Hybrid Work: Definition and Challenges
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- Hybrid work is a way of organising work that alternates between the workplace and a remote location, at a pace set by the company or chosen by the employee.
- Four models coexist under that name: structured hybrid, employee-led hybrid, remote-first and office-first. None is better than the others in the abstract.
- Working in hybrid mode means connecting the physical and the digital workspace, which is what phygital work refers to.
- Eight areas decide whether the switch works: access to information, communication, management, IT security, the employee experience, cohesion, informal exchanges and company culture.
- A summary table sets out, for each of those areas, what hybrid work brings and what it weakens.
- Management, HR and internal communication practices are covered in dedicated articles, linked throughout.
Hybrid work is a way of organising work that lets employees alternate between the workplace and a remote location, at a pace set by the company or chosen by the employee. Once an experiment, it is now a standard arrangement in the roles that allow it: the question is no longer whether to adopt it, but how to run it.
The shift is not recent. Back in June 2020, an Adecco Group study found that roughly three quarters of French employees wanted to work this way. That expectation has since become common practice, and the questions companies ask are more concrete: which rhythm to settle on, and what hybrid work does to information flow, team cohesion and data security.
This article covers the definition of hybrid work, its main models, and the challenges it raises for companies. Management, HR and internal communication practices are covered in dedicated articles, linked along the way.
[This article is taken from our White Paper “Future of Work: Here Comes Hybrid Work!” >>> access the full white paper for FREE]
What is hybrid work?
Each company sets its own policy: how often remote work is allowed, from where (home, a third place), and how much say the employee has. The models that follow from those choices are set out below.
Also read: [Expert Voice] Bertrand Duperrin: Toward a Hybrid Work Model
Hybrid work can be combined with other working modes such as flex office, co-working or smart office. Hybrid employees therefore don’t necessarily have their own offices on company premises. Their space and working hours are more flexible than those of an employee working only on site, which allows them to be more productive.
According to a 2018 OBERGO survey, 86% of French employees say they are more productive thanks to teleworking. This trend is also confirmed by a 2020 Airtasker survey which found that teleworking employees work 1.4 days more per month than those working in an office.
The main hybrid work models
Very different organisations hide behind the same word. Four broad families stand out:
- Structured hybrid: the company sets the office days, the same ones for a whole team or department. The easiest model to coordinate, and the least flexible for employees.
- Employee-led hybrid: a quota of remote days is granted and employees decide when to take them. The flexibility is paid for in coordination effort.
- Remote-first: remote work is the norm and the office becomes an occasional meeting point. Processes and tools are designed for distributed teams first.
- Office-first: presence remains the rule and remote work the exception, granted case by case.
None of these is better than the others in the abstract: the right rhythm depends on the roles, on how autonomous the teams are, and on how much the company already writes things down. Moving to hybrid also changes what the premises are for, turning them from a place of production into a place of encounter: how remote work is redefining the role of the office.
Also read: How to find the right balance between remote and in-office work
This hybrid way of working implies integrating the physical and digital workspaces: this is what we call phygital work. Since the 2000s, the phygital concept has been used in retail to designate a seamless shopping experience between the store and the e-commerce site. Used today in the professional sphere, this neologism testifies to the need to operate with more agility.
In the world of work, “phygital” means the possibility of working in the same way, whether one is physically present or remote (thanks to digital technologies). Phygital is therefore a concept that fits perfectly with hybrid work and facilitates collaborative work between teams, whether remote or on site.
Also read: Vincent Montet, EFAP: “Training Is One of the Answers to Digital Darwinism”
The challenges of hybrid work
Hybrid working presents several challenges for companies.
Access to information
Facilitating access to information is one of the key challenges of hybrid organizations. Indeed, if information is not sufficiently organized, employees may have difficulty accessing it, resulting in wasted time, wrong decisions, and misunderstandings between colleagues. To work in good conditions, employees must be able to share and access all the information they may need, regardless of its source. A challenge that can be addressed by an enterprise social network.
Also read: Webinar Summary: “Better Information-Sharing for Better Decision-Making”
Communication
Communicating as a team is often more difficult when the team is in part or at times remote. Indeed, exchanges are often less spontaneous, even less frequent, when the team is scattered across different locations. Whether formal or informal, interactions must therefore be more organized in a hybrid work mode.
In addition, a hybrid team cannot rely solely on oral communication. It must develop a written culture to ensure that information and decisions are shared by all employees, whether or not they have attended a specific meeting.
Management
As you can understand, managing a hybrid team is more complicated than managing a team you see every day. Indeed, it is no longer possible to evaluate each employee’s work according to the time he or she spent on a task. This is why we are witnessing the rise of a results-based culture, which emphasizes the work accomplished and the resulting deliverables.
To keep teams motivated, managers are better served by short, frequent check-ins with each employee than by a single weekly meeting, and by direct conversation channels (chat rather than e-mail, videoconferencing rather than the phone). Collaborating remotely means keeping close to your teams, which plays out in how often you talk more than in how long.
Also read: Hybrid Work: Management Best Practices
IT security
Some employees use IT solutions without the agreement of their IT department. This phenomenon, known as shadow IT, can have serious consequences for companies: Gartner predicted back in 2017 that by 2020 one third of successful attacks on enterprises would target their shadow IT resources.
