5 Hybrid Work Trends for 2024
Contents
There’s a very compelling argument that the title of this post should just be work trends instead of hybrid work trends, since the majority of us are already using some form of hybrid.
But there’s still a lot that’s up in the air, especially when it comes to what employees want out of a hybrid workplace experience and how organizations should manage that.
That’s why it’s important to look at hybrid work trends – not in the sense of the next big new and flashy thing, but in the sense of how hybrid work is developing and changing, and the ultimate endgame it’s moving towards.
Is that endgame merely getting people back into the office to keep tabs on them, or making work itself more productive and enjoyable for everyone?
The latter is the way we should be going, but what you’ll find varies widely depending on what company you look at.
In this post, we’ll look at 5 hybrid work trends, from hybrid schedules to back-to-office mandates, that show how hybrid work is changing – hopefully for the better.
1) Hybrid work schedules will start to accommodate employee preferences
Some shocking information came to light last year.
In a perfect world, most employees would still come into the office, and most see it as being central to getting work done effectively. In fact, most would spend slightly more time in the office to maximize their productivity.
Via Gensler’s 2023 Global Workplace Survey Comparison.
The average number of days spent in the office is 2.62. Similarly, employees prefer to be in the office 2-3 days per week according to Gallup.
But there’s two things employees don’t prefer – being forced to come into the office just to do things they could be doing while working remotely, and being forced into a hybrid schedule with the end goal of getting everyone back five days per week.
If organizations are trying to enforce a 5 day work week under the guise of hybrid work policies, then hybrid becomes “boiling the frog on pleasantly tepid water” according to a user posting in a WFH subreddit.
Now that there’s more clarity on the right balance of remote and in-person work from an employee POV, we’ll see more organizations using this as their starting point, rather than leadership’s views or what other companies are doing.
2) Employers will take a less extreme approach to getting hybrid workers back in the office.
Employees digging in their heels and polishing their CVs after strict back-to-office mandates made the news a lot this year.
And it’s easy to understand why. Being forced back into the commute on more days than you’d like, without the data to back up why that’s the best option, obliterates trust between employees and leadership. Just look at the Senior VP of Amazon Video and Studios, who mandated employees back into the office despite reportedly announcing “I don’t have data to back it up, but I know it’s better.”
But what data does back up is that merely forcing employees into the same physical space a few times per week does not create the connection and collaboration cited by CEOs. The rate of employees in the office every week has actually dropped rather than increased, and over half of employees are coffee badging – swiping their badge to be “seen” in the office, grabbing a coffee and then leaving shortly after.
Not exactly the connected, collaborative environment CEOs were hoping for.
What’s more, a November 2023 study found that the average company offering a flexible remote work policy had 16 percentage points more revenue growth over the last three years as compared to companies with more restrictive policies.
So what’s the alternative for 2024?
Probably fewer “come back in the office X days per week or get fired” and more arrangements where managers and teams are giving the autonomy to decide their own schedules.
Or, incentivizing hybrid employees to spend more time in the office through more insidious means, like withholding promotions from employees who don’t turn up on the required number of days.
But let’s hope not.
3) Hybrid office design will go data-driven.
Rethinking hybrid office design is a valuable tool in a workplace’s arsenal to both get people back in the office and improve the quality of work and interactions that occur.
The big question is how to design an office that keeps everyone happy when there’s a multitude of workplace habits and preferences for every handful of employees. That’s why we’ll see more companies using workplace data to design their hybrid offices in 2024.
Autonomy and choice are what make a great workplace experience, and 81% of office workers who say they have a great workplace experience agree. Turning to workplace data shows workplace leaders how employees are working now and what they want in the future.
Companies are already using data from surveys and employee feedback for workplace design. Architecture firm William Duff surveyed all their employees on the two most important things to them, for example.
Engineering firm Arup also used surveys to understand the unique ways of working for each department, and even had groups of employees test out amenities and functionalities and give feedback on what they liked most.
Workplace data can also help to get the balance of proximity to colleagues and personal space right. Tracking how many people are occupying a space at a given time makes it easier to spot when the density is getting too high for comfort, or too low to spark interactions, which is the boat most workplaces are finding themselves in these days.
4 Ways to Use Data to Design Your Hybrid Office
4) Corporate real estate portfolios: rationalize, optimize, but not necessarily downsize.
Microsoft, Dropbox and Meta have each shelled out millions over the last few months to drop existing office space. And indeed, over half of large firms globally are planning to downsize their corporate real estate portfolios over the next few years in response to hybrid work patterns.
But the reality is more nuanced. Most organizations have postponed any decision making for their office portfolios for the last few years, even if that means large swathes of office space sitting empty.
In 2024, we can expect to see more of the same, but also an end to the postponing for some. But rather than speculation or estimating how much less space they’ll need, decisions will be rational ones based on performance.
So rather than a zero-sum game of keeping or downsizing based on how many employees can fit into how much space, portfolios will be rationalized by investigating how space is being used right now, which types of spaces will be needed in the future, and how they should perform against a slew of metrics and organizational initiatives, significantly net-zero and decarbonization targets.
In 2024, we’ll see hybrid organizations use performance metrics like space utilization rate – the number of people using a particular space over time – rather than merely how many people are accessing the office.
5 Space Utilization Metrics for a Better Workplace in 2024
5) Return-on-commute will be everything for the hybrid employee experience.
Whatever an organization’s choice of hybrid work schedule, people want to know that they’ll get more out of the office than what they put in to get there. Think of it like a return on investment – people want to get back more than they invest into the time and costs of commuting.
And while return on commute isn’t as quantitative like return on investment, most employees have a decisive answer when asked if coming into the office is worthwhile.
Some positive return-on-commute scenarios could look something like:
🚗Investment: An hour commute each way on public transport.
🏆Return: Finishing a project faster since everyone is there in-person so you can stop working right at 5, plus a free lunch and yoga class.
🚗Investment: Less sleep and making different school pickup arrangements.
🏆Return: A relaxed lunch with your team and a sound-proof focus booth where you can work distraction-free and scream to your heart’s content.
🚗Investment: Spending more money to get into the office.
🏆Return: A face-to-face meeting with your mentor to talk about your performance and career development plan, putting any performance review anxiety to rest.
Each of the above scenarios appeals more to different demographics and age groups. But in any case, creating a commute-worthy hybrid workplace comes down to people, functionalities and amenities.
No one wants to come in only to sit in an empty office on Zoom calls, get in a verbal sparring match over using a meeting room or drink battery acid coffee.
So in 2024, expect to see more companies focusing on making their workplace experience worthwhile, rather than merely “nice”.
