What is the hybrid office & who should adopt it?

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the workplace has been seismic. Flexible working, Work from Home (WFH) and Work from Anywhere (WFA) were foreign concepts to most workplaces. We simply need to think back to pre-pandemic and pandemic ‘rush hours commutes’ of urban centers the world over.

The cars simply disappeared almost overnight; yet the work went on.

Companies and organizations all adapted to the new realities of 2020 by taking work online, utilizing pre-existing and emerging communication and collaboration tools like Zoom and RemoteHQ.

Perhaps to the surprise of most top executives and decision makers, it worked out mostly without a hitch.

The pandemic sprouted a new way of working for the entire world and brought many decision makers to the drawing board for what the company’s workspace or office really meant for the organization.

The question on everyone’s mind was: if we haven’t seen a decrease in output and productivity during WFH, what is the office good for? Should we do away with it? Should we find a middle path?

The question on everyone’s mind was: if we haven’t seen a decrease in output and productivity during WFH, what is the office good for? Should we do away with it? Should we find a middle path?

After the initial lockdowns in Q1 of 2020, companies were afforded the chance to allow some of their employees into the office, while following governmental capacity, distancing and safety guidelines. Platforms like Zynq were used to safely bring back the workforce using health screeners and vaccine status checks.

It turned out that after spending weeks or months adapting to all-remote work employees had formed wide-ranging, amorphous preferences about the office.

Some were simply comfortable not returning to the office, if given the chance. Others were overjoyed to return, having been confined to the same walls for weeks. Yet many more did not find it was safe enough during a pandemic, and everything in between.

This trend sparked the adoption of the hybrid workplace model.

Defining the Hybrid Workplace

The ‘hybrid’ office or workplace is one which sets up flexibility for some or all workers to divide their time between working on-site and off-site.

Popular terms to refer to the idea also include telecommuting, flex-work, flex-days, remote work, and flexible scheduling.

Hybrid workplaces stand in contrast to all-remote or remote-first workplaces where employees do not have an office to go to.

Hybrid workplaces stand in contrast to all-remote or remote-first workplaces where employees do not have an office to go to.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a hybrid workplace model, as we shall see in an upcoming section. An organization can create any kind of mix depending on the various factors in play.

Some workers may need to permanently work on-site (think: facilities maintenance), while others could create a unique split between WFH/WFA and the office.

Is it new?

Most people prior to the pandemic were aware of the concept of WFH, but few had access to it as a work arrangement. It was often seen as an out-of-reach perk normally reserved for highly-paid knowledge workers.

In fact employee surveys suggest that pre-pandemic, many desired to work remotely to some degree but feared negative repercussions from their employer.

In fact employee surveys suggest that pre-pandemic, many desired to work remotely to some degree but feared negative repercussions from their employer. They believed it may be used as a crux for dismissal, especially among women workers.

The 2020 pandemic turned this reality on its head practically overnight.

According to a study, a tiny 4% of the American workforce primarily worked remotely and up to 30% had worked from home in some capacity, prior to the pandemic. That number jumped to 63% during the pandemic, in May 2021.

Access to remote work, of course, is not equally disturbed across all job sectors.

Knowledge workers and those with higher-education are four times as likely to be working remotely during the pandemic. Work that fundamentally requires people interaction, such as transportation and production, simply could not be moved online.

Particularly of interest is the fact that employer perceptions about WFH have drastically shifted due the pandemic accelerating a shift to remote practically overnight.

Now, a survey shows that 80% of business leaders expect to allow some level of remote work for their workers.

Benefits

Now that the pandemic has introduced large swaths of the workforce to remote and hybrid work, it appears there is no going back. Employees and employers alike love hybrid work and are unlikely to move away from it post-pandemic.

According to a survey by Gensler, 71% of workers who have been working remote or hybrid during the pandemic stated they would prefer to continue working in a similar way.

At the same time, 80% of employers stated they would allow employees to work remotely at least some of the time.

The vast remote and hybrid experiment has been in effect for over a year as of June 2021, and the benefits are many.

Amazing for the Bottom-line

Despite fears that remote-work could result in poor performance and productivity, the pandemic evidenced quite the opposite.

Most workers reported the same level of productivity and many surveyed as being more productive during WFH and employers have the same perceptions.

Job Satisfaction

The ability to work remotely or have a flexible schedule has long been seen as a job perk.

For employees, having the opportunity to work remotely and flexibly leads to increased job satisfaction as they are able to save on long commute hours and spend more time on the things they love.

They are able to save on long commute hours and spend more time on the things they love.

Employers know that with high employee job satisfaction comes higher retention, better performance and a myriad of other benefits.

Better for Work-Life Balance

One of the primary reasons people wish to have flexible work schedules is to be able to balance the various hats they wear day to day.

People with children find certain versions of flexible working a plus because it lets them tailor work hours around their various responsibilities. In addition, not all people feel most productive with a 9 to 5 schedule.

Flex working often allows people to work during hours that fit their lifestyle. Simply by being more at home and spending fewer hours commuting, people find that they are able to spend more time on the things they love.

Saves Employees Time & Money

As a result of the pandemic, a large number of people decided to shift their residences away from expensive metropolises since commuting into work was no longer a requirement.

Expensive cities like San Francisco and New York saw an exodus of residents who moved away to avoid the high cost of living.

Commute costs can run in the many thousands annually, depending on where people live. With hybrid working, these costs can be reduced or eliminated.

Saves Employers Money

For employers, the ability to have hybrid and remote workers means they can reevaluate the amount of space they require for their workforce, for example by using safe utilization tools.

