What is Hybrid Working?

Moving to a longer-term solution

The shift to hybrid working was well underway before the mass evacuation of offices in March 2020 in the face of the emerging pandemic.

O2, for instance, successfully trialled WFH for a month in 2012, when travel to and from its Slough offices was threatened with disruption by traffic for the Olympic rowing events nearby. Finding productivity soared during that period, O2 adopted longer-lasting flexible working arrangements.

Nevertheless, the sudden disruption in 2020 found many firms wanting. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of IT directors surveyed said they were unprepared for the abrupt transition.2

Those that did it well soon reported impressive productivity increases. Several made bold announcements about closing flagship offices and allowing office workers to work from anywhere.

But the immediate arrangements in response to Covid – while demonstrating admirable agility in many cases – were always unlikely to result in long term solutions.

First, the pandemic required a move – in most cases – to a pure WFH model rather than a hybrid arrangement.
 There were pragmatic worries, such as the poor security of domestic IT systems and possible lawsuits from employees expected to work at unsuitable home desk setups that had not been assessed.

And more strategic concerns, such as how the needs of clients and customers could be best served in a hybrid model, also needed to be considered.

After the initial novelty of working from home was long gone, some employees found themselves staring at a screen, working on documents, or attending Zoom meetings for ten or twelve hours a day. For others, work had historically offered a brief but welcome escape from claustrophobic or threatening domestic arrangements.

In a Change Associates survey of 550 UK workers, a third expressed a preference for the traditional office model, a third wanted to work exclusively from home or work from home with occasional visits to the office, and a third preferred the idea of a blend.