Remote or Hybrid: Which Model Is Better for Your Business?

In 2020, companies’ decision to have employees work 100% remotely was a no-brainer. Public health demanded that individuals not be in close enough contact to spread the COVID-19 virus. Prior to widespread vaccine availability, social distancing was one of the few effective measures for keeping people healthy.

Workers and companies adjusted their habits, and the remote work (also known as work from home or WFH) strategy remained appropriate until most people were vaccinated. At that point, employers started to bring workers back into offices.

The only problem was that, during the pandemic, team members had become accustomed to working remotely, and many preferred it. So, some employers offered a compromise. Employees could spend part of their time in the office and part of it working from home. This pattern became known as the hybrid office model. As workers voiced their concerns about both models, employers had to adjust, and some are still determining what’s best for their companies.

Here we offer information to help in this decision, including the pros and cons of each model, what the data suggests, and what questions to ask to arrive at the best determination.

Remote Model – Pros and Cons

At a high level, remote work offers flexibility and comfort to employees but must be handled well to maintain company productivity.

Remote Work Pros

• Employee comfort. For many knowledge workers, officing from home is an ideal scenario. They can perform their tasks, have meetings, and participate in company culture from their favorite chair, with laundry running in the background. Many also appreciate spending more time around family members and pets. Plus, they are not limited to one location, allowing them to set up at coffee shops or even while traveling.
• Bigger candidate pool. When employees work remotely, you don’t have to limit yourself only to employee candidates who live nearby. Instead, you can widen your search for new team members to other cities, states, and even countries. In this way, you get access to a larger candidate pool, meaning the potential for better candidates and employees.
• Asynchronous communication. Within the traditional working style of having everyone on-prem, many workers complain about constant interruptions, such as coworkers stopping by, emails, texts, chats, and requests for impromptu meetings. With remote work and the technologies that support it, some companies have moved to asynchronous communication, meaning team members are not expected to always respond immediately.

Remote Work Cons

• Unfavorable home environments. Some employees may not have a comfortable area to set up a home office or good internet service available. Others may live with family members or roommates who are also working from home but with different requirements, such as the need for distracting phone conversations or video calls.
• Sense of isolation. Some team members may prefer the hustle and bustle of the work environment and feel deprived of social interaction while working from home.
• Blurred boundaries. For some working from home, with their work computer sitting in their living room and their colleagues calling their personal phone, it can be difficult to bring the workday to an end. For others, the opposite may be true. Chores needing to be done, neighbors visiting, and other distractions can prevent them from getting in quality desk time. The following video highlights the boundary issue and other WFH challenges.

• Less visibility. When employers began bringing workers back on-prem, some of those who continued to work remotely noticed that colleagues spending time in the office got more attention from managers in the form of informal conversations, mentoring, and even promotions.
• Time zone issues. Elsewhere in this article, we mention that remote work enables companies to find workers anywhere in the world. Doing so provides access to quality talent but can also cause misunderstandings, missed deadlines, and other problems if team members work in varied time zones.  

Hybrid Model – Pros and Cons

The hybrid model ostensibly offers the “best of both worlds.” But, like the remote model, hybrid work must be managed efficiently to offer its full benefits.

Hybrid Work Pros

• Happier employees. This benefit applies to both the remote work and hybrid models. That’s because employees prefer both models over the traditional everyone-on-prem model. Both remote and hybrid styles give workers flexibility and the ability to create a better work-life balance. Providing either one can help companies enhance their productivity and retain employees.
• Lower costs. This item also applies to both the remote and hybrid models. Companies with fewer employees on-prem at any given time require less space, technology, furniture, energy, and services. Employees also save money on gas, clothing, and lunches.
• The best of both worlds. The hybrid model enables employees to enjoy the comfort and enhanced productivity of working from home but also come together with colleagues when it’s time to collaborate and brainstorm with clients to provide a more personal interaction.
• Enhanced teamwork. While technology enables groups to work together and accomplish goals remotely, the sense of teamwork that occurs in live interactions cannot be duplicated through a screen. Being together in person provides a sense of physical immediacy that can boost team productivity.

Hybrid Work Cons

• Less freedom for workers. Typically, a hybrid work schedule involves a certain number of days in the office and at home. The employer often determines the schedule, leaving workers with less freedom in where they work. This scenario contrasts with remote work, which enables team members to choose the location from which they work.
• Scheduling difficulties. Knowing who is going to be where and when becomes complicated when workers are only coming into the office a couple of days per week or month. Companies that opt for the hybrid model must set up robust systems to enable team members to share desks, reserve meeting rooms, and coordinate schedules with colleagues.
• FOMO. With a hybrid work arrangement, employees may wonder what events, such as happy hour with coworkers, they’re missing when away from the office.  

The Data Is In

Rather than showing that remote work is better than hybrid work or vice versa, some recent studies have revealed that both of these models are better than the traditional on-prem model. A recent Forbes article discussed three studies in particular:

• Data from productivity monitoring software company Prodoscore showed that employees who were highly productive in-office were likely to work from home as well. And those who tend to slack off at the office will also do so at home. It also showed an overall 5% increase in productivity when the pandemic forced office employees to work from home.
• The article states, “Owl Labs [a maker of video conferencing hardware] found that remote and hybrid employees were 22% happier than workers in an onsite environment.” Additionally, while working from home, these team members were less stressed, more focused, and more productive than at the office.
• Ergonomic equipment manufacturer Ergotron found that remote and hybrid work arrangements enabled employees to tend to their physical and mental health. As a result, these team members improved their work-life balance and gained job satisfaction.

Another study mentioned in a separate Forbes article showed that of the three working arrangements — in-