others.
As with any successful hybrid work model, the key to creating and overseeing an effective hybrid work model lies in cultivating vibrant workplaces. This includes prioritizing employee wellbeing and engagement as well as having exceptional managers with strong company cultures - as well as accepting flexibility as a means to attract and retain top talent.
There are plenty of tech companies who have managed to strike this balance successfully, like Spotify with their return-to-office initiative helping achieve diversity and inclusion goals while still having a high percentage of remote workers.
Future hybrid work arrangements will vary based on organization, team and individual; employers should make an effort to regularly assess, adjust and reevaluate how their current model is working to ensure it provides high-quality experiences for employees.
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