Staff can have the mental health benefits of both worlds with hybrid working.
With COVID-19 restrictions coming to an end in many parts of the world, employees are slowly returning to their offices. However, normal operations are a thing of the past.
Employees have shown that they can work remotely during the pandemic, and many insist on more flexible working hours and locations.
A Robert Half International Inc. survey in 2021 showed that more than a third of professional workers would resign if asked to return to the office full-time, and half the people surveyed preferred the hybrid work arrangement to preserve their work-life balance and mental health.
In this article, we’ll look at exactly how a hybrid model can benefit your team’s mental health.
Why Does Mental Health Matter in the Workforce?
There is a clear business case for looking after employees' mental health and well-being.
According to the WHO, every dollar spent on treating common mental disorders like anxiety and depression delivers a return of four dollars in productivity and health.
Every dollar spent on treating common mental disorders like anxiety and depression delivers a return of four dollars in productivity and health.
The CDC also found that illnesses like depression can reduce an employee's cognitive performance by 35% and hampers their ability to complete physical tasks.
Jessica Pryce-Jones, CEO of the iOpener Institute, compiled answers from a questionnaire sent to 3000 respondents in 79 countries and found that happier employees are 108% more engaged, 50% more motivated, and 50% more productive. Moreover, the most satisfied employees take 66% less sick leave than their less happy counterparts.
When companies don't address or improve their employees’ mental health, the long-term costs are often far greater than any short term advantages.
To this end, many companies are rethinking their policies on a full-time return to the office.
Mental Health Risks Due to Full Time Remote or Office Working
While some people enjoyed working from home during the early stages of the pandemic, others found it lonely or difficult for balancing their personal and work lives.
Many workers experienced loneliness and isolation while working remotely during the pandemic. Symptoms of isolation can include increased stress levels and poor decision-making.
Despite the negatives of working remotely 100% of the time, working 100% from the office also has disadvantages for peoples’ mental health.
Many workers face long and stressful commutes and schedules that impact their home life. Others are not emotionally equipped for the typical stressors of working with difficult co-workers or managers. The negatives of working full-time in the office are reduced autonomy, time wasted in commuting, exposure to illness, and struggling to adapt.
Hybrid as a middle-of-the-way solution offers an excellent way to improve your team's mental health, and consequently numerous other business metrics. Let’s find out the mental health benefits of going hybrid.
Hybrid as a middle-of-the-way solution offers an excellent way to improve your team's mental health, and consequently numerous other business metrics.
The Mental Health Benefits of Going Hybrid
Considering the drawbacks and advantages of both approaches for your team’s mental health, hybrid working can offer a suitable solution consisting of the best of both worlds.
Employees can still form meaningful face-to-face connections and relationships with co-workers by combining working from home and the office.
Hybrid working reduces the cost and stress of commuting every single day and provides a better work-life balance that will improve mental health all around. Let’s find out more.
1 — Create a Virtual and Real-life Connection
Traditionally, coffee stations or canteens acted as a hub for serendipitous social interaction. People love the ability to simply walk up to their colleague’s workstation to discuss an idea or have a chat.
People value the hub of social interaction that office spaces offer.
However, with a 100% remote model, studies found the loss of connection reduced job satisfaction, with workers feeling less connected to their employers and distant from the daily updates of company news.
How does this tie into mental health? Research shows people need to be connected socially for their well-being. Physical distancing and online working limit social interactions, narrowing the sense of social connection and impacting professional networks.
Physical distancing and online working limit social interactions, narrowing the sense of social connection.
Hybrid offers a solution.
First, companies must embrace technology to create a virtual connection for employees working from home or in different locations. But there’s a caveat.
Employers also have to use tools to encourage collaboration and connection in a social way.
Second, by allowing people to come to the office flexibly, workers can meet in real-life, enjoy water-cooler chats, and translate their online relationships to in-person bonds.
By fostering virtual and real-life connections, hybrid working is perfectly positioned to engage and connect with team members, a vital factor in mental health and wellbeing.
2 — Improve Work-Life Balance
A disadvantage of full-time remote working is that while many people thought the opportunity to work from home would improve their work-life balance and, in turn, their mental health, the opposite turned out to be true.
A study showed that nearly a third of remote workers struggle to achieve a work-life balance; they work more than 1.4 days than their office-bound counterparts and experience higher stress levels.
Workers have replaced their commutes with early morning Zoom calls and struggle to switch their laptops off at night. The increased working hours and lack of clear boundaries can lead to burnout and the deterioration of their mental health and well-being.
The increased working hours and lack of clear boundaries can lead to burnout and the deterioration of their mental health and well-being.
It’s clear that a physical distinction between where an employee spends their free time and their working day is required to achieve a better balance in life, but in both full-time office or remote workforces, it’s hard to achieve.
Hybrid is ideally placed to fix this conundrum, creating clearly defined “zones” and set schedules for work, creating boundaries and guidelines for work, reducing stress, burnout, and other potential mental health concerns.