Businesses can move towards downsizing or change their existing office floor plans to meet the needs of a hybrid and flexible workforce.

Less people also means being able to save on all other associated costs such as facilities management, support staffing, and utilities.

Less heads also means being able to save on all other associated costs such as facilities management, support staffing, and utilities. Further, transitioning to a hybrid or remote workplace allows companies to draw on a talent pool from areas of lower costs of living and create compensation packages accordingly.

Good for the Environment

Due to the global lockdown in 2020 and the parallel rise of remote work, 2020 saw a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions - largely due to decrease in transportation and aviation.

The United States’ emissions fell by 13% in 2020. Much of this gain is expected to persist as the U.S. and most other countries became accustomed to a greater degree of remote and flexible work.

Short-falls

Despite the purported and evidenced benefits of the hybrid and remote models, not everyone equally appreciates (or can appreciate) them.

Like with any change, starting a new workplace model is challenging for both employers and employees.

Many employers had invested millions into swanky offices leased or purchased in exorbitantly expensive metropolitan areas. Many of these offices remained dormant for months during 2020 and onwards.

Many companies have made it clear that as soon as governmental restrictions are lifted, employees are expected back at their desks.

For this reason alone many companies have made it clear that as soon as governmental restrictions are lifted, employees are expected back at their desks.

Likewise, people often choose companies simply because of the perks they receive working on-site. Many silicon valley companies are famous for their over-the-top office perks like on-site laundry and free gourmet food.

A number of other reasons standout for why the hybrid model has some short-falls in being ideal for every kind of person or organization.

The Challenge of Culture Building

The great shift to remote and hybrid in 2020 and 2021 brought the question of culture to the fore for many organizations, new and old.

Many of the traditional techniques for culture-building involve informal interactions in the physical space of the organization or in-person outside of company grounds. In the absence of this, companies have been challenged to experiment with formalizing some of these interactions with the use of technology, regular team chats, and greater use of manager check-ins.

Even greater is the plight of newer, growing companies trying to build a culture during the pandemic where in-person interactions have been more limited.

Larger companies with prior hybrid or flexible work arrangements have fared better since their culture always included these options. It still remains an open question whether the remote-focused culture building techniques will be successful.

It Doesn’t Work for Everyone

Hybrid or remote work at a basic level cannot be accommodated for many, if not most, jobs.

Jobs in manufacturing and transport, for example, require in person attendance. For the jobs that can go remote and hybrid, not everyone has found that to be desirable.

During the pandemic, parents were particularly challenged by the additional burdens of having to balance work and domestic responsibilities.

During the pandemic, parents were particularly challenged by the additional burdens of having to balance work and domestic responsibilities.

As well, parents face greater distractions and demands on the at-work hours as children are unable to adapt to the new realities of parents being home but unavailable.

Women do not have a level playing field

Working women, as a group, have always carried a greater burden of caring roles than men. Hence, work going remote during the pandemic only exacerbated pre-existing inequalities in what WFH looks like for men and women.

Surveys showed women are many times more likely to feel that the change placed greater strains on their time and mental and physical well-being. They also were more likely to feel that a remote working arrangement impeded their ability to progress in their career.

One-in-four women even considered downgrading or quitting their jobs due to the changes brought on by the pandemic.

New Hires and Early-Career want Face-to-Face

Another group that finds hybrid and remote arrangements less ideal are new hires and those earlier in their careers.

New hires and younger workers wish to be able to get more facetime with their managers and colleagues in order to feel part of the culture and team. They also see in-person interactions as crucial to advancing their careers.

How are companies applying it?

There is no one way of doing a hybrid workplace arrangement.

Hybrid workplaces at the scale being seen in 2020 and onwards are largely experimental. We still don’t know what is ideal and only time and data will tell which forms of hybrid come out on top.

Companies are starting off on the right footing by using enterprise analytics tools to gather the data they need.

Businesses have to find an arrangement that adapts to the practical requirements of their work and the preferences of their workforce - and then iterate.

For now, with offices being allowed to reopen as the pandemic recovery continues, businesses have to find an arrangement that adapts to the practical requirements of their work and the preferences of their workforce - and then iterate.

A couple of arrangements are gaining popularity.

Flexible hot-desking: In this hybrid model, a company can create their physical space to accommodate a hot-desking approach where employees have the choice to choose when and where they would like to work on-site. For example, an employee can choose to come in on days they feel they would like to connect with colleagues, or use a particular space in the office. Thanks to amazing platforms like Zynq this approach already has the tools necessary for success. Generally in this approach, however, it is expected that the employee would reside near enough to the office in order to come in if needed. Of all approaches it appears this middle-of-the-way approach is finding greater uptake since it gives employees greater flexibility and employers some predictability of having in-person access to their workers if needed.

Role-based: In this version of hybrid, the portion of the company that absolutely must come in person to complete their role, are on-site, while all those whose jobs can be done remotely remain off-site. Think of, for example, a large manufacturing plant that employees a mix of production staff and office staff. Many, if not all, of the office roles can be turned remote while production staff remains on-site.

Set flex-days: Here, the company sets particular days that they allow employees to work remotely while the rest of the workweek is on-site. For example, a company can require all employees to come in Wednesday through Thursday, while keeping Mondays and Fridays off-site. This allows for teams to be able to pre-plan work that needs to be done in-person, such as meetings.

Employee-first: Some companies can opt to allow employees to decide how they would like to work, as long as their work can be completed off-site. In this model, an employee would set out their plan with a supervisor so expectations are clear. For example, an employee that was formerly on-site can decide to move to a different city or country entirely and set some parameters with their team on how they would be working, such as working during a particular timezone’s work-hours.