Going hybrid

Remote work is going to remain with us for a long time, if not permanently. Companies have grown accustomed to operating in such a manner and their employees have, in many cases, even improved their productivity through the transition to home-working. “These days, the most common form of work is the hybrid model,” points out Oskar Kasiński, the CEO of Recruitment Partner, part of HR Design Group. To better assess the good and bad points of remote work and its transformation into the hybrid model, Business Link and Skanska, in association with the Sukces Pisany Szminką foundation, have recently published their ‘Changes in Work Style due to the Pandemic’ report. “At the beginning of the pandemic, most people were against working from home – because it had been imposed on them and nobody was prepared for it. But as time passed, employees began to combine the home office better with their private lives,” explains Ewelina Kałużna, the head of strategic workplace advisory at Skanska and the managing director of Business Link.

The pluses

Among the main advantages of working from home, according to those surveyed, is the flexibility it provides, allowing professional and family responsibilities to be combined, the time saved travelling to and from work, the need to organise and motivate oneself, as well as the online business meetings. Oskar Kasiński points out that when their work is well-organised, employees can be more productive in a shorter period of time. One interesting conclusion from the interviews held with corporate business leaders is about how people now dress: according to those surveyed, casual dress and no longer needing to put make-up on has narrowed the distance between managers and their employees. In the summary of Skanska and Business Link’s report, it states that those surveyed also indicated that the opportunity of wearing comfortable clothes while working is one of its advantages. Moreover, being at home limits the number of distractions that people would otherwise come across in the office, such as everyday gossip and unplanned meetings. The fact that you can choose who you meet is another plus point. It’s also worth pointing out that the emotional distance between employee and client has been narrowed – working from home has convinced people that the person on the other side of the screen there is also having to deal with their own daily-life problems.

And the minuses

Ewelina Kałużna argues that over the long term, too much work from home has a detrimental effect on both individual employees and on a company’s culture. Małgorzata Niewińska, the head of workplace strategy and change management at CBRE, also points out that remote work, despite having been around for two years, still poses something of a challenge, especially when it comes to preparing the home environment for professional work. “The difficulties come down to problems with infrastructure and technology, work areas and communication. Moreover, those surveyed say that the support from their companies is limited when it comes to infrastructure,” she adds. The respondents of Skanska and Business Link’s survey are of the view that an organisation’s culture suffers as do personal relations between team members. Unlimited working from home, therefore, poses a serious risk of employees becoming isolated. It also makes it much more difficult to recruit new staff and avoid work-life balance problems that blur the distinction between the private and the professional spheres. Those surveyed also miss their work breaks, such as going out for a coffee or a chat in the corridor. According to the report, sitting at home for too long weakens the motivation to come into the office and is also detrimental to synergistic activities and the creative process.

According to Oskar Kasiński of HRDG, the biggest disadvantage of working from home is the lack of suitable working conditions: the absence of a work room or a separate desk, uncomfortable seating and the noise and disturbance generated by children or pets. According to CBRE’s ‘Work from Home or the Office?’ report, four out of ten workers admit that it is much more tiring to work at home than at the office, 15 pct of workers complain of poor internet access, 14 pct are affected by the lack of a proper working environment (comfort, daylight and a good monitor), 12 pct have no privacy or quiet space (too little space or too many roommates), and 11 pct have to contend with faulty equipment (computers, telephones and tablets). The fact that employers are not keen on providing their employees with the work equipment they need for their homes is also a problem. Of those surveyed, 27 pct were provided with laptops, 19 pct had communication and collaboration equipment and 7 pct had a printer. Company desks and chairs had been provided to 6 pct and 4 pct respectively. Employers also do not see the need to cover the higher electricity and internet costs incurred by all this, with only 7 pct of workers receiving such recompense as part of their salaries. On the other hand, one in five respondents feels that they have received no support from their employers during the working from home period. “Home infrastructure support remains one of the key indicators of a positive remote working experience. “Company strategy should be based on a close examination of the problems faced by employees in order to create a permanent hybrid working future for them,” says Małgorzata Niewińska of CBRE.

Hybrid work to the rescue

Once the weaker and stronger points of remote work are compared, it’s not hard to come to the conclusion that the hybrid work format is now the preferred model for fulfilling professional obligations. “Employers often decide in advance how days are going to be split between home and the office and they also have diverse strategies prepared for this new mode of working,” claims Ewelina Kałużna. She also adds that there is an even more flexible model where the employer decides which two days they will work from home and which three days they will come into the office. (Around 43 pct of employees stated that their employer dictates from above which days are to be spent at home and which in the office.) “Building and maintaining a corporate culture online seems almost impossible and staff rotation is rising. It is clear to managers that meeting face-to-face in the office has a positive effect on how relationships are maintained within a team, because this allows workers to be more integrated and more emotionally involved with the company as well as with each other,” explains Ewelina Kałużna of Skanska.