3 Ways to Solve the Hybrid Work Puzzle

Disney. Starbucks. KPMG.

These are just three companies that have mandated a return to in-person, in-office work for most or all of the work week over the last few months. As the?BBC reported, a third of employers who originally planned to maintain or adopt a hybrid or virtual model in 2022 have changed their minds for 2023.

As companies struggle to determine what ratio of remote vs. in-person vs. hybrid work makes sense for them in the long haul, it’s become clear: We’re at yet another inflection point in the way we work. And confusion over how to navigate this moment may be yielding some unintended consequences. In a recent?poll?to our community of diverse professionals, 48% disagreed with the sentence: “I believe my company has been clear, fair, and consistent with its return-to-office plans.” Another 14% weren’t sure whether they agreed or disagreed.

Reversals to remote and hybrid plans may feel sharper to diverse talent, who often stand to benefit more from flexible work arrangements due to factors like family and community responsibilities, longer-on-average?commute times, and a lack of psychological safety at the office. Consider: In our flagship?What Diverse Talent Wants?report earlier this month, 53% of workers said they wouldn’t accept a job from a company that let them work remotely at least part of the time.

But for many employers, the situation doesn’t feel as simple. With a scattered workforce, companies say they’re missing out on innovation, collective creativity, and team building. And they can point to today’s employee connection crisis as evidence. In our March 2023 report, 44% of respondents — about half of whom were working fully remote roles — felt only somewhat connected to their colleagues, and 27% didn’t feel connected at all.

All of that is to say: this moment in time is complicated, and is driving many employers — no matter what ratio of remote vs in-person work they've settled on — to question whether their current model is working.

For companies that are considering adopting or improving upon a hybrid work model, we've highlighted three actionable, DEIB-backed steps to help you navigate this unique moment in time. And we'll also be gathering to discuss more actionable solutions like these in our upcoming Diversity Reboot Summit:?The Future of Work: The Remote & Hybrid Office. We hope you'll join us.

3 Ways to Solve the Hybrid Work Puzzle

1. Understand what work you actually need to get done.?An?MIT / Oxford study?found that workplace tasks fall into four general categories: focused creative tasks (think designing a logo); individual procedural tasks (reviewing metrics); coordinated group tasks (managing a product launch); and collaborative creative tasks (product development). Collaborative creative tasks are the hardest to switch to virtual work, but the other three port over relatively well. (And focused creative tasks might even go better virtually, found researchers, because of a lack of distractions.)
2. Reconsider face-to-face time.?In a?Quartz column, an executive with a hybrid team explains how he has changed his conception of in-office time when he’s traveling to visit his team. “I structure my visits to socialize and get to know [our employees] — not just get down to business.” For instance, he now builds in all-hands and AMA meetings every time he has face-to-face time.
3. Make sure in-person employees don’t have an unfair advantage.?If you have a hybrid model and are letting employees decide exactly how much time they spend in the office, how can you make sure the amount of facetime they get with managers won’t affect promotions? You can: 1.) Set an in-office maximum, such as three days a week, to even the playing field, and 2.) document everything. Make sure both in-person and virtual meetings are documented and the results shared across teams. This is especially important as we consider the?impact of hybrid and remote work on diverse talent, many of whom are positioned to benefit most from flexibility -- and yet, conversely, could also see their career advancement hindered by in-office affinity bias and favoritism.

??? For more ideas, join us for?The Future of Work?summit! Register here.