Ten or even five years ago, the phrase ‘hybrid work’ wasn’t really part of the HR vocabulary. Sure, many companies employed people who worked in the office some days and from home on other days. And location flexibility as a feature of employment dates back to the 1990s —basically, as soon as the technology and infrastructure emerged to support it. However, companies that offered a hybrid work arrangement were somewhat few and far between, and it was almost universally assumed that most roles needed to be performed in the office on a full-time basis.
As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic changed all that. First, companies scrambled to transition many positions to remote work to satisfy health and safety requirements. As the months and years went on, employees — and organizations — started to appreciate the benefits of remote and hybrid work. Now, location flexibility ranks highly on the wish lists of most U.S. workers. In fact, more than three-quarters (87%) of people want to work from home at least one day per week and more than two-thirds (66%) say a hybrid work schedule is the perfect model, according to Prudential’s Pulse of the American Worker Survey.
Employers are listening, too. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of U.S. companies currently use or plan to adopt a permanent hybrid work model, according to Zippia research. Doing so successfully requires a broad understanding of the challenges associated with hybrid work models and the proven best practices for fostering continued engagement and productivity across a dispersed workforce. In the pages to come, we’ll explore these issues in detail and provide actionable insights for people leaders in all industries.
