Hybrid work is the plan of choice for organizations that have had remote workers during the pandemic. But how do you ensure your hybrid program is successful and avoids employee setbacks?
As many organizations opt for a hybrid work setup for their return-to-office initiatives, there are still many disconnects between organizations that want their expensive offices to be used and workers who have grown accustomed to the benefits of working remotely full-time.
JP Gowner, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, offered some tips and best practices for this uncomfortable time in his presentation, Everything You Need to Make Hybrid Work at Forrester’s Technology and Innovation 2022 event in Austin and virtually.
“This is a time of huge disruptive change, and maybe it’s not just about the pandemic anymore, but there are a lot of systemic risks and changing attitudes among your employees,” he said.
Organizations are faced with a new kind of balancing act between bitcoin data employees increasingly demanding to work from anywhere and the need to ensure all business priorities are met, Gowner said.
Presenteeism
One of the dangers of today’s reality is something called “presenteeism.” This is when employees are forced to return to the office for a certain number of days a week because that’s the established rule.
Gowner said Forrester surveyed 46 organizations and more than 700 employees about hybrid work and returning to the office.
“They were saying things like, ‘I’m back in the office, but I don’t know why. I feel like I’m being monitored. I’m coming in and doing the same kind of work I’ve been doing remotely for the last two and a half years — very effectively — by the way. But now I have to commute,’” Gowner said.
“They don’t know why they’re there. People can feel disengaged, and we especially hear about people coming into the office and spending their entire day on Zoom, like talking to people who aren’t even present with them,” Gowner said. “There’s nothing more crushing than being told to check a presenteeism box that doesn’t add value to your day-to-day journey while you’re trying to get your job done . . . And you know that means some of your employees are starting to look over their shoulder.”
Will a change in the labor market change workers' attitudes?
At this point, some executives may wonder why this matters. Executives asked Forrester whether the current economic uncertainty in the market is making employees more cautious about their return-to-office and hybrid work protests. Indeed, reports have suggested that major tech employers are planning hiring and layoff freezes. While it’s true that we’re currently facing this economic uncertainty and some speculation about whether a recession could affect the job market, Gownder cautioned that executives still need to balance their responses.
“There are classes of workers who will hold power even in bad circumstances — your top 20 percent of performers,” he said. “Not all job categories are created equal. And right now, frankly, we continue to be in a talent crisis.”
Employers can dictate the number of days per week that workers must be in the office, and even the specific days. For example, Apple has said that employees must work in the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays, plus one floating day, for a total of three days per week.
“They got some pushback from some of their employees about that,” Gowner said.
Forrester recommends that organizations start thinking about what kind of work gets done in the office versus what kind of work gets done anywhere. What do offices offer that employees can’t get from working anywhere else? Gowner referred to this as “intentional, planned experiences that will design punctuated moments. This is where you say, ‘Hey, let’s bring people together in the office for these specific reasons to work together as a team.’”
The point was best illustrated by one of the executives Forrester interviewed as part of the research, according to Gowner. That person said, “The office is no longer the place where we go to work. It’s the place where we go to work together.”