Can We Embrace Hybrid Working In 2024?

Navigating the new norm

As we begin to see more layoffs in firms, we can already see companies like Bank of America, Disney, and even Zoom mandating employees to come back at least three days a week. We might need to go through one full economic cycle before employers start to appreciate that it is not solely remote working that is causing their share price to fall. That is not to undervalue the importance of in-person connection which is crucial for building trust and relationships, however, employers need to focus on the culture first and not these zero-tolerance mandated emails which rarely work to their advantage.

The physical office: The workplace setup is still suboptimal for a good experience for both those who come to the office and those who work from home. Many come in to work to sit on Zoom calls in open-plan offices which is far from ideal. Individual teams are also struggling with how to navigate this. Consider when you used to have a team meeting in the canteen, either because the meeting rooms were all booked or maybe you just wanted to link it with a coffee and a pastry. If seven of the team come in and one does not, what happens? There is rarely going to be a technical solution to dial the eighth person in, so they may just decide to leave them out of the meeting. Many companies’ solution to this is to make all meetings, even in-person ones, online, which really misses the important dynamics of what an in-person meeting can give you. The key focus for employers is to spend 2024 looking at poor office behaviors and adjusting the physical set-up accordingly.

Work tracking software: While we would have hoped most companies would have learned that tracking their employees is rarely something an employee enjoys or is motivational, the new tracking software for 2024 comes with the added word – transparency. As long as employees and employers can see all the data then it’s a “helpful” tool and not a big brother tool. What employers fail to see is that employees will look at the office culture and their level of trust in senior management and make their judgments regardless of the PR around these new products. Coffee badging is a term used for employees who show up at a physical office to make an appearance but leave soon after to work the rest of the day remotely. It is one of the many time-consuming rituals employees are using to demonstrate working from the office without doing so. Why? Because it is tracked.

Meetings still take up the most time for employees, but more and more people will openly admit that they are rarely present at a meeting, tuning in and out and usually doing something else at the same time. This lack of presence is a huge issue as it is draining the life force of employees and leading to strange new behaviors. People now take “screen-on” meetings (not conference calls) on the run, while walking, in the car, so they have just decided that they will not have their screen on regardless of the type of meeting that it is. This may work for them but the noise of them in the high street or in traffic as well as the fact they are driving a car and trying to navigate a work meeting means they cannot be focusing exclusively on the meeting. It usually takes one of the most senior people to call out unwanted behaviors to ensure everyone is reminded of the basic rules and etiquette of meetings otherwise they are a huge drain on your resources.

It would be great to hear fewer conversations where we throw a whole generation under the bus because of the behavior of one person and look at 2024’s focus being on building a supportive company culture regardless of where people are. We may hopefully then have fewer people commuting into the office just to swipe in, grab a coffee, and leave!

Peter Cosgrove is Managing Director of Futurewise and advises companies on how to navigate the new world of work. He has also published two books aimed at taking families off their digital devices.