What's Next for Hybrid Working

For the past few years, the return-to-office debate has dominated the workplace. Many employers feel that on-site work vs. “anywhere work” is the best way to maintain productivity, connections, and performance for their organizations. Many employees feel the opposite—believing they do their best work remotely. This push-pull has resulted in what many call hybrid working—a model combining remote and on-site work—that may have more detractors than fans.

Despite the prevalence of hybrid work, leaders of big corporations are still firm in their belief that in-office work is necessary for innovation, productivity, and collaboration.

What organizations aren’t considering is that to obtain innovation, productivity, and collaboration, they must have a workplace founded on the attraction and retention of top workers. In short, enterprises looking to attract top talent must no longer declare how “they” want to work but listen to what workers prefer, which is often having a space to work and collaborate in person, but on a ‘drop in’ style basis, vs. a set schedule each week. This may look like a variety of room sizes to host meetings and conferences, flex desk space, and even looking to office settings that allow for easy access to a hotel as some may fly or drive in for the office vs. a traditional commute when workers come together for these (often extended beyond the traditional 9-5) periods, deeper collaboration and relationships naturally emerge. ?

The central theme here? To attract and retain top talent, independent or otherwise, organizations must abandon the thinking that the office is the be-all and end-all of the workplace and start thinking that what’s best for the worker is also what’s best for the organization.?

Trending Topics:

●?????According to a January poll from LinkedIn, 28% of U.S. workers are now working remotely, up from 25% in November 2022. This result may indicate that the 'anywhere work' might be seeing a rebound since the number of people working from home has declined since April 2021.

●?????In a Future Forum pulse survey found that 57% of workers were more likely to say that their company culture improved over the past 2 years. The primary reason stated was the adoption of flexible work policies and arrangements.

●?????A subsidiary of Brookfield Corporation is defaulting on its loans tied to two buildings in downtown Los Angeles. According to Fortune, the reason for this is the rise in office vacancies as remote working has become routine.

●?????A survey of 597 managers found that 51.8% of the participants agreed that working from home improves employee concentration. Additionally, 59.5% of managers acknowledged that remote work increases productivity, and 62.8% concurred that the setup increases employee motivation.

●?????For the past few months, some leaders have blamed remote work for the rise of quiet quitting and decreased productivity. Due to this, executives have clamored for a return to the office. However, data suggests that office mandates could cause quiet quitting among workers.

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Today’s story was guest authored by MBO VP of Corporate HR Kelly Poston Beckner .