The hybrid work model: Employees love this new pandemic-warped new normal

Highlights:

• The hybrid workplace model is here to stay.
• A growing number of employees who have tasted its endearing benefits want it retained.
• The hybrid model brought about a paradigm shift in workplaces.   

Before the pandemic, the commotion in the workplace was about a work-life balance, where employees’ burnout remained a perennial issue of discussion but without a resolution.

But, once the virus pandemic set in, the whole world was forced to work in a virtual environment leading to the evolution of the hybrid workplace model.

Now, after two years of this new normal, organizations and employees are debating the future of workplace models.

Multiple surveys conducted all over the world have shown that employers are hoping their employees return to the office at the earliest.

But, what about the employees? It is otherwise. Be it health, family, or the work-life balance, whatever the reason could be, employees who have successfully managed their work for the past two years without a dip in their productivity are standing their grounds of continuing with a hybrid or remote work culture.

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Great resignation

The Great resignation is the ripple effect of being constantly forced to return to offices. Employees have quit their jobs without even another offer on hand.

According to a survey by McKinsey & Company, the empowered employees love the new hybrid work model. Their latest research shows that the hybrid model is here to stay, as more than four out of five survey respondents said they prefer to work in this same model even in the future.

If asked to return fully to work on-site, the employees are ready to look for other opportunities. More than two out of three employees McKinsey surveyed corroborated this.

However, employees' experience with the hybrid work model largely remained diverse, be it work-life balance and a sense of inclusion, revealed in the McKinsey study.

The flip side of the model

While a larger section of the workforce widely accepts the hybrid model, the downside also inevitably presents itself.

Despite the higher level of flexibility, optimum work-life balance, and a more tailored employee experience, a hybrid model could also have an adverse impact on diversity, equity, inclusion efforts, and performance.

The McKinsey research cautions that an ill-conceived hybrid work model can create an 'unequal playing field'. It could accelerate departures, decrease inclusion, and hurt performance.

Invariably, it is a delicate task to envisage a hybrid work model that binds the workforce.

What leaders should consider

Efforts should be made to build inclusion in a diverse, hybrid workforce for it to become a protracted model. Leaders would face umpteen challenges while devising a hybrid model for their organizations. However, if they incorporate the three critical practices, work-life support, mutual respect, and team building, it will lead to a highly efficient work culture in the hybrid environment.

Some organizations working in the hybrid or complete remote model also had to deal with issues like mental health, isolation, and attrition but addressed them much better.

As shown by the survey, the employees are happy clinging to this hybrid model, with 75% of employees preferring to go with it.

It is kind of a paradigm shift for employees who could have never envisioned that there is a leeway out of burnout before the pandemic. Almost 85% of employees currently working in the hybrid work model want it retained, reveals the McKinsey data.

Vociferous supporters of the hybrid work model include people who are traditionally underrepresented. For example, people with disabilities are 11 percent more likely to prefer the hybrid workplace model. LGBTQ employees are 13 percent more likely to support it.

Among those willing to relinquish their current positions if deprived of continuing with the hybrid model include the younger employees (18-34 years old). Women are 10 percent more likely to leave than men for their love of the hybrid model. Employees with disabilities are 14 percent more likely to quit than employees without them.

It is an evolving trend

Working out a hybrid work model, which is a win-win solution for both the employers and the employees, is still at its nascent. Deliberating on this is an ongoing process, where leaders are trying to write the rule book to fit in the goals of the organizations and the proverbial work-life balance of employees.

Almost half of the respondents wanted their organizations to prioritize policies that provide flexibility—including extended parental leave, sick leave, flexible hours, and work-from-home policies.  

Management support becomes critical for employees who want more accommodating work-life policies.

Conclusion

Employees who have tasted the benefits of a hybrid model would vouch for it by pressing hard to retain it in the future. On the other hand, employers are faced with a risk/reward moment to reinvent the workplace that has all the ingredients to make it successful.

A hybrid model needs to have an organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, which itself makes it daunting. Only leaders who are the epitome of sensitivity, creativity, and humility can chisel out a new hybrid work model that benefits the employers and the employees.