What is Hybrid Working? Everything You Need to Know About Hybrid

Hybrid working has become the latest buzzword and the unlikely hero of the future workplace. That is not to say that hybrid doesn’t have its benefits, but it is certainly not a new invention. Companies have been using the hybrid working model for years – this is just the first time it has been branded with this terminology.

Businesses have spent years opposed to working anywhere other than the office, and now they are encouraging it. The big question around hybrid working is how has this decades-old way of working emerged as the future of work?

While some companies have successfully implemented hybrid working, we’ve also seen that hybrid has been a challenge for businesses. This is due to there not being a clearly defined path for how to adopt the hybrid model.

We have already started to see that hybrid working is not a one-size-fits-all scenario, with each business set to tackle it in its own way. We expect to see a significant trial and error period along the way as there are still a lot of unanswered questions. With the help of our expert design team, we have gathered our answers to some of the biggest questions being asked about hybrid working.

While many companies were looking for innovative solutions for how to occupy the office, hybrid working naturally rose to the top and stood out as the obvious way of maintaining productivity during restrictions and advice to work from home. However you choose to look at it, hybrid working is still in beta mode and companies are in a state of flux.

What is hybrid working?

Hybrid working is the combination of working in the office and working remotely. For some, this means working from home, for others this means working in a third space such as a coffee shop.

While many workers have only recently adopted this way of working, hybrid working is not new. Hybrid work has existed for many years, it was just never accepted on such a large scale. The pandemic accelerated the implementation of hybrid working and has remained a popular way of working due to employees having greater flexibility over where they worked.

Hybrid working means employees are spending less time in the office but now have more autonomy in their work. This shift has required office design to evolve to support a more transient workforce that is expecting more purposeful and functional spaces at work. Confusion on the term comes from the similarities with several other popular working models.?See our article on the difference between hybrid, flexible and agile working.

Should my business adopt hybrid working?

Every company has different objectives, so whichever working model is adopted, it fundamentally must support those needs. A?study conducted by Willis Towers Watson ?showed that employers think about a quarter of the workforce (23%) will work remotely on a full-time basis in two years’ time, and almost half (41%) will embrace hybrid working. With hybrid working rising in popularity in plans for post-pandemic working patterns, how can businesses avoid tripping themselves up with hybrid?

Oktra Creative Workplace Director Sean Espinasse explains that for many companies, hybrid working is likely to fail if it is not properly introduced into a business.

“Hybrid working is not going to work for every business – we cannot deploy ‘hybrid’ as a silver bullet.”

Sean explains that workplace trends move around the demands and requirements of people and those requirements are still the most important thing when companies come to assess their ways of working.

“Companies would ordinarily undergo an extensive consultancy process before adjusting their office space and ways of working. However, a lot of companies have implemented their version of hybrid overnight with little work underpinning the changes. Hybrid working does work, it just won’t work for everyone.”

The challenge for business leaders is continuing to make the right choices for their people, without getting swept along with the latest trends. We have seen some businesses come out in the media to say that hybrid working has failed for them – but hybrid working is not right for every business.

How do I start hybrid working in my office?

There are a lot of considerations when trying to get hybrid right, it isn’t as simple as just ‘going hybrid.’

One of the pitfalls of hybrid working is that companies proclaiming to have moved to hybrid working, have not implemented the right infrastructure for it to work effectively. This includes things such as IT, leadership, working environment and cultural buy-in from staff. While there is a definition of what hybrid working is, there is still an acceptance of it being a fluid concept with moveable boundaries. This relates to how different sized businesses or companies within different sectors would seek to implement hybrid working while having variations on headcount and work demands. So while there is no one correct method of how to ‘do’ hybrid working, there are certain factors that can be considered to ensure a successful shift.

As with any workplace change, employee engagement is essential. Each employee is likely to have different requirements so a blanket change without consultation is likely to fail. When?Spotify announced ‘My Work Mode’ ?in early 2021 in their company blog, their stance was pinned on giving staff the flexibility to work based on the demands of their own workloads.

“Our employees will be able to work full time from home, from the office, or a combination of the two. The exact mix of home and office work mode is a decision each employee and their manager make together.” Microsoft’s early stance on the hybrid model recognised the value of autonomy “that some employees are required to be onsite and some roles and businesses are better suited for working away from the worksite than others.” In Microsoft’s most recent shift, their?Digital Workplace initiative ?“creates efficiency, increases productivity, enables accessibility, and empowers our entire organization.”

This type of investment into a digital-first environment is a landmark move but admittedly not one that would be so easily replicated by other companies. It will be common to see businesses develop and execute their own versions of hybrid to help transform their ways of working. Despite the different approaches, there is a requirement for the right level of trust and autonomy for the hybrid model to work. The companies that take this opportunity to invest in their people and build a human-centric environment will see the full benefits of hybrid working.

You can read the full article on the Oktra website here