{"id":3000071235,"date":"2023-10-05T11:37:27","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T15:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/?p=3000071235"},"modified":"2024-05-03T09:19:01","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T13:19:01","slug":"hybrid-working-is-here-to-stay-and-heres-how-to-make-the-most-of-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/research-insights\/expert-insights\/hybrid-working-is-here-to-stay-and-heres-how-to-make-the-most-of-it","title":{"rendered":"Hybrid working is here to stay… and here’s how to make the most of it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Over the last three and a half years, the world of work has transformed. Employees want more flexibility<\/a>, and companies have different strategies for providing this. Hybrid work<\/a> models have emerged, where workers split their time between the office and working from home. Of course, this news will be no surprise to anyone who has followed workplace practices in recent times, but the extent and scale of the changes to come are still up for debate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2023, McKinsey Global Institute released a report<\/a> that discussed how hybrid work set-ups, where some work happens on-site and some remotely, are likely to persist, and that organizations will need to refine their operating models in response to this shift. In addition, a survey by CIPD, the UK’s professional body for human resources, says 83 percent of organizations it asked have hybrid working in place, with about half of those having a formal policy. And over half of respondents required hybrid-working employees to be in the workplace for a minimum number of days in the week or month. In the United States, in September 2023, WeWork asked over 100 companies<\/a> about their current return-to-office strategies, and confirmed that hybrid schedules have become the most popular policy for this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting the return to office right<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A primary driver behind these return-to-office policies is companies wanting their workforce to collaborate more in person. A joint survey<\/a> for WeWork and Cushman & Wakefield, published in 2022, found that in assessing new hybrid models, organizations want to retain the inherent business value that a traditional office environment provides: the chance to be creative, and to collaborate, mentor and learn. We found flexible offices to be an important component of the workplace ecosystem. Business leaders are now asking how the flexible office space can fit into a real-estate portfolio strategy, with our respondents saying they wanted to be in flexible office space 50 percent of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, of course, there are also the employees themselves to consider, and their attraction, recruitment and retention. A January 2023 survey by management consultancy Gartner, quoted in the Middle East’s The National <\/em><\/a>newspaper, says: “Hybrid is no longer just an employee perk but an employee expectation, challenging employers to create a human-centric approach to hybrid.\u201d In addition, our own September survey finds that a third of companies say the most difficult part of return-to-office planning is managing employee expectations. <\/p>\n\n\n