The future of work is here and it's called "hybrid work". It's not me who says it, but The Economist, who even designated it as “word of the year”: Describes how work will be conducted in the near future despite companies wanting to return full-time to the office. And it is something that is slowly finding favor with more and more employees and more and more employers (of course in different dosages).
A survey conducted by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans he says that 74% of employers now offers hybrid work options. 68% of employees prefers this type of work to a full-time face-to-face contract. It appears that hybrid working is the way forward for most companies and workers.
more data, this time by the World Economic Forum: most of the employees (68%) would prefer a hybrid form of working, which combines the traditional working environment with one from home. only 8% of survey participants expressed a desire to work full-time in an office while the remaining 28% he preferred to work from home full time. These findings point to a growing trend towards hybrid working, where people can take advantage of the benefits of the traditional work environment without giving up the convenience of working from home.
Yes, hybrid work is here to stay
Hybrid working has become an essential part of the modern world, and I don't think this will change anytime soon. Combining remote working with in-person meetings in the office offers the best of both worlds: on the one hand, there is the flexibility and possibility to work from anywhere, on the other, there is the possibility to create connections and collaborate more effectively. It is an approach to work that is too superior to that of the old "commute - office" scheme to fail to establish itself. It's no surprise that recent internal research by that you have say that about half of the company's employees would be ready to leave their jobs and seek new opportunities if they were forced to return to the office full time.
On the other hand, the interactions that make businesses effective cannot be fully replicated online. Tools like Teams and Zoom are extremely important and reliable, but we are social beings and screens can't completely replace the creative spark that comes from in-person teamwork. This is why hybrid work is the ideal solution, and we have to find a standard (especially in Italy).
Pandemic, work gym
Among the thousand painful discoveries due to Covid, one was positive. With the pandemic, my agency also discovered that it could work effectively in a virtual environment, with all employees working 100% remotely. As a creative agency, however, we think that meeting in person is still key to fostering creativity, a sense of community and collaboration. This is why we now adopt a hybrid working model, in which employees come in presence for 3 days a week, and with a certain degree of flexibility in this case too. We try to create a common purpose and coordinate teams to ensure that we can see each other not just to join Zoom meetings. Additionally, we organize on-site events and services that inspire and unite us in an intentional way, thus promoting true connection.
Can it be a model? It certainly is. And not only for types of work like mine, but for many.
