Why Hybrid is the future of Work? And, the tweaks it needs.

Over the last two years, the pendulum had swung from one extreme of Work from Office to the other extreme of Work from Home. With Covid infection rates well under control and most of the working class having been vaccinated, it is time for the pendulum to swing back. But is it going to?

Two years is long enough to build new habits and create new comfort zones in what seemed unthinkable earlier. Employees have got used to the new way of working, IT systems have geared up to make this happen, and clients have warmed up to virtual interactions.?

While we may never be back in our offices in full strength the way it was pre-Covid, it is also true that all of us will not be working from home forever. The reality lies somewhere in the middle, with most organisations transitioning to the Hybrid model, a judicious mix of WFH and WFO depending on what business needs to operate at an optimum level.?

Why Hybrid is here to stay?

• Access to talent: When there is no location limitation, companies can access wider talent pools. This could mean more diversity of gender, skills, age, culture and ethnicity. It may also mean access to talent at a more reasonable cost as organisations dive into unexplored geographies and resource pools for recruitment.
• Cost efficiencies: Organisations having tasted trimmed costs and overhead structures will try their best to retain some of these cost efficiencies if not all. Many organisations had cut down on the office space during the pandemic. As offices begin to open, they would want employees to come back to a ‘hot desk’ environment, allowing the company to operate with fewer seats and lesser office space.
• Flexibility: Hybrid goes hand in hand with flexibility. Employees prefer flexibility for better work-life balance and for the possibility it offers them to operate from wherever they like. Working parents may want to be closer to their kids during the day; hence they may want to be in the office only when their work demands it, but not every day. Some may wish to have flexible working hours, with a slightly longer mid-day break, and yet some may not want to work a 5-day week, but only a certain number of days a week.

Tweaks that Hybrid needs (the good thing is that the Covid era has been an opportunity to test many of these):

• Monitoring of work: The way work is monitored is changing; it is not as much about time spent but about outputs, milestones and delivery. The real challenge is to estimate the ‘ideal time’ a job needs to be done well. Managers will need to get better at managing when they don’t have the comfort of observing subordinates for long periods.??
• Employee Engagement: How can organisations provide a seamless way for employees to engage irrespective of where they are? It is making employees feel connected and part of a community with which they don’t interact in physical space as often. WFH may be great for índividual deep work, but how do you get the teams to work together as effectively is the real challenge of Hybrid. Technology has some answers, but not all; maybe the metaverse will change all this.
• Contracts and Compensation: During Covid, organisations moved employees to the WFH mode, as a knee-jerk reaction, without having an opportunity to tweak the employment contracts. Now that Hybrid is here to stay, contracts are being re-written. Hybrid is not only about either WFH or WFO or a mix of these (some days WFH and some WFO); it is also about flexibility (employees working only a certain number of days a week or a lesser number of hours a day). Questions may arise on what kind of COLA (cost of living adjustment) would you do for employees working from Tier 2/3 locations vs those from Tier 1 locations when jobs don’t require you to move to a ‘single’ physical location. Or, for that matter, when employees work from a different country altogether, which country’s work regulations should apply. Should the company offer differentiated benefits to people working for a certain number of days a week vs those working the entire workweek? If yes, to what extent. What allowances should be paid to employees in WFH mode vs. those in WFO mode?
• Time boundaries: One of the complaints in the WFH mode has been that the day just does not seem to get over for employees. While employees lived and managed through this well during Covid, this is not something that can continue for all times. Organisations will have to rewrite policies and practices to ensure that the employees are not excessively burdened with long days and are not compelled to respond to every email and every work request irrespective of the time.?
• Equality between WFH and WFO: CHROs will have to ensure that the organisation does not get split into the WFH and WFO classes. We must be mindful that the benefits, opportunities, and learning interventions are not distinguished between WFH and WFO unless there is a sound basis for it. It will be important that some learning opportunities are also offered in the physical mode so that there are enough opportunities for people to share the joys of learning together. It is not only about the higher engagement with the learning agenda but it’s also the fun, banter, and shared moments with colleagues which help improve the way you engage with colleagues at work.?
• Technology: Technology has taken great strides during Covid to make things work as efficiently in the WFH mode. But, there is still a long way to go, before the digital and physical become more seamless or metaverse takes over. Organisations will need to look at tools that will help employees know more about their colleagues at a personal level, create seamless interactions, help them showcase who they truly are as individuals (and not only as employees) and generate opportunities for those water-cooler conversations.
• Flexibility: The hybrid era is not only about being able to work in WFH or WFO mode. It is also about leveraging flexibility. The vast employable population which was sucked out by The Great Resignation is still there and working; it is just that they don’t want to be in jobs. They want to work less, on their clock and only on what they like. It will be a pity if organisations don’t find ways to access this considerable talent pool that is available and willing to work but not necessarily in as straight-jacketed mode as organisations want. It is time for organisations to look as much at flexibility as at hybrid to win the war of talent.?

For most organisations in this world where the right talent is becoming scarce, and the way employees think about jobs changing, hybrid is not a matter of choice; it is just about to what extent. So, where is your organisation in its transition to Hybrid mode? How ready is it to meet the challenges of the Hybrid world?

?Every Hybrid environment must strive to find the equilibrium between a great work-life balance for employees and an employee-centric work environment for employers.