Opinion: Will Hybrid Remain the Future of Work

As global firms debate the return of employees to the office full time post-Covid-19, University of Suffolk Research Associate, Dr Laura Reeves, shares the findings of her study into the effects of agile working, and what it means for the future of hybrid working

At the end of September 2024, an editorial in Forbes Magazine argued Amazon's return-to-office mandate "is a warning to the future of work". In contrast, the UK Government's Employment Rights Bill 2024 aims to make the right to request flexible work (including working from home) a default from day one, allowing employers to refuse flexible arrangements only if they can justify it as unreasonable. With this ongoing debate around the "future of work," I find myself reflecting on its implications.

Over the past 12 months, Professor Clare Rigg (Lancaster University Management School) and I conducted a pilot study*, supported by funding from the British Academy of Management, to explore how agile working arrangements affect managerial belonging. Twenty-eight office-based managers in the East of England took part in the study, including 22 who were interviewed and 19 who took part in focus groups. All participants hold middle management positions, and work in hybrid environments where they manage others while being managed themselves, through a combination of in-person and home-based, online working.

Even though our study focused on managerial belonging, some conversations turned to the future of work itself. One participant remarked, "I don't think you can justify going back to [a] traditional 9-to-5 in the office." Another noted, "I'm really not advocating for five days a week in the office-there's a lot of good stuff [in hybrid work]."

If some middle managers are questioning the need for a full return to the office while companies like Amazon mandate it, I wonder: why are there such differing views, and what is the future of work? Amazon explains its office mandate as a way to break down perceived barriers to innovation and enhance organisational culture. In contrast, the UK Government links flexibility with improved performance and loyalty. These views highlight how complex this issue is.

Over the past few months, I've analysed our pilot study data, and the evidence suggests the future of work might best be hybrid-a balance of office and home working. Our findings illustrate how hybrid work offers multiple benefits, rooted in the flexibility of workplace structures and operations. Flexibility allows employees to better manage their working week, enjoy improved work-life balance, and choose the environment that best suits the task at hand. Managers are also able to bolster and maintain their own sense of belonging to their team. As one participant put it, "It's all about having a flexible approach and mindset, not shoehorning everything into one-size-fits-all." This manager emphasised the need to adapt to new ways of working instead of resisting change out of convenience or familiarity.

This is not to deny that there can be challenges. Managers in our study noted the difficulty in onboarding remotely. They also highlighted how hybrid work can cause a lack of connection between managers, who tend to interact with each other less when working from home. In response, managers spoke of the need to deliberately plan how to make connections with other managers. This includes suggestions like encouraging regular contact between managers and peer supervision/mentoring arrangements.

Others explained they found it a challenge to transition to managing a hybrid workforce, due to lack of training. One participant said: "If I look back to the pandemic, remote working was reactionary to a very hard situation, we didn't get support or training in how to manage in remote conditions. Since then, that hasn't changed, it isn't like I received training in how to manage a hybrid workforce, it's a matter of trial and error, which is draining." These issues should not be overlooked, nor should the complexities of implementing hybrid models in companies where not all roles allow for remote work. This situation raises concerns about fairness and equity in hybrid work settings, especially with regard to inclusion and diversity.

With some managers expressing a lack of clear justification for a full office return and the UK government supporting flexible work, perhaps the solution is collaborative: tackling hybrid work challenges together rather than reverting to the familiarity of a blanket return to the workplace. Could organisations embed flexibility into their structures and processes to make a full-time office return unnecessary?

These reflections lead me to one key thought: "progress" should mean moving forward, not retreating to what we once knew. Could progress in the future of work mean embracing flexibility, rather than enforcing a strict return to a 9-to-5 office schedule?

Acknowledgment: *The researchers received funding from the British Academy of Management under the Transitions 1 Grant Scheme for early career academics (REF: 2023-317-T1) to conduct the pilot study.