Hybrid Work Is Here To Stay. What Are the Changes and Challenges?
When millions of people began working remotely during the past two years, a lot of them found that they liked it. As America has reopened, employers have asked workers to return to the office but have met with resistance. A great number of workers, especially younger ones, want to continue working remotely or at least have as an option the hybrid model, which mixes in-office and remote work.
So where is this going?
(This post is an overview; for a deeper look at the issues and some of the numbers involved, please download our longer article.)
Why Remote Work Is Popular
In a fast-paced world where there never seems to be enough time to get everything done and where demands seem to just keep piling up, remote work has provided respite without productivity loss in a number of ways that roughly fit into 3 broad categories:
Less commuting
Better time management
Improved workplace culture and morale
Employers’ Concerns
Managers, on the other hand, are feeling significant reluctance about hybrid work. In the eyes of many, this reluctance is largely based on resistance to change and reduced control. However, there are a couple of concerns that do merit closer study:
Reduced productivity
Lost opportunities to network and to gain experience through collaboration, mentoring, and other partnerships
Trends and Solutions
As older workers leave the workforce and younger ones take their place, the demand for remote and hybrid work is only going to keep growing. Companies less willing to adapt to these changes are already seeing a rise in resignations, and companies more accommodating to remote and hybrid work are attracting more and more of the proverbial best and brightest.
Remote and hybrid work models are not going away, nor will their prevalence reverse direction. Nevertheless, that doesn’t negate some of the drawbacks employers cite.
A number of recent studies, though, largely refute the productivity concerns. Those about learning and partnerships are valid, however, and they need innovative solutions that are compatible with today’s evolving workforce.
Here at The Mentor Method, we believe one of the most effective of those solutions is mentorship, and we know how to help businesses implement their own mentorship programs that work with the hybrid work model and remote work. We help companies match employees within the organization, with an eye on developing leadership, promoting inclusiveness, and boosting productivity, retention, and morale.
To look more closely at the issues here and learn how mentorship helps address them, please read our longer article on these topics. You can download it for free!