Hybrid Headache

“The debate over remote work vs. hybrid vs. back to the office is only part of the picture. It’s interesting and it matters to employees, but it’s not where the focus should be.” According to?Steven Sinofsky,?Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) board member.

The arrival of hybrid working is a once-in-a-century change, and you face a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get it right. Yet, creating a hybrid model isn’t just a headache, it’s a migraine, and a chronic one at that. Are your instincts telling you that hybrid working may be bad news? If so, here’s why they are probably right:

• Missing out. It’s more than a fear.
• Biased exclusion.
• Unprepared leaders.
• The (sub)class of 20201.
• (Un)equal access.
• Employee activism.
• Cubicle coaching. MIA.

(Read more:?Hybrid isn’t working?by former MIT and Berkeley Scientists)

And these all feed the elephant in the room: powerless productivity. Approximately 90% of C-level executives say that productivity is a top concern in the hybrid future.

But the flexibility to work from home is no longer a perk, it is a requirement. Not allowing it is a dealbreaker. But as we know, freedom is never free. In fact, it comes at a cost – and a high one at that. In exchange for freedom and flexibility, are employees prepared to accept the tradeoffs and penalties of remote work??

If you’re only focusing on “where” your employees will work–office, home, or hybrid–you’re gravely underestimating the significance of the pandemic. Hybrid work isn’t just a new way to work, it’s literally the rewiring of how things get done. It is the biggest shift in work in a century. Implementing remote work policies, creating a hybrid game plan, and hiring a Chief Remote Work Officer isn’t enough to cover the bases.?

Sinofsky added, “The penny that hasn’t yet dropped is that surviving the lockdowns by using technology indicates that [companies] pre-pandemic ways of doing things need comprehensive re-examination.”?

Warts and all, hybrid is a once-in-a-century chance to rethink how we work and how we make that work productive.

The dramatic shift to remote work made executives ask a question that should’ve been top of mind long ago: Are our employees working productively? It suddenly became clear that leaders didn’t have a common, objective way to measure productivity and had instead been relying on a butts-on-seats approach. With that no longer an option, managers far and wide are feeling uncomfortable – left in the dark while trying to stay up to date.??All the while, productivity is going unmeasured and unchecked, and that’s a problem.?

Hybrid work has the potential to fail spectacularly. That is, unless companies embrace the power of an AI productivity platform, specifically the next generation of human activity recognition for knowledge workers.

AI-powered productivity platforms might be new, but they are proving a disruptive force in the market. Already, there is evidence to support the impact that the capabilities they offer are having on business, with Fortune 500 companies that use AI to measure productivity, experiencing double-digit productivity growth.??

Mastering productivity with an AI productivity platform is not an opportunity to pass up; according to Grand View Research, the global productivity market is expected to reach $103bn by 2027.?

The decisions you’ll be making in the coming weeks will be permanent, and whatever model you choose, the productivity of your employees will determine how investors react as they examine productivity as a profitability driver. Inevitably, there will be winners and there will be losers, and those who will prevail are the ones who embrace the power of AI to measure and grow productivity.

As Salesforce president and COO, Bret Taylor, said, “It’s kind of fun to have the whole world reimagine white-collar work. I mean, who would’ve thought three years ago that we’d be doing this right now, and as someone who’s been in the tech industry for a long time, it’s pretty fun to start from a blank sheet of paper and reimagine our cultures.”

Are you reimagining the future of productivity?

enaible’s AI Productivity Platform is the cure for the hybrid headache and the remedy for employee productivity, wherever they work, whatever they do, whatever the time of day.?