The Future of Work. Enter the hybrid model of working.

The future of work is changing faster than ever before and if your organisation does not change with it then, recent finding show, your people will let you know by voting with their feet.

Who would have thought that in the year 2020 we would all be instructed to pack up our desks and go home to work? For decades people had been requesting some flexibility around home/ work life only to be told “NO!” This is a generalist answer, of course. Yes, there have been employers who understood that their people could, in fact, work from home, but on the most part, it was rare.

Skip forward to early 2021 and the office doors once again open. Only this time, people have the option to put their foot down and refuse to return to their office desk. “It is a matter of public safety!” Or perhaps now and for many employees, they are enjoying their new-found freedom of not travelling to the office, not having to pay for parking, being able to have their dog at their feet, the ability to spend more time with family and fit in more exercise time.

Enter the “hybrid” model of working. A workspace mixed, in the office and at home. It may look like two days at home, three days in the office. Everyone gets back to the new normal and then, just to mix things up again, the pandemic starts to rear its ugly head in the community and just like that, everyone is sent home.

One thing is for sure. Nothing is certain.

According to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), 74% of people want to work across multiple places and spaces, 16% want to work entirely remotely and only 10% want to return to their workplace five days a week. So, what happens now to the workplace when a pandemic is still floating around and organizations cannot give definitive answers on returning to the office?

While we’re not certain when the return to the office will take place, we do know that individuals will be more reluctant to return. Because of this, employers will find themselves at risk of significant revolt from their workforce and staff departures (in a market that is already tight for talent) if they mandate returning to pre-pandemic attendance at the workplace.

Gartner have conducted extensive global research on The Future of Work Reinvented and they have found “that 75% of hybrid or remote knowledge workers say their expectations for working flexibly have increased, and four out of ten employees are at risk of leaving if you insist they return to an in-person office environment.”

Whilst the pandemic has presented many challenges, this could be the silver lining for both employees and organisations moving forward. The data from Gartner shows that “employees are three times more likely to be high performers when given flexibility over where, when and how they work”. In addition, they found there is increased levels of enterprise contribution and high levels of inclusion that derive from granting such flexibility.

If you have not considered the future of work at your organisation, Harvest Talent Recruitment and People Solutions are here to assist you navigate the new employment landscape. The future of work is changing faster than ever before and if your organisation does not change with it then, from Gartner’s findings, your people will let you know by voting with their feet.