What Is Hybrid Work? Benefits, Challenges And Best Practices
Since the pandemic, hybrid is now the most common working model in the US. Going from rarity to status quo in just a few years, hybrid working is heavily desired by employees but can be difficult to manage properly.
Use this guide to help you understand the hybrid model, decide if it’s right for you and in what form, and some hybrid working best practices.
What Is A Hybrid Work Model?
A hybrid work model combines remote and in-office work, allowing employees to split their time between the two environments
The model can vary widely among organizations—some may have specific days designated for in-office work, while others might allow workers to decide when to come into the office.
The goal is to balance the benefits of remote work—like space for deep work and reduced commuting—with the advantages of face-to-face interaction, such as collaboration and relationship building.
What Are The Types Of Hybrid Working Models?
As mentioned, hybrid working comes in a few different flavors:
Workplace-based with limited remote working
- Workers primarily work in the office with occasional remote days allowed.
- Typically, there are specific guidelines on how often employees can work from home (e.g., one or two days a week).
- This model emphasizes in-person collaboration while offering some flexibility.
Workplace-based with generous remote working
- Similar to the first model, but employees have more freedom to work remotely, potentially several days a week.
- The organization values in-person work but recognizes the benefits of remote flexibility, aiming to maintain strong team dynamics while accommodating individual preferences for remote working.
Digital-first with a workplace
- The organization primarily operates in a remote or digital environment but maintains a physical office space for collaboration, meetings, or events.
- Shared spaces, like conference rooms, can often be reserved with a meeting room booking solution or something similar.
- Employees can work remotely as their main mode of operation, using the workplace as needed for specific tasks or team interactions.
- This model emphasizes digital HR apps and flexibility while still providing a physical space for those who prefer it.
Digital-first with no workplace
- The organization operates entirely remotely, without a designated office space.
- Employees work from wherever they choose, relying on digital tools for communication and collaboration.
- This model is fully flexible and designed for a remote-first culture, often attracting talent looking for complete work-life integration.
What Factors Are Driving Hybrid Work?
As you’re not doubt acutely aware, COVID-19 pushed many into fully remote working. Since then, workers have (grudgingly) returned to the office, mostly in a hybrid format. Factors driving the adoption of hybrid work models:
- Employee preferences: Many employees prefer hybrid working for productivity purposes and for a better work/life balance.
- Talent attraction and retention: As many workers value hybrid working, it can help companies attract and retain top talent, particularly in competitive job markets.
- Technology advancements: Improved communication and collaboration tools make it easier for teams to work together remotely.
- Cost savings: With effective office space management, using methods like hot desking and hoteling, organizations can reduce overhead costs related to office space and utilities by adopting hybrid models.
- Globalization: As companies expand globally, hybrid work allows them to tap into a wider talent pool without geographical constraints.
- Focus on results: Many organizations are shifting from a focus on hours worked to measuring performance based on results, making flexibility more feasible.
- Environmental concerns: Reducing commuting and office energy use can align with sustainability goals, appealing to environmentally conscious employees and organizations.
What Are The Benefits Of Hybrid Work?
Hybrid working is a bit like strawberries. They're sweet and delicious but also healthy—it’s a best of both situation!
How hybrid benefits employees
- Diverse work environments: Workers can enjoy the benefits of both home and office settings, adapting to what suits their tasks and mood.
- Reduced commute: Working remotely can decrease travel time and associated stress, leading to more personal time and a better work/life balance.
- Increased autonomy: Greater control over work environments can enhance motivation and productivity.
How hybrid benefits organizations
- Enhanced productivity: Many studies show that employees can be more productive when they have the flexibility to work in their preferred environments. Research from Pew found that 56% of workers say WFH helps them get their work done and meet deadlines.
- Talent attraction and retention: Offering hybrid work can make an organization more appealing to prospective employees, especially in competitive job markets.
- Cost savings: Companies can reduce expenses related to office space and utilities, allowing for reinvestment in other areas.
- Access to a broader talent pool: Organizations can potentially hire talent from diverse geographical locations, leading to a more varied workforce.
- Innovation and collaboration: Hybrid models can foster creativity by allowing employees to collaborate in person when needed while also benefiting from remote work’s independence.
