Most IT decision makers believe that hybrid working will become the new normal as companies start encouraging employees to return to the office.
Organizations are under pressure to support new forms of collaboration and reshape the employee experience, according to tech marketing firm Foundry’s. 2022 Future of Work study†
The company surveyed 401 US IT and business decision makers and found that 94% of organizations have implemented some sort of hybrid work structure, while 72% thought there was now a more positive attitude toward hybrid work.
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It also found that 69% of IT decision makers believe the telecommuting trend is impacting the way they plan for general office space, IT staff and general staff.
About 41% of respondents believe that hybrid work will continue for the foreseeable future, while 29% believe it will be office-only and 30% believe it will be remote-only.
Although hybrid seems more possible these days, there are differences between organizations of different sizes and sectors.
The company found that companies with more than 1,000 employees are more likely to retain hybrid work. About 49% of respondents predict a hybrid future, compared to 33% of small businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees.
Retail, government and service organizations see hybrids much less as their future. In the high-tech sector, 46% of respondents find remote only acceptable, compared to 30% for all categories.
The results are consistent with several other large studies suggesting that hybrid work will be the way of the future. But how best to tackle this shift is still up for debate.
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that of Microsoft recent 2022 Work Trend Index (WTI) report found that 38% of hybrid workers believe their biggest challenge is knowing when and why to come to the office, while only 28% of companies have teamed up to communicate when to do so. In short, leaders need to make sure the office is worth the commute.
Recent research by a recruitment agency has found that: employers are completely abandoning remote working in favor of hybrid to provide a better experience for younger applicants†
Foundry discovered another interesting trend: According to research data, employees are expected to be on duty for an average of 2.2 days.
In February, the UK Government Office for National Statistics found that the most common hybrid pattern employees planned to use was mainly working from home and sometimes from the office.
Foundry also found that 60% of respondents have invested – or plan to invest – in security controls, such as multi-factor authentication, endpoint detection and response, and VPN.
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Nearly half (49%) of companies surveyed said remote and hybrid working had changed the way customers wanted to interact with them. Hardest hit were organizations in education (65%), high-tech (57%) and services (61%).
Collaboration remains a major problem, according to Foundry. More than half (51%) call it a challenge, with more manufacturing (72%) and retail (80%) organizations concerned about how to support employee collaboration.
Also, a third of respondents are trying to find the best way to organize hybrid meetings and 30% are concerned about reduced productivity.
On the positive side, given the higher rate of layoffs and difficulties in filling vacancies, 42% of respondents agree that the current work-from-home option has made it easier to recruit for open positions. Of organizations that have gone completely remote, 64% said it was easier to attract talent.