Workforce Planning in an Era of Hybrid Work

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For this week’s Workplace Intelligence Newsletter, I interviewed Mark Ralls, CEO of ActivTrak, a workforce analytics software company that provides productivity insights. Serving over 9000 customers and nearly 550,000 workers, ActivTrak provides leaders and employees the data they need to work together and improve how work gets done.?An experienced software executive, Mark has over twenty years of experience building high-performing and scalable organizations. Prior to ActivTrak, he was president and chief operating officer at Invicti Security, an Austin-based cybersecurity firm. He has also held a variety of leadership roles in business strategy and operations at Vista Equity Partners, SolarWinds, Social Solutions Global, and Boston Consulting Group.

In our conversation, we discussed workforce planning challenges and shifts, productivity and engagement in a hybrid work environment, and the connection between well-being, productivity, and retention. Mark also shares how to use workforce data and analytics to your advantage regardless of your organizational status.

Below is a sneak peek of our conversation — subscribe to my FREE Workplace Intelligence Insider newsletter and you’ll immediately receive the full Q&A.

And be sure to join us during our live event TODAY (April 24) at 1:00 PM EST, where Mark and I will continue our discussion.

1.?From your perspective, what have been the biggest shifts and challenges when it comes to workforce planning in today’s hybrid workplace??

The rapid growth of hybrid work over the last three years is obviously inseparable from what caused it: the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, whether driven by government mandate or individual choice, companies rapidly shifted to remote or hybrid work for every employee able to do so. This much is obvious.

What is less well understood is the degree to which the pandemic reduced the size of the US labor force, both through early retirements and reduced immigration, and the industry distortions that took place given the shifts in demand that occurred.

Technology and e-commerce businesses experienced unprecedented demand growth and responded with equally unprecedented hiring, while sectors like hospitality and travel saw demand destruction and shrank their workforces. And over the last 12 months, those trends have reversed.

This created a challenging environment for employees and employers to navigate the dynamic logistics of hybrid work.

For employees, it has meant learning to balance the demands of work/life in an unstructured environment without the typical guardrails to maintain focus and productivity. For managers, it has involved learning to manage from afar with greater empathy and understanding – of different needs, different goals, and different work styles. It’s a lot easier to “manage by walking around” than to Intuit via Slack or Zoom if someone may be struggling.

Building and preserving culture and camaraderie – through better communication and collaboration – are two of the biggest, yet most underrated issues that will have the biggest impact on the long-term success of hybrid work.

2. ?Based on your 2023 “State of the Workplace” report , how has employee productivity and engagement changed as employees split their time between remote and office working??

Our report is unique in that it reflects the actual behavioral data of employees over the last two years, as opposed to self-reported surveys – which makes it one of the most accurate industry studies of workforce trends and patterns.

When it comes to productivity, we found digital work habits have stabilized. As the seismic shifts of the past few years continue to settle, the long buzzed-about new normal may finally be, simply, normal. We saw this reality reflected in the consistency of employee digital behavior – with employees spending roughly the same amount of time behind the screen in 2022 as in 2021 (7hrs, 24mins/day) – with minor shifts in focus, collaboration, and multitasking.

Unfortunately, employee well-being continues to be at risk. While trends show the number of overutilized* employees dropped (-8%) year over year, nearly 30% still face the risk of attrition due to ongoing over- and underutilization.

Digital overload is certainly one factor. Employees interacted with 20% more tools, sites, and apps this past year, as more organizations threw more technology at the challenges of hybrid work. But as we all know, more isn’t always better. Sometimes it’s disrupting and frustrating.

While the number of employees working on weekends remained small (5%), the length of time they spent working weekends increased (+18 mins). One assumption is they’re shifting more deep work to the weekend when they can focus better with fewer interruptions.

*When an employee is more than % threshold over their productive hours/day goal.

Be sure to watch the replay from our live event that happened on April 24th, where Mark and I discussed this topic.

Want to read the full article? You can access it in the?Workplace Intelligence Insider Archives . To receive the new edition every Monday morning,?subscribe ?for free.