Since the pandemic, in a flexible and agile New World of Work, there are options of how to organize work. Companies and employees are making use of these options. We can work permanently, as Interim Manager on projects, remote, hybrid or onsite in the office. The choice depends on varied factors like the kind of business, leadership style and capacity and personal references of both employees and managers.

There may be a tendency to impose more on-site work now, but ‘Zeitgeist’ usually changes with its challenges and adaptation. We will end up with a mixed culture and different options. Some companies will want their employees to be in the office, others will not care as they manage to keep it going efficiently remote and most of them will offer a mixed model, hybrid work. This is an assumption based on common sense; research and studies in regard may come to different conclusions.

Everything is a process. Employees forced to work from home during the pandemic realized the convenience of it, particularly in terms of saving time by not having to commute. After a couple of years of remote work some will miss the social contacts during office hours so, a coffee together chatting for a couple of minutes. Working at home by yourself can be lonely with nobody to talk to, no hallway conversations.

Companies, on the other side, realized that they can lower costs. Smaller offices, less heating, and a calm work environment in open office spaces.

Now, let us talk about productivity. There are studies and they do provide different results, from no changes to less productivity to more productivity. Obviously, we have to differentiate between remote and hybrid work and we have to carefully look at those studies and their methods.

What exactly is hybrid work?

Hybrid work is a model that combines working in an office environment with working from home.

It varies in flexibility and supports different work schedules; it allows employees to choose where they work in accordance with the companies’ necessities.

A hybrid work approach offers a better work-life balance for employees, more individuality and thus supports productivity and employee engagement positively. Businesses will become more efficient.

Here are only some of the benefits:

1. Employees can work when and how they are most productive

In a hybrid working model there are flexible schedules and locations. If your employee is a morning person and more efficient in the morning he/she should work more in the morning. Teams can meet in a different location than the office.

2. Work-life balance

Flexibility powers hybrid work. Most employees appreciate flexibility. A good work-life balance is more likely with a hybrid working model as an employee can adjust his/her working schedule according to individual and organizational needs. Think about family duties. More time for things that matter make happier and happiness leads to effectiveness.

3. Broaden and optimize your talent pool

With a hybrid working model you can hire talent across the globe as they don’t have to be onsite.

As for now there is flexibility. This will change, legislation tries to cut this flexibility and impose more rigid rules and a clear and strict framework.

4. Save costs

Having less employees sitting in offices you need less office space, less heating, you can downsize real estate and energy costs. Some employees do require co-working spaces, but even those do provide less obligation. You do not have to take care of all the administrational and maintenance issues.

Possible challenges of hybrid work:  

1. Collaboration with remote employees

Coming into the office at different times means that you may miss each other. The right technology to communicate is crucial and does exist. You will not be able to just quickly ask a question a colleague, but you have to make appointments on -  line to talk. This may even be more productive as employees prepare for a call and have a list they work alongside. On the other hand side you won’t be able to properly capture what is happening in the hallways and you won’t be able to read between the lines.

2. Not suitable for all industries

Industries like nursing or manufacturing require to be onsite. Talents may choose to work in a different industry due to a more flexible working model.

3. Effort and maintenance required to make it work

A hybrid working model, working remote requires however a clear organization and policy as well as an effort to engage and retain employees. Managers have to take care of their employees and set rules. Some leaders may make it compulsory for their teams to be onsite on a certain day of the week in order to boost team morale and collaboration.  Leaders have to be more sensitive and aware of individual or team intrinsic changes, changes in behavior, misunderstandings. They may be less obvious in a hybrid working model.

There is no "one fits all" solution. A hybrid working model can vary and every leader has to decide which one works best for the industry, the company, the teams and the individual talents working in or outside a team.

There are four different options of how to set up your hybrid working model:

• Hybrid at-will

               Employees can choose when to come into the office and are pretty flexible with office times

• Hybrid split-week

The company assigns specific days for onsite and remote work by team or function

• Hybrid manager-scheduling

Managers choose which day(s) their team comes into the office

• Hybrid mix

A combination of the three options depending on team, function, period.

For leaders to manage a hybrid work surrounding comes with some challenges and aspects to be aware of in order to make the most out of it in terms of efficiency, productivity and happiness of everyone:

• Have the adequate tools to make it work, computers, phones and individually fitting software.
• Make sure there is a clear purpose when you make employees come to the office as otherwise they may get frustrated. There needs to be a reason to come in like a personal meeting.
• Adapt your hybrid working model to your company. Be clear about why you are using it and which hybrid model you want to apply. Clear rules and structure are needed to avoid confusion and misunderstandings, uncertainty and frustration. They should be agreed on from the very beginning of a contract or adapted consciously when necessary.
• Communicate the above mentioned in a transparent and clear way. Communicate generally in a transparent way but do not compensate the fact of not being in the office with too many meetings. This would be counterproductive and less productive.
• Consider different options, be flexible. Why not offer smaller co-working spaces alongside your main Headquarters? Be creative about your hybrid working model.
• HR and IT have to work together
• Create an attractive workplace: space, technology and people. You have to “compete” with proper homes. Besides the right purpose, make it attractive for an employee to come into the office.
• As some may work from home and others from the office find a way to connect them and make understand the why of a decision reciprocally.
• Ask your leaders and employees what works for them to understand how to implement a hybrid model, how to engage and retain them, how to make them embrace change and sustain the transition process.
• Invest even more in company culture
• Create experiences to gather the company’s core values
• Organize fun get-togethers in reality
• Ask for continuous  feedback, situations may change and you may not realize it outside the office
• Onboarding is crucial to success and needs to be well organized, adapted to a hybrid working model

These are a few of the aspects to consider when implementing and maintaining a hybrid working model. Hybrid is the future and you have to find the best way for your company to stay productive and engage your best talent.

“People’s physical presence creates a stimulus that is impossible to transmit via technology like Zoom or Microsoft Teams.” Says Charles-Henri Dumon, CEO and Founder at Morgan Philips Group in his book “From NWOW to WWOW – From the New World of Work to the Wonderful World of Work”

Read full E-Book here - for free!

Let us find smart ways and implement a new hybrid working model that leads to benefit for both, workforce and company.