Challenges Of Hybrid Working
Like with most things involving business and people, hybrid working isn’t without its challenges:
- Worker disgruntlement: Not everyone is happy about being asked to go back into the office and there could be contention over how many days should be in-office vs remote and who gets to decide.
- Office space utilization: Downsizing can introduce hotdesking, requiring coordination and adjustments to office layout.
- Technology: Switching between office and remote work needs robust tech infrastructure (networks, hardware, collaboration tools). You may even need to lean on niche digital solutions, like collaborative whiteboards or e-signature solutions.
- Data security: Increased data breach risks require enhanced security protocols for remote work environments.
- Onboarding: Extra planning is needed to integrate new employees, especially juniors, into the company culture and networks.
- Inclusivity and equity: Risk of favoring onsite workers over remote ones, potentially affecting visibility and networking opportunities.
- Effective collaboration: Remote and satellite office workers may face collaboration challenges with onsite teams.
- Virtual Meeting Fatigue: Cognitive load from switching tools, lack of non-verbal cues, and constant screen time lead to exhaustion.
We’ll go into some best practices to overcome these challenges later in the article.
Hybrid Working: Workers Vs Employees
Amazon recently announced to workers that, as of January 2025, workers need to return to the office full-time. According to reports, employees are 'rage applying’ to other jobs.
Fact is that many people have grown accustomed to the flexibility of remote work. According to research from FlexJobs, 95% of workers want some form of remote work.
Another survey by FlexJobs found that 79% of respondents considered avoiding the commute as the top reason for preferring remote work.
As mentioned, hybrid working is a nice compromise between fully remote and fully in-office. This editor finds it difficult to understand the reason for those can work at home not being allowed to for at least 2-3 days a week.
What Is A Hybrid Work Schedule?
A hybrid work schedule refers to a work arrangement where employees split their time between working remotely and working in the office.
This schedule can vary widely depending on the organization's policies and the preferences of individual employees.
Here are some common variations of hybrid work schedules:
- Fixed days: Employees work in the office on specific days (e.g., Mondays and Wednesdays) and remotely on others (e.g., Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays).
- Flexible scheduling: Employees have the freedom to choose when to work from home or the office, based on their needs and tasks for the week.
- Team-based schedule: Teams coordinate their in-office days to ensure that everyone is present for key meetings or collaborative work sessions while allowing individual flexibility on other days.
- Core hours: Employees work a set number of hours in the office (e.g., 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) but can choose to work remotely outside of those hours.
- On-demand office use: Employees can come into the office as needed without a fixed schedule, allowing for more fluid work arrangements based on project demands or personal preferences.
Hybrid Workforce Best Practices
Hybrid is a relatively new model for most organizations and many are still trying to find the right balance. Here are some best practices for optimizing hybrid for your workplace.
Get employee feedback
Like when designing anything for people, it’s good practice to involve them in the process and hybrid working is no different.
As American Express discovered, soliciting your employees’ feedback upfront to help co-design your hybrid work approach is an essential part of helping them adopt your change and ensure your hybrid model suits them as best it can.
However, there’s a level of intentionality required to tease out the right information needed to bake your employees' feedback into your plans. Priya Parker captures this beautifully:
“Asking employees if they want to “return to the office” is asking the wrong question. Instead, managers should ask: What did you long for when we couldn’t physically meet? What did you not miss and are ready to discard? What forms of meeting did you invent during the pandemic out of necessity that, surprisingly, worked? What might we experiment with now?”
Set clear policies
Chaos thrives in ambiguity, which is why it's important to develop detailed hybrid working policies that outline expectations for attendance and communication e.g. posting monthly or weekly updates in shared channels.
Leverage technology
Invest in the right mix of in-office and remote collaboration tools that support hybrid work (e.g., video conferencing software and project management software) to enhance productivity and teamwork.
You can also utilize technology like hot desk booking software and office management software to make efficient use of office space.
Provide training and support
Offer training for both employees and managers on best practices for remote work, time management, and using technology effectively.
If workers haven’t been in an office environment for a while, it could be useful to offer resources or training to help employees readjust to the office environment, such as workshops on time management or re-establishing in-person communication skills, conflict resolution, and employee relations.
