The hybrid work model is becoming more popular as employees have made their intentions about staying home clear even after offices reopen, while others have categorically stated they want to go back to work. In other cases, hybrid work is good for innovation, say the likes of Netflix, Microsoft, and Indeed. How can more organizations adopt this model?
On the heels of the COVID-19 vaccine announcement came the significant decline in stock prices of Zoom and NetflixOpens a new window – two platforms that have kept us going as we’ve endured working from home. This probably suggests that the general sentiment will be that employees will go back to work.
But we also know that remote work is here to stay and that many companies are looking at the hybrid work model as a sustainable way of work going forward.
A recent Cisco surveyOpens a new window found that 58% of workers want to work remotely at least eight days a month. It also found that 77% of larger organizations will increase work flexibility while 53% will shrink office sizes. Nearly all meetings will have at least one participant joining from home.
The hybrid work model may also gain prominence because, per Cisco, employees still have several concerns about returning to work. 64% said they did not want to touch shared office devices or ride in a crowded elevator (62%). Not knowing how recently a room was cleaned (52%) and concerns about social distancing (41%) were others that they cited as reasons to not return to work yet.
Learn More: 5 Workplace Trends That Have Set the Tone for 2021 and Beyond
What Is the Hybrid-Remote Work Model?
The hybrid work model gives employees autonomy and flexibility on when and where to work. It offers both structure and independence, so it may look like a model in which a significant portion of employees will work from home partially and the workplace partially.
So, employees may come to the office to collaborate and innovate, and they may use the rest of their days of the week working at home on the ensuing tasks with preferably fewer meetings and more concentration.
And it is essential because remote work – with all its benefits – cannot wholly replicate the workplace experience. In a hybrid model, employees get to meet, reducing isolation, enhancing innovation, and optimizing collaboration.
Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings has already announced his disdain for remote workOpens a new window , calling it a “pure negative,†saying that he found maintaining workplace culture a challenge. But he also stated that no one would return to work until there was a vaccine in place.
5 Ways To Make the Hybrid-Remote Work Model Work
The hybrid model sounds ideal – but it will be a challenge to maintain. It will require transformational thinking, a growth mindset, and the adoption of a tech stack that makes collaboration seamless. These are five crucial steps that could make the hybrid work model closer to the ideal it embodies.
1. Check with employees where they are most comfortable working
Every employee has their working preferences. Some have outright expressed their interest in working remotely full time. Others are craving the social aspect of the workplace. Even when enforcing the hybrid model, ask employees which model they would prefer, their challenges, and how you as an organization can support them as they transition to a new world of work.
For instance, British company Dyson forced employees to return to workOpens a new window for a second time in Nov. 2020, allowing working from home only in exceptional cases. This raised concerns among employees – especially when some engineers report being able to do their jobs perfectly well from home.
On the other hand, Indeed, the popular job search site, also signaled a shift to a range of operating models – including hybrid – in the future. Announcing the decision, the company saidOpens a new window :
While remote work is not ideal for everyone, what we’ve learned is that our employees can be equally productive working at home, and that flexible work options give us a better quality of life. After considerable due diligence, including reviewing every role, we have landed on the following categories for how we will work in the future: completely remote, hybrid work from home/work from the office, and full time in the office. Employees will be notified of which category their role is in and will choose how they want to work. Most employees will qualify for hybrid work or fully remote, and all of Indeed remains remote until July 2021.
2. Train people managers for the new world of work
The hybrid work model exists at a much larger scale than it used to. While some managers may have experience managing hybrid teams, not all may have the same experience.
How does one manage a team of six where only two can regularly come to the office and the manager themselves are located outside the city? Managers will require intensive training in:
- Maintaining transparent communications with employees wherever they work from
- Checking in with them and on their well-being
- Absence management
- Managing employees’ learning and development – guided and on-the-job
- Developing a culture that embraces all these aspects
Managers have faced challenges managing these areas of work even when everyone came to the office. With people distributed, how will they manage these employees? Developing training and providing them continuous support as they navigate these relatively unchartered waters will be critical to the success of the hybrid-remote work model.
