Editorial
Companies are at a crossroads. With costly office space, uncertain macroeconomic conditions, and challenges to attract and retain talent, they can no longer wait to make decisions around workplace policies. Hybrid models are now the predominant approach, requiring onsite presence some of the time. A recent survey by BCG, for instance, found that 85% of companies have some type of hybrid configuration.
Many organizations believe a hybrid work environment will foster a collaborative culture they knew and loved pre-COVID-19. And so we see companies like Cisco and Dropbox, among others, redesigning their office space to make it more amenable to collaboration.
The phrase “work resorts” has even emerged, referring to offices that are more like boutique hotels with gardens and cozy seating areas.
Surely this gives employees a compelling reason to commute a few days a week. What could go wrong?
While well intentioned, such approaches come with fundamental flaws. The devil often lies in the details. In the case of return to the office (RTO) policies, there are a lot of details to consider. To be successful, RTO policies must account for the experience employees face as they come back to the office a few days a week.
A new approach is needed, one that adopts a different mindset to align more with what workers actually experience. To find the real challenges of hybrid work — the ones that may not appear on a survey or in quantitative data — you need to look under the surface by getting out and directly observing work as it happens, where it happens.
Uncovering the Hidden Challenges of Hybrid Work
A quick scan on the internet points to common challenges of hybrid work, such as difficulties with team collaboration, and a lack of coordination, along with issues concerning connection and culture. Some of these insights are for sure backed by quantitative data, giving us confidence in their reliability. While such high-level observations are helpful, they’re rarely actionable.
If we look at the problem from a different angle — from the employee’s perspective — we often get a different picture. By talking to people directly and, importantly, observing them, we can uncover not only more specific pain points but also better understand the underlying issues behind them.
This is where an activity like experience mapping can help. By first researching the hybrid employee experience, we can distill the insights into a single diagram of what workers actually go through. This visualization then allows us to cognitively walk through the experience looking for moments to improve.
For instance, we can see that people appear to come into the office but spend a great deal of time on calls. This known issue is sometimes referred to as “Zooming from the desk.”
Sure enough, in talking to hybrid workers, we quickly find this is prevalent and causes frustration. Direct quotes include:
- “I go to the office and spend my whole time on calls because the people I work with are in a different city anyway.”
- “I spend about 70% of my time in the office talking to people who aren’t near me. Can’t I just do that from home?”
It’s not just the words that inform us. Hearing the frustration in people’s voices gives a different understanding of the situation, one that is based on empathy and compassion.
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What’s Beneath the Surface
Digging deeper, we find additional concerns. In many offices, open floor plans mean that calls must be taken using headsets or earbuds. For many accustomed to speaking directly into their computer mic from their home office, this is more than an inconvenience: it’s downright uncomfortable to wear a headset for hours on end.
But there’s more. In one case, someone told me that they were concerned about hearing loss from wearing a headset over time at loud volumes to drown out the background office sounds. Is this healthy, they ask? Are there long-term issues associated with it? Played at moderate levels, using a headset all day shouldn’t affect hearing, but the concern is there nonetheless.
Another person said they don’t find talking in a headset all day very hygienic. Headsets should be only used by one person and not shared. But even then, they should be kept clean regularly.
So it’s not just having to drive to the office only to sit on calls. Zooming from your desk is also uncomfortable and is believed to be connected with potential health concerns, come with other concerns and frustrations.
With this qualitative evidence in hand, I had a hunch: “Zooming from your desk” is more pervasive than many organizations assume. So I conducted a brief survey on LinkedIn. With just under 200 responses, I quickly found that almost 65% of the people who responded spend half of their days or more on calls while in the office. And a whopping 22% spend over three-fourths of their time on calls, or about six hours a day. That's a lot of time wearing a headset while in the office.
The surprising part is that I don't see many people talking about this issue: it doesn't seem to surface much in all of the studies of the hybrid workspace and doesn't appear in the top challenges to solve for I've seen. But from an employee's perspective, this feels like a major issue. How are we missing it?
It’s no wonder “coffee badging” has started to emerge, a relatively new phenomenon where people under RTO mandates with shorter commutes go to the office, have coffee and talk to as many people as possible, and then go back home to work from home.
Do you know how much time people spend on calls with remote colleagues while in the office? Do you understand the underlying implications of it? How do you support people and relieve some of their frustration? Do you supply comfortable headsets? By looking at the experience holistically and gaining first-hand contact, we can spot issues that would otherwise go under the radar. Qualitative interviews and observations will give a closer look at what’s really going on.
The experience people have in the workplace is holistic, and now more than ever, we need to think broadly to incorporate both qualitative observations and quantitative data.
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Human-Centered Workplace Innovation
There’s often a gap between what leadership thinks and what employees experience. The above example of having to use an uncomfortable headset all day might be missed because leaders may not face those issues from their private offices.
Many employees feel they are not supported in the bigger RTO office plans. A recent poll shows that employees don’t feel support in flexible distributed workstyles.)
Quantitative data from surveys will only reflect feedback on known issues. But we don’t have the complete picture of hybrid work quite yet. It’s imperative that organizations make the effort to empathize with hybrid employees through involvement, discussion and first-hand observation.
Starting from a place of empathy can lead to completely different solutions that have a higher chance of success overall. If you want to better support the collaborative needs of hybrid teams, understand their needs first.
We can look to the principles of human-centered design when crafting hybrid policies and support. These include:
- Ensure you’re solving the root issues, not just the problem presented to you. Treat the cause, not just the symptom.
- Put people at the center of attention and start with their needs first.
- Look at the experiences people have holistically.
- Explore, test, refine and iterate.
Luckily, all of the methods of human-centered design also apply to the design of hybrid experiences. Mapping the hybrid experience is just one technique that falls within the human-centered design canon. Contextual inquiry and ethnographic techniques can get you even further. You can also use personas, empathy maps and other methods.
We are in the Golden Age of workplace innovation. Adopting the mindset and methods of human-centered design can help us identify the underlying insights that fuel meaningful and lasting change. Smart leaders will start from a place of empathy to increase their chances of success by starting with the need and working back toward the solution, not the other way around.
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