Hybrid work is here to stay — but are organizations ready?

Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work was likely seen as a nice perk within many organizations, but not a hugely significant part of a talent strategy. By and large, a typical company had most of its workforce onsite, with maybe a handful of employees working elsewhere.

We’ve seen a huge shift in the past two years, however. Remote workers are no longer a small group at many organizations. Some businesses are now 100% remote with no plans to return to an office anytime soon.

There is also the emerging middle ground of “hybrid work,” where employees split their time between an office location and home. According to a new survey from AT&T, “The State of the Industry: Future of Work,” a majority of business leaders expect hybrid work to become the dominant work model by 2024, with nearly 60% of work getting completed offsite.

But are organizations ready for this? The same survey says that many are not, as 72% of businesses lack a clear hybrid work strategy. The survey goes on to note:

“The Future of Work study highlighted that while many firms responded to a shift in working models as needed, this largely resulted in ‘band-aid’ solutions to enabling hybrid work, with the majority lacking a detailed strategy to support it.”

We’ve written pretty extensively about the subject of hybrid work, because mobility teams can (and should) play a key role in developing the workforce roadmap for their organizations. If more employees are free to work remotely at least some of the time, mobility programs can help support those who choose to “de-locate” and also facilitate business travel if staffers are required to report to an office now and then. With hybrid work seemingly here to stay (and grow), organizations that figure out their strategies first will be in a good position.