The shades of hybrid!

Most businesses have accepted that the future of work will be hybrid—primarily a combination of home and office work. However, as organizations attempt to implement?such arrangements, some face resistance from their employees. Many HR departments are scratching their heads, not knowing what to do.?On the one hand, their leaders press them to enforce the?return to the office policy, while on the other hand, employees don't seem ready to return.

To address the situation, we must dig deeper into the concept of hybrid and consider how organizations should design a proper hybrid work arrangement.

First and foremost, organizations must recognize that the pandemic and the 18 months of home working have allowed people to reimagine their lives. Before the pandemic, most employees designed their lives around their work. For instance, I have moved 18 times during the last 38 years based on where my place of work was- uprooting my family, my friends, my home- each time. No questions asked. The organization said to move- so I did. No longer. Coming out of the pandemic, employees are designing their work around their lives. When, where, and how people work is based on what other factors assume importance in their life.?

Also, there is an entirely opposing view of what a hybrid is. For management, hybrid means that the primary place of work is the office, with the?option?of employees working from home, based on the organization's discretion. For many employees, on the other hand, hybrid working means that their primary place of work is home, with the?option?of working from the office, at?their?discretion.?

As shown in the diagram below, we can frame the hybrid conversation along three dimensions:

1. Reasons why hybrid is necessary.
2. Criteria for a successful hybrid arrangement.
3. Types of hybrid work arrangements.

Reasons why hybrid is necessary:??Employees must return to the office, at least in a hybrid format, for legitimate reasons. According to a recent Microsoft study, collaboration among colleagues has decreased by 25% over the last year. Additionally, a Gallup study found that during the pandemic, when people were primarily working from home, organizational connectedness dropped by 20%. A recent study by Becker Friedman institute at Chicago also found that productivity gains during the pandemic were logistical (commute-saving, for instance), not due to improved human dynamics. The next round of productivity necessitates human dynamics to innovate, ideate, and address long-term issues, which can only occur in person.

Employees, therefore, need to come to the office for three reasons: coordination, collaboration, and connection. Unfortunately, most organizations want employees back in the office for a fourth (and much-hated) reason: control! Return to office 'mandates' evoke a sense of control and naturally elicit an adverse reaction among employees. New framing is required. Organizations should use stories and examples to advocate for a return to the office to focus on collaboration, connection, and coordination. And let's, for heaven's sake, drop the word 'mandate.'?

Criteria for a successful hybrid arrangement:?To persuade employees to come to work, organizations must consider four criteria: flexibility, predictability, convenience, and purpose. It is critical to ensure that people understand where and when they have the flexibility to work from home. At the same time, setting clear boundaries of when they need to be at the office makes their lives far more predictable. One company decided that all employees should be in the office during the second week of every month, with the other three weeks being flexible. Such clarity provides predictability to the employees' lives while also providing flexibility. Another critical factor is convenience (including safety). Employees do not want to return to their old cubicles (sarcastically also called the cube farms) and risk their safety. Organizations must ensure both safe and well-designed spaces. One person told me that she hates it when her management keeps talking about the employees returning to 'normal,' since the pre-pandemic 'normal' was, in fact, 'horrible!'?

According to a Harvard study, employees lose 86 minutes per day due to distractions from work in poorly designed offices, a waste of productivity. Employees aren't necessarily looking for five-star workspaces; they're looking for workspaces where they can get their work done in some comfort- with the flexibility for some connection, collaboration, yet some privacy. Finally, employees want to know why they are being dragged to the office, i.e., the real purpose of coming to the office. Presenteeism for the boss's sake is not a good enough purpose. A two-hour commute should be worthwhile, which is why reinforcing collaboration, connection, and coordination aspects of work when people are in offices is critical.

Types of hybrid work arrangements:?Different organizations are setting up hybrid arrangements differently. I find there are four types of hybrid configurations, each with a distinct function, described below.

Docking hybrid configuration. Organizations want employees to 'dock' with the mother ship regularly. Even before the pandemic, many sales and service personnel would work in this manner. Docking is essential in complex projects that require collaboration with multiple departments. According to the Microsoft study referenced above, working from home has made organizations more siloed. Docking with the mother ship regularly helps align the teams and ensures everyone is on the same page.?

Stable hybrid configuration.?A stable hybrid arrangement occurs when organizations 'fix' dates, days, or times when everyone must be present. It provides stability and predictability and aids in the planning of purposeful connections or collaborations. Many organizations are working toward stable hybrid arrangements, defining the days (say, every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday presence) or the specific week (1st and 3rd weeks of every month) when they require their employees to be in the office. I like such a hybrid arrangement because it allows the work to be designed to fit into the hybrid arrangement.?

Dynamic hybrid configuration.?This type of arrangement is more ad hoc and may be necessary for specific work situations. Customer emergencies, internal crises, and specific project situations necessitate an all-hands-on-deck approach and require employees to be on-site full-time when required. When the US government imposed a moratorium on certain payments, a financial services team leader told me that the employees were willing to come to the office as needed to process the moratoriums so that the general public did not suffer. Organizations should contract with their employees to come to the office in specific situations that need them to be on hand when required. Of course, this also means that they need to give employees the flexibility of working from home/ remotely when such situations are not warranted.

Fluid hybrid configuration.?Some organizations have gone too far with their flexibility, letting employees design their own hybrid configuration. The difference between dynamic hybrid and fluid hybrid is that the former is per the organizational need, while the latter is per the employee preference. Some employees may prefer to come in three days a week, others for two days, while others may come in for a week and work from home for the rest of the month. Such an approach, I believe, provides flexibility but presents a challenge in aligning people to focus on common issues and manage the outcomes. A fluid hybrid arrangement may work in situations where little coordination is required, but it is my least preferred option.

The summarize the discussion above, hybrid arrangements are complex configurations with numerous stakeholders with varying needs. To ensure a viable design, consider all the above aspects of the design:

What are your thoughts?

Finally, an appeal once more. I am delighted by the response from many of you to volunteer to participate in my doctoral dissertation survey. I continue to need more volunteers. So if you are an employee in the USA, I would be grateful if you could click on the link below and send me your email address to send you my survey in the coming weeks.