If you’ve hired employees remotely, consider a special onboarding program using onboarding software to help them acclimate to the office culture and environment.
Be intentional about in-office days
Enhancing collaboration and communication should be the cornerstone of your employees’ in-office experience.
But it takes proper planning and coordination to ensure your people realize these benefits.
Consider the following to help your teams get the most out of their in-person together days:
- Optimize physical space: If your office space looks like the traditional office wasteland of cubicles stretching as far as the eye can see, it might be time to modernize. Use PMP’s guide to office space planning to help.
- Coordinate with team members: Expectations should be set in advance to ensure your team’s schedules are aligned and that employee are available and aligned on objectives for their time together.
- Promote team meetings and one-on-one interactions: Key touchpoints like team meetings and one-on-one meetings are a great use of your time in person.
- Prioritize collaborative experiences: Workshops, brainstorming sessions, and other collaborative meetings are especially conducive to in-person time.
- Networking and social time: Make space for some networking and socializing. Junior and newer workers in particular benefit from this.
Use data
Use employee feedback, office usage, and productivity data to monitor the model’s effectiveness and adjust accordingly.
How Do I Build A Hybrid Work Culture?
Key to a successful hybrid working is creating an effective hybrid work culture. Some advice here:
Define your values
As Hope Horner, CEO of Lemonlight, rightly points out “Building a strong hybrid culture isn't about trying to recreate the old office environment. It's about reshaping your culture to fit this new reality, about being intentional in leveraging the strengths of the model while mitigating the weaknesses”.
You might want to adapt your values slightly for hybrid working. For example emphasizing autonomy, flexibility, trust, inclusivity and collaboration.
Over-communicate
Being part of a culture is feeling connected to it, which is why communication across all levels is key.
As Horner highlights, “You've got to over-communicate. We're talking regular communication from senior managers, all-hands meetings, frequent check-ins, and hitting people from all angles: email, Slack, video calls. It's about making sure everyone is in the loop, no matter where they're working from.”
Recognize when people uphold the company values
A great way to instill your values and the organizational behaviors they drive is to recognize people for upholding them.
For example, your company may use channels in Slack, Teams, employee recognition platforms, or newsletters to celebrate when a team member demonstrates one of the values in a positive way.
As Horner says, “You've got to embrace the unique advantages of the hybrid model. The flexibility, the autonomy, the focus on results over face time. We make a point of celebrating those things, of highlighting how they make our culture special.”
Foster relationships
Create opportunities for team bonding, both virtually and in-person. Regular team-building activities, social events, and informal check-ins can help strengthen relationships.
Lead by example
Leaders and managers should model the desired behaviors of a hybrid culture. Their commitment to flexibility, communication, and inclusivity sets the tone for the rest of the organization.
What’s The Best Collaboration Solution For Hybrid Work?
I’ve mentioned technology quite a bit, so thought I’d recommend some useful tools to facilitate effective hybrid working.
- Communication platforms: Tools that facilitate instant messaging, video conferencing, and voice calls. These help teams stay connected regardless of their location.
- Project management tools: Project management software that helps teams organize tasks, set deadlines, assign responsibilities, and track progress. These tools keep everyone aligned on project goals and timelines.
- Document collaboration: Document management systems that allow multiple users to create, edit, and comment on documents in real time. This enables seamless collaboration on reports, presentations, and other shared files.
- Virtual whiteboards: Digital boards that allow teams to brainstorm, visualize ideas, and work together in real-time. They’re useful for creative processes and planning sessions.
- File sharing and storage solutions: Services that enable secure storage and easy sharing of files among team members. These tools ensure that everyone has access to the necessary resources.
- Time management and scheduling tools: Applications help teams schedule meetings, manage calendars, and coordinate availability. They can help avoid scheduling conflicts in hybrid settings.
- Feedback and survey tools: Platforms like survey software allow teams to gather input and feedback from members on various topics, helping to ensure everyone’s voice is heard.
- Learning and knowledge sharing platforms: Tools like learning management systems that facilitate training, onboarding, and knowledge management, allowing teams to share resources and learn from one another, regardless of location.
- Professional services: Services like EORs and PEOs can help with finding and hiring remote workers and provide guidance on hybrid working.
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