       Brian Kropp
Brian KroppOpens a new window , chief of HR research in the Gartner HROpens a new window practice says, “In order to be successful in a hybrid environment, leaders must adopt a hybrid mindset, which is based on the core belief that flexible work can enhance employee productivity and engagement. This also requires that leaders creatively innovate to optimize the employee experience and be open to taking on new and different roles, as well as experimenting and exploring. True hybrid champions model and operationalize key elements of a hybrid culture, and leverage network leadership and management practices to overcome barriers to engagement and productivity in a hybrid environment.â€
3. Embed empathy in the workplace culture
From leadership to employees – empathy must be embedded in the workplace culture to make the hybrid-remote model work.
Organization-wide empathy may look like the IBM Work From Home PledgeOpens a new window , which IMB CEO Arvind Krishna took publicly. The pledge advocates support for fellow IBMers and their workplace struggles, which includes being family sensitive, supporting flexibility for personal needs, supporting “not camera ready†times, kindness, taking care of oneself, frequently checking in on people, and being connected.
This applies not just to leadership but also to employees – employees being empathetic to their coworkers who cannot work from the office, who choose to go to the office, and who are forced to stay home because of family needs.
These are real issues employees have experienced when working from home. In a hybrid work model, such empathy from leaders and coworkers will make employees productive, loyal, and more engaged in the organization.
4. Ensure inclusiveness through the right tech stack
Virtual collaboration, video fatigue, poor cybersecurity are all challenges that emerged from the remote workplace. Some believe that holding remote virtual meetings even if some employees are at work is one way to remain inclusive and use tech to sustain the hybrid model. While video fatigue may drain employees, it will be important to ensure that employees are all in and members not physically present in the office don’t feel left out – a complaint commonly heard when remote workers joined team meetings with employees in the office.
The remote work model also highlighted the siloed communication that existed in teams. And this could now go two ways. It could get more siloed as fewer members interact with each other, or it could be the opportunity to break down barriers, adopt a digital platform where watercooler chats with colleagues become easier, and implement collaboration technology that is productive for all employees.
This could also mean mastering asynchronous communication so employees can catch up when needed and not be forced to participate in every meeting/call that they’re invited to.
5. Ensure equal opportunities for growth
For long, remote workers have borne the brunt of lower growth because of their inability to be physically present in the office. No matter what their choice, every employee needs the same amount of recognition and growth opportunities in the organization. To make this model truly inclusive, ensuring growth for all employees is the only way to go. This relies heavily on clear communication – not an informal communication model that leaves out-of-office employees in the dark about opportunities available to them.
Kropp says, “While most managers believe employees have to be in the office to be productive, our research found that at typical organizations where employees work a standard schedule of 40 hours per week in the office, 36% of employees are high performers. When organizations shift from this environment to one of radical flexibility where employees have some choice over where, when and how much they work, 55% are high performers.â€
When productivity is at its peak, opportunity for growth should not rely on where an employee is working from. Employees who perform and show up wherever they are must be included in critical conversations that drive organizations forward.
Learn More: Can Remote Work Stand the Test of Time?
Hybrid Work for the Best of All Worlds
Even though there is news of employers downsizing physical workplaces, it is believed that they will continue to retain these spaces for collaboration. Proving this right again is Netflix, which recently tripled its office space in London. “It is clear our colleagues want to work in a more flexible way, which will involve increased working from home, but they will still spend a significant amount of their time working from offices that are based in their local towns and cities,†a spokesperson said in the statement, Bloomberg reportsOpens a new window .
And some claim that the hybrid model may not work at all. In an article titled “Hybrid Remote Work Offers the Worst of Both WorldsOpens a new window ,†Sid Sijbrandij, the cofounder and CEO of GitLab, says, “To get everyone on the same level, a company would need leadership to leave the shared office so no single physical place holds more power than another. Realistically, however, most leadership in hybrid-remote firms will keep working from the head office, degrading the default way of working from ‘remote-first’ to ‘remote-allowed,’ where remote employees are not penalized for working outside the office, but are also not proactively integrated into the fabric of the company.â€
And while that may be the worst of both worlds, Sijbrandji also suggests one key factor in making the hybrid model work – intentional systemic changes to the way the organization has functioned so far. And that will include but not be limited to the measures described here.
What are your thoughts on the hybrid work model and how can organizations make it work? Let’s discuss this on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window .