The widespread shift to working from home has ushered in a new era of worker choice and autonomy. As a result, many organizations are adopting a hybrid workplace model that offers the flexibility of remote work, paired with the ability to forge culture, collaboration, and connections within the office. In a hybrid scenario, some employees will split their work between the office and their homes or other locations. Employees may come into the office a few days a month, a few days a week, a few weeks per month, or even randomly.
So the big question, as companies transition dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of employees back into the new hybrid workplace is: how do we get the right mix of people in the office at the right time?
While nothing can recreate the energy in a room, working from home has been lauded for a number of reasons. From what we’ve gleaned from our Work From Home Surveys and industry discussions in the Asia-Pacific region, respondents say that not having to commute has been what they have enjoyed most about working from home. The time saved from our daily commutes has been a big plus, translating to more quality time spent with friends and loved ones. What’s more, employees enjoy the flexibility of arranging their workday.
With flexible work arrangements increasingly becoming a benefit offered by employers, organizations that adopt a hybrid working model for the long-term are likely to attract far more talent. Also, the reduced focus on geographies would allow employees to live further from city centers, since they don’t have to commute as frequently.
Yes, there are initial inconveniences of settling into hybrid modes of working, so we need a balanced approach to hybrid work arrangements. After all, once employees have had the privilege of flexibility, it can’t be taken away as easily. Just within Gensler’s Asia Pacific and Middle East region, only a small percentage of employees have indicated a preference for going back to the office full-time.
While Facebook, Twitter, and a number of tech firms have suggested that employees can work from home permanently if they wish, what we’re hearing from our clients is that the longer we stay in this full time WFH mode, the more concern there is that we’re running on previously built up social capital. Next year, we may be looking back over our shoulders only to realize that we lost our culture-connection because our organizations all transitioned to WFH.
As part of replanning for a hybrid future, workplaces will be dialing up for curated collaboration. Whether through focused work or social activities, the goal is to create value for synergistic groups of people to be in the office together, at the right time. Health and wellness, indoor-outdoor micro hubs or meeting points, scrum area design, touchdown areas for designated homeworkers, and segregable neighborhoods of 50-100 people for future pandemic readiness are all becoming part of the future workplace planning conversation. Food and beverage spaces are being reconsidered as serviced touchpoints in the office, along with hoteling spaces for client collaboration.
But if we need to truly make a hybrid future work, we need to rethink the office use case and plan workflow. Looking beyond the pandemic, a few key purposes of the workplace includes social engagement, collaboration, culture building, and opportunities for learning and mentorship. Is it really possible to have all this without in-person synergies between the groups of people concerned?