_Why the office is at the heart of a hybrid working model

Our consulting practice has been working with clients around the globe to make sense of the emerging new world, profiling over 50,000 employees from many sectors, to re-imagine the workplace of the future. 

What we have learned is that few employees amongst our client-base want to go back to the pre-pandemic ways of working, but the future is not just a choice between working in the office and home. The real opportunity for businesses is far more exciting and interesting than that, with the office playing an even more important role at the heart of a hybrid work model.

What is the hybrid working model?

So, what is the hybrid model? Well, there is no one size fits all approach, and responding to the question is the answer. Different companies will have their own models, and even departments within the business can have a varied approach. The scope is not just where you work, but how and when you work, and this may change over time or even be dynamic through a monthly or annual cycle. 

One of our fast growing FinTech clients is now recruiting highly competitive skills such as engineering from around Europe, not just London, enabling staff to work from home but come to London four days a quarter. Their UK staff are also only required to be in the office two days a week, with set regimes around planning and socialisation during those days.

The rest of the time, it is their choice: home or office. However, for twelve weeks a year anybody can work anywhere in the UK or abroad. So will we see the concept of ‘workcations’ emerge. People could go away for, 12 weeks, working 8-10 of them during the day, then enjoying evenings, weekends and the remaining holiday time somewhere new and interesting, whilst their flat in London is rented out on Airbnb, funding their trip.

Chief People Officer Kathleen Hogan recognises that with a company the size of Microsoft, hybrid working will have many different flavours and will ultimately will be a dialogue between manager and employee addressing the time you can work from home, where you work and how much you work.

The manager’s role is to empower the employee and keep people connected, whilst coaching and caring for their wellbeing. This means working through a whole new set of competences for the hybrid manager.

Potentially, the ideal hybrid model brings together the best of both worlds – the structure, cohesion and culture of the physical world with the flexibility and diversity of the virtual world. But it’s important to be aware of the drawbacks and potential risks.

How to develop your hybrid working model 

The starting point must be to listen to your stakeholders, including obviously employees, but also clients. We have been facilitating processes of listening to staff through focus groups and surveys, and the process is critical to really ground your strategy and policy on real insight, rather than what you read in the press, hear by an anecdote or know from personal perception.

The engagement should be two way and balance what is right for the company and staff, but also what’s right for clients. The way clients are working is changing as well, and talking to them about their changing needs can be enlightening. Now is the time to have these discussions with stakeholders. They can be far-ranging and include expectations, support, protocols and work-life balance, processes and wellbeing.

What is the purpose of the office in a hybrid world?

What is the purpose of the office in the post-pandemic world? Well, fundamentally it has always been to support the organisational purpose and bring people together to deliver the services and products in the markets covered. Much of this can be related to core processes and systems, but what provides companies with competitive advantage is often the intangible shared values and strategies for innovation and change. 

It is in these areas where the office adds more value than a virtual platform, connecting people and ideas that define the organisation and shape its evolution and development.

In the hybrid world, the workplace becomes the stage for four key critical success factors of any organisation.

1.  Education: The osmosis of the office has always facilitated tacit learning and knowledge. Senior staff need to recognise that they need to invest time in the office to continue this process of development.
   
   
2. Innovation: The process of sparking or developing ideas within groups and especially between groups is facilitated better in the workplace than on virtual platforms.
   
   
3. Collaboration: Within the organisation and especially between organisations, collaboration is better facilitated through the workplace. Whilst businesses have continued to develop existing relationships online, the art of prospecting and creating new relationships has proved much more difficult.
   
   Hosting and attending physical events enable interactions at multiple levels that are simply not possible online, although this is another area where the hybrid events of the future should be able to blend the best of both worlds, enabling many more attendees, but with high-quality face-to-face interaction.
   
   
4. Culture: The ‘way things are done around here’ is one of the most important motivational drivers for a business and a key differentiator in most Employee Value Propositions (EVPs). The culture needs to be nurtured and developed, with the workplace and social interaction within it providing its foundation.

There is no doubt that the office will still remain a place to work for many who will not be able to work from home, but a focus on these four elements will ensure that the workplace is a critical platform for all and is designed to maximise its value to the business.