3 — Spot Signs of Distress
Not seeing your colleagues every day also makes it easier to hide mental distress and disorders.
Many of us struggle to spot signs of mental health problems at the best of times, but remote working completely eliminates face-to-face interaction and reduces our ability to pick up on non-verbal cues that could warn us that our colleagues are experiencing some form of mental distress.
Hybrid working makes it easier to spot personal distress like depression, anxiety, or traumatic experiences in our co-workers because employees have greater visibility.
It is easier for management, senior personnel, HR or colleagues to extend a helping hand, encourage a personal time-off benefit, or be sympathetic to those who need it in the office environment.
4 — Increase Autonomy
Most in-office companies adhere to the standard nine to five work schedule, which can negatively impact productivity, increase stress, and cause exhaustion.
Plus, being part of a larger office team can decrease workers' autonomy, requiring them to stick to a structured schedule that works for the business and not necessarily for individuals.
Autonomy is essential for our mental health. Studies have found that workers with limited autonomy have an increased likelihood of depression and even death.
Sticking to a work schedule dictated by mandated office hours can also increase time pressures and, in some cases, build distrust.
With increased workloads and set hours, many dedicated workers bring their work home with them, and when this is not recognized, they feel unappreciated.
When staff members work those set hours instead of when they are most effective at their jobs, it can add to the stress and pressure of work and lead to mental distress and burnout.
When staff members work set hours instead of when they are most effective at their jobs, it can add to the stress and pressure of work and lead to mental distress and burnout.
The hybrid model flips this on its head. Workers have the flexibility to choose their hours, where and how they work. This autonomy should increase job satisfaction, improve morale, and reduce stress.
5— Save Time, Reduce Stress
An American AutoInsurance Company analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard, the INRIX 2015 Traffic Scorecard, and the U.S. Energy Information Association.
The analysis found that the average American worker spends 52 minutes traveling to and from work each day. They spend 42 hours stuck in traffic jams every year and waste $960 on fuel due to traffic delays.
On paper, this sounds pretty serious, but the jury’s out on whether a long commute is, in fact, good or bad for our mental health.
On the one hand, a long commute has been connected to negative short and long term mental health problems such as anxiety, mood changes, irritability, and even depression.
However, on the other hand, it’s also been connected to benefits such as fitness, pleasurable “me time”, and a feeling of detachment from the family life (in a positive way!).
Based on the research, it is hard to determine whether or not the commute is good or bad for your mental health; it’s likely highly dependent on the individual.
It’s therefore evident that the hybrid model offers the best of both worlds, allowing your team to choose what works — for them.
6 — Reduce Exposure to Illness
The COVID-19 pandemic also exposes another legitimate concern — exposure to illness. Even if COVID-19 becomes milder and eventually dies out, viruses and bugs can cost workers valuable time and impact their health.
By working partly from home, you reduce your exposure to illnesses, plus it gives businesses extra time to deep clean the offices with a lower footfall on a day-to-day basis.
By working partly from home, you reduce your exposure to illnesses, plus it gives businesses extra time to deep clean the offices with a lower footfall on a day-to-day basis.
But, it’s not just the benefit to your physical health. Many workers report feeling anxious about returning to work due to the increased chance of illness.
The worry about the risk of catching COVID is a real cause of anxiety for many people. By adopting a hybrid way of working, you can allow employees to decide how they feel about attending the office in-person.
7 — Help People Adapt
After almost two years of working remotely, some workers find it too difficult to return to an office environment — a factor that should be carefully considered, particularly when juggling childcare and commutes.
It's no small wonder that scores of employees quit rather than return to the office full time.
By offering a hybrid way of working, you help your team adapt.
It doesn’t need to be all or nothing, exacerbating the so-called “Great Resignation”. Work with your team to offer a flexible solution that helps them adapt in their own time, and you will increase their happiness, reduce stress, and improve their mental health.
Improve Mental Health With Hybrid
Good mental health isn't a perk. Prioritizing it improves productivity, happiness, motivation and reduces absence due to illness or personal time off.
Working remotely during the pandemic highlighted many advantages and disadvantages for full-time work-from-home and fully-remote office setups.
While working from the office provides structure, much-needed face-to-face interaction, solid relationships, and teamwork, it is also rigid and stressful for employees.
Remote working offers autonomy, flexibility, and less stress than the office, but it also means that employees miss out on the essential benefits of face-to-face interactions.
Hybrid working combines the best of both worlds.
By working partially from home and partially from the office, workers can build those solid relationships and gain structure while removing the stress and rigid structure that comes with the territory when you work from the office full time.
In short, hybrid working enables practices that contribute positively to employees' mental health.
By implementing simple software solutions like Zynq that can promote and enable safe and structured hybrid working practices, any business can put the health and well-being of their employees front and center — and reap the benefits.
