Explainer: As employees, organisations pivot to hybrid work for post-pandemic future, what the model entails for workplaces

In the 40th annual general meeting of Infosys on Saturday, Chairman Nandan Nilekani said, “Hybrid work is here to stay, requiring organisations and their people to find new ways to come together, collaborate and deliver seamlessly,” as reported by The Times of India. Echoing the sentiments of numerous business leaders across the globe, Nilekani stressed on how the ’new normal’ in workspaces is being shaped by a number of factors namely — technological transformations centred around cloud, digitisation of business models, employees’ acclimatisation to the changing technological trends and most importantly doing away with geographical dependency. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a tectonic shift in the work culture across sectors around the globe. While in 2020 spring, working from home was an immediate solution (which people took to gradually and found themselves — in many cases — surprisingly comfortable and efficient at), now with the world getting back on track, organisations are looking at alternative workspaces. That means workspaces will not be limited to just offices or homes but also their extensions and intermediaries. “If the hybrid model has to work, let’s not think of it as only office and home,” said Tata Sons Pvt Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran at the Qatar Economic Forum on 22 June as reported by Bloomberg. “There’s going to be a concept of a third place. I call it a ’third place,’ you may want to call it a satellite office.” With the ushering of hybrid workspaces, both companies and their employees are gearing up for a change — an unprecedented step towards businesses that are largely digital, remote support and delivery models, real-time results with minimal delay and also an improved workplace diversity. Most of the organisations — from conglomerates such as Tata to large banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase — are looking at hybrid models as a viable and profitable infrastructural transformation for their businesses. How does the hybrid model look from an organisational perspective? What is worth mentioning here is the fact that a hybrid model means working partly on-site and partly from home. So when a company declares it is going to adopt a hybrid model, it basically translates into employees being present in the office for 20 to 80 percent of their working hours. For every company, their choices and functions largely depend on their overall corporate strategy. So for a company to witness a significant productivity boost and employee satisfaction within the hybrid model there are four major factors in place, as Lynda Gratton puts in Harvard Business Review, namely — “jobs and tasks; employee preferences; projects and workflows, and inclusion and fairness.” For organisations to propel towards hybrid model, they need to start identifying key jobs and tasks, determine what the drivers of productivity and performance are for each, and think about the best possible arrangements that would serve them, Gratton suggests. “Engage employees in the process, using a combination of surveys, personas, and interviews to understand what they really want and need. This will differ significantly from company to company, so don’t take shortcuts. Think expansively and creatively, with an eye toward eliminating duplication and unproductive elements in your current work arrangements. Communicate broadly so that at every stage of your journey everybody understands how hybrid arrangements will enhance rather than deplete their productivity. Train leaders in the management of hybrid teams, and invest in the tools of coordination that will help your teams align their schedules.” How are employees looking at the hybrid model? As per Microsoft’s first annual Work Trend Index, a survey of both regular employees and executives of more than 30,000 workers in 31 countries, the work-from-home model has clearly been advantageous. Employees are now moving between cities and many are choosing to quit instead of going back to their previous employers who are demanding a full-time presence in the office. “Last year’s move to remote work boosted feelings of inclusion for workers because everyone was in the same virtual room,” the report stated. “The move to hybrid will break that mould and it will be a new and important objective to ensure employees are given the flexibility to work when and where they want, as well as the tools they need to equally contribute from wherever they happen to be.” In the Indian context, the hybrid model has created a strange paradox among employees, as per the Microsoft survey. While 74 percent of the employees said they want more flexible remote work options, a lot of them also complained about how their working hours spans across the day and it becomes too demanding to work from home post the shift. The positives of the hybrid model get amplified as according to the survey many workers said they are more likely to be their full, authentic selves at work when they operate remotely as they also get to see each other’s homes and families. Speaking with Quartz India, Sandeep Sethi, managing director of corporate solutions for west Asia at JLL, a US-based real estate firm, said that while hybrid workspace is the “office of the future”, employers will have to think thoroughly and find the right balance between time away from the office and time connecting face to face, as employees’ mental health in the post-pandemic world is/will be taking centre stage as days unfold.