Even though we have been working on hybrid work for months, I have been reluctant to make any contributions. There was a lack of sufficient knowledge.

This is gradually changing. The following article therefore deals with three central questions:

  • Which observations have a certain general validity?
  • What can we learn from the Microsoft case?
  • Are there any helpful strategies for hybrid working?

Which observations have a certain general validity?

In the last 22 months, companies have implemented changes to a degree that was not previously imagined:

  • Working from Home: We all learned that many tasks can be done very effectively from home.
  • Online teaching: Many schools have very quickly shifted from face-to-face teaching to distance or hybrid teaching. Part-time educational institutions have also switched their offerings to online courses in a short period of time.
  • Remote advice: Doctors, lawyers, consultants and others quickly switched to remote appointments. As is common with many innovations, those who have already worked virtually made the transition easier than those who had never done so.

In general, employers face major challenges in order to meet the needs of employees: The best from both worlds:

  • Around two-thirds of managers (66%) say their company is considering redesigning offices for hybrid working.
  • About seven out of ten employees (73%) want flexible remote working options to remain in place.
  • A good two thirds of employees (67%) would like more presence in the office and personal collaboration after the pandemic.

With a view to Germany (Personalwirtschaft 48/2021 – KW49: Yougov study)

  • Almost three quarters of the managers surveyed (74%) feel pressure to adapt their workplace guidelines in order to be more flexible,
  • 39% state that the pressure comes from the managers themselves and 40% say it comes from the employees,
  • about seven out of ten managers (71%) are confident of leading their geographically distributed employees,
  • almost four out of ten respondents (38%) do not trust their remote workers that they actually work at home!

Even these few observations make it clear that there seems to be a large gap between employer and employee expectations of hybrid work.

What can we learn from the Microsoft case?

Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s Chief People Officer, has extensive experience working with hybrid systems. With these findings, she is openly involved in organized exchange rounds and thus gives other companies the opportunity to learn from the Microsoft case.

To be successful in hybrid work, a culture of trust and flexibility is necessary. Microsoft therefore regularly surveys employees in addition to culture and inclusion and some other elements such as employee well-being, leadership, building social capital, technology, training and growth mindset.

In addition, since the beginning of the pandemic, Microsoft has been carrying out an opt-in survey on a sample of 2,500 employees every day, which provides decision-relevant findings on topics such as return-to-office and hybrid work:

  • The hybrid paradox: Employees want flexibility to work from anywhere, but at the same time long for more personal connection.
  • There is no one-size-fits-all approach. Some employees cite work-life balance, focus time and meetings as reasons to go to the office. Others see this as a reason to stay at home.
  • The role of the manager becomes even more important in hybrid work. Care must be taken during the switch to hybrid.

In current initiatives by other companies, such as the “Future Ways of Working” initiative at Merck, key elements of the above Microsoft case can be found.

Are there any helpful strategies for hybrid working?

In an article, three McKinsey consultants highlight five strategies derived from these findings for implementing and communicating return-to-office plans:

  1. One size doesn’t fit all. In establishing guidelines for returning to the office, managers should adopt a purposeful presence mindset; i.e .: consider nuances and focus on the nature of the work and collaboration.
  2. Asking the “why“: It is not enough to say that employees have to return to the office “because of the culture”. Rather, leaders should be more specific about why a hybrid work model is required and how regular personal presence fits into the broader vision and strategy.
  3. Managers need to recognize the impact of going back to work – including childcare, elderly care, etc. – and go a step further to highlight what the company will do to support employees.
  4. Return-to-office announcements shouldn’t just be memos that the CEO shares once. Instead, managers at all levels should actively involve their teams in a two-way dialogue in order to both exchange information and discuss suggestions or concerns about new ways of working.
  5. Because the future course of COVID-19 is uncertain and executives learn in real time which operating models are best for their business, plans and announcements to return to the office must be documents that are constantly being assessed, updated and re-communicated.

The result is to create a new operating model for hybrid work. Companies that improved their performance during the pandemic spent more time setting clear goals and clarifying strategy; empowered small, cross-silo teams to make decisions, spent more time on coaching and recognition, and introduced new technologies for collaboration.

According to Susan Cantrell from Deloitte, Nickle LaMoreaux from IBM and other “hybrid experts”, this even creates opportunities to organize work with the help of digitalization and AI without jobs and to make even better decisions in a virtual team.

Conclusion

“Even before the pandemic, flexible and hybrid working models failed less because of technological or organizational obstacles, but rather because of rejection by superiors” – Prof. Dr. Oliver Falck, Head of the ifo Center for Industrial Organization and New Technologies.