Also read: Shadow IT: The Sword of Damocles Hanging over Companies
When employees work remotely, these shadow IT practices tend to intensify, which can increase cyber security risks. It is therefore the responsibility of the IT department to ensure that employees have everything they need to work efficiently and securely, no matter where they are.
The employee experience
Because of its flexible nature, hybrid work also tends to blur boundaries between work and private life. The risk here is that employees may lose motivation, find themselves isolated, or even feel compelled to be available 24 hours a day.
The company must therefore attach particular importance to each stage of the employee experience, and this especially includes integration and follow-up. For example, a support system can be set up for employees who feel the need, regardless of their level of seniority.
Also read: How to Reinvent the Employee Experience in the Era of Hybrid Work
Cohesion
Keeping in touch with colleagues is not always easy for hybrid workers. According to a Malakoff Humanis study carried out in 2020, 40% of teleworkers notice a deterioration of the quality of their relationships with co-workers.
An employee who cannot see his colleagues every day is therefore more likely to find himself or herself isolated than an employee who show up at the office every day.
According to the 2019 Paris Workplace study, teleworking even doubles the feeling of isolation. A lack of human contact that can lead to a loss of cohesion in the team, as well as a drop in motivation. To prevent this risk, communication is of course essential, both on the employee and company sides. Fostering the creation of links between employees is therefore a key issue for companies, as is strengthening the proximity between managers and their teams.
Also read: Tackling the Risks of Hybrid Work
The importance of informal exchanges
When a company switches to a hybrid working model, informal exchanges may tend to disappear. Human resources and management must therefore do their utmost to recreate this type of communication remotely, for example by setting up team building initiatives.
Face-to-face interactions should not be neglected either, as it is essential for building relationships between employees. The challenge is to find the right balance between physical and virtual activities.
Business culture
The ultimate challenge in this change in working methods is maintaining a unified business culture. Little by little, we risk seeing the emergence of two different business cultures: the office culture and the virtual one.
To avoid these drifts, the company must break down organizational silos and encourage regular interaction among employees, and in an organized way. For example, it can bring all employees together on a collaborative platform to facilitate exchanges between employees working at the office and remotely.
Also read: 5 Best Practices for Keeping Your Company Culture Alive While Remote
| What hybrid work changes | What it brings | What it weakens |
|---|---|---|
| What hybrid work changesPlace and rhythm | What it bringsFewer commutes, more flexible hours, a say in where work happens | What it weakensTeam coordination that takes more deliberate effort |
| What hybrid work changesInformation | What it bringsA written trace of decisions, available to everyone at any time | What it weakensUneven access when nothing is written down or filed |
| What hybrid work changesManagement | What it bringsAssessment based on work delivered rather than time spent | What it weakensBlind spots when regular check-ins are missing |
| What hybrid work changesIT security | What it bringsA reason to review the tools actually made available | What it weakensUsage outside the perimeter approved by the IT department |
| What hybrid work changesTies between colleagues | What it bringsOffice days chosen and devoted to the collective | What it weakensFewer informal exchanges and a risk of isolation |
| What hybrid work changesCompany culture | What it bringsRituals shared between the office and the screen | What it weakensTwo parallel cultures, one at the office and one on screen |
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The implementation of hybrid work brings many challenges for the company, its managers and employees. Fortunately, a solution exists to facilitate this transition: accompanying this change with collaborative tools that smooth the way for information sharing and bonding between team members.
Also read: How to Choose the Right Collaborative Tool?
Access White Paper
This article is excerpted from our White Paper “Future of Work: Here Comes Hybrid Work!“, where you will discover: the 8 main challenges of hybrid work; the best practices to follow for managers, HR, internal communication, IT and employees; as well as the tools to implement to facilitate hybrid working.
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Author: Emmanuelle Abensur
FAQ
A way of organising work that lets employees alternate between the workplace and a remote location, at a pace set by the company or chosen by the employee. Each company sets its own policy: how often remote work is allowed, from where, and how much say the employee has.
Four broad families. Structured hybrid, where the company sets common office days. Employee-led hybrid, where a quota of remote days is granted and employees decide when to take them. Remote-first, where remote work is the norm and the office an occasional meeting point. Office-first, where presence remains the rule and remote work the exception.
The available surveys point that way, with the caveat that they are self-reported. A 2018 OBERGO survey found that 86% of French employees say they are more productive thanks to teleworking, and a 2020 Airtasker survey found that remote employees work 1.4 days more per month than office-based ones.
Because a hybrid team cannot rely on speech alone. It has to build a written culture so that information and decisions reach every employee, whether or not they attended a given meeting.
Shadow IT: employees turning to tools the IT department has not approved, a practice that tends to intensify away from the office. Gartner predicted back in 2017 that by 2020 one third of successful attacks on enterprises would target their shadow IT resources.
It puts it under strain. A Malakoff Humanis study carried out in 2020 found that 40% of teleworkers notice a deterioration in the quality of their relationships with co-workers, and the 2019 Paris Workplace study found that teleworking doubles the feeling of isolation. The fix is chosen office time and regular exchanges, not a full return to the office.
