Editorial
While the majority of workers prefer a hybrid work arrangement, this blend of remote and in-office work has created a host of challenges to navigate.
Think, for instance, of the surge of urgent late-night emails from colleagues in another time zone. Or the inability to see who’s working on what project and their progress across milestones. Even the persistent challenges of slow internet and lagging audio.
Further compounding the issue is the transformation of the in-office environment. On days when employees come into an office, they are met with semi-vacant spaces and first-come first-serve desk policies, a practice called hot-desking.
All of this has inadvertently resulted in a loss of personal workspace and decreased opportunities for spontaneous collaboration. The hybrid model, initially promising flexibility and improved work-life balance, is fast becoming a source of increased negativity and stress among workers.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Poor Hybrid Design Does More Harm Than Good
A poor hybrid workplace design can lead to lack of communication between employees and create a feeling of disconnect, both of which can have a significant negative impact on employee well-being and workplace effectiveness.
“Poor design of hybrid work shows up in many ways,” said Stela Lupushor, chief reframer at Reframe.Work Inc., adjunct professor at the NYU School of Professional Studies and co-author of “Humans at Work.”
“Increased stress, anxiety, mental health issues, burnout and even physical injuries can go up if the work design and practices were not adapted to account for different working styles/preferences and conditions,” explained Lupushor.
She said that a workplace that has a negative impact on health inevitably elevates absenteeism, leads to disengagement and more likely shows up in attrition numbers.
Good news is, there are things leaders can do to ensure they’re designing their hybrid workspaces to maximize success.
1. Ask Your Employees
It’s advice that applies to many areas of work and life: a one-size-fits-all approach just won’t cut it. Why? Because employees have different needs at different stages of their work and lives, said Lupushor.
She pointed to a new parent or someone who needs to care for an ill family member or empty-nesters, all of whom have different needs and wants.
A new parent may prefer to communicate over instant message or email instead of video calls. A carer might require flexibility in working hours to attend doctor appointments. Empty-nesters might want the ability to work in-office more often for face-to-face connection.
“Before making a swooping decision, ask people what works best for them and give them the tools to enable better communication with the manager or teammates,” said Lupushor.
Related Article: The Trouble With Employee Surveys
2. Avoid Formulas
It’s so easy to fall into a formulaic, templated approach to the workplace. It’s even worse to rely on one that’s been developed during the days of desktop computing, said Ryan Anderson, vice president of global research and insights at MillerKnoll.
“The old math simply looks at the number of employees assigned to a facility (occupancy planning) and says that based upon that total the space will need X number of desks, X number of conference rooms, etc.”
Today, however, planning offices that support distributed employees working flexibly requires a deeper knowledge of how work is actually done at the organization in that location, said Anderson. “The old formulas no longer apply.”
To create any successful workplace in this new era, leaders must work with employees to understand:
- What activities and experiences need to be supported in the office.
- What the demand patterns for those types of spaces are likely to be.
- How the space will evolve over time as those patterns change.
3. Think Omnichannel
Give people the tools and resources they need to be productive, regardless of where they work, said Lupushor.
“Why should the equipment or bandwidth at home be worse than the one in the office?” she asked. “Why can't employees be educated on how to make their home office ergonomic?”
For instance, companies might give employees a monthly stipend to spend on at-home work necessities, such as high-speed internet access or a standing desk. Or they might establish a training session on healthy work habits, such as how to prevent eye strain.
Conference
Oct
20
Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo Orlando 2025
Register
Conference
Oct
27
Gartner HR Symposium/Xpo Orlando 2025
Register
All of this might require an investment in infrastructure, education and equipment, said Lupushor, “but the payback in productivity can be outsized.”
4. Use the Right Tech
When it comes to hybrid workplace technology, some must-haves include communication and collaboration tools, along with project management platforms, which bring visibility to who is working on what, track issues and ensure projects move forward regardless of where workers are.
“Analytics is also very important — to keep the operational goals and accomplishments front and center; to look at the health of the organizational network and moderate the impact of collaborative overload,” Lupushor explained.
When it comes to productivity tools, Anderson advises leaders to think of the technology as living in two categories: mobile tools that travel with the employees and resident technologies that reside in the space.
“The forces of mobility, consumerization and distributed work have all heightened demands on the former and reduced demands on the latter,” he said. “For us, the most important tech tools are those that reside in someone’s pocket, purse or backpack. The first priority of a good office should be to accommodate and amplify those tools.”
The technology you shouldn’t use, Lupushor cautioned, is productivity monitoring software. “It is the surest way to lose trust of your workers and accelerate their attrition.”
Related Article: You Need to Improve Your Digital Employee Experience. Do You Have the Resources?
It’s Time to Rethink Hybrid Work
Organizations that want to make hybrid work need to reconsider how to manage work in this new era.
“Most organizations are stuck in the work patterns established in 2020 and 2021, including a major overreliance upon video meetings that limit schedule flexibility and hamper RTO rates,” Anderson said.
Instead, leaders need to ask their teams for input on how to make this work better. “How did we work in 2019? How are we working now? What’s a better way we can work tomorrow?”
By working together on making hybrid work a success, we’ll be able to not only identify how to use our spaces better, we’ll also build a stronger culture and create engagement in the process.
Learn how you can join our contributor community.
