In the great return to office many possibilities and pitfalls remain. According to CEO and Founder of Bubble, Ari Last, “too much discussion surrounding hybrid working is fixated on where the employee is going to be physically, instead of how we as leaders intend to keep people’s work and personal lives in balance.”
Not everyone has the environment to be able to work from home effectively, nor can everyone deal with the strain that comes with five days of commuting. Signs of the UK job market permanently embracing hybrid working are plentiful. The share of remote roles advertised on job boards has skyrocketed from 5x to 20x across industry sectors.
The pandemic has triggered a rebalancing in employee values and work expectations for which there is no one-size-fits-all policy.
According to a survey conducted by PGL, the pandemic helped 3 in 5 working parents realise they weren’t spending enough time with their children with the overwhelming majority planning to change their working life post-lockdown.
Just as Zoom meetings became ubiquitous, a more robust offering of hybrid-friendly benefits will be essential to retaining and attracting talent.
Lest businesses pay the price, proactive steps must be taken to ensure hybrid working differences don’t result in indirect biases towards or against employee subpopulations. According to Last, “Making sure you’re giving every employee the tools to thrive and succeed comes first. In our case businesses are talking to us about flexible childcare support for their working parents.”
As employees settle into their preferred hybrid working patterns, business leaders must consider what is necessary to maximise performance and satisfaction across the workforce. Over the coming months, it will take responsive action and continued adaptation to ensure hybrid working is a success.
For more hybrid working research and data on employee support visit the Bubble For Work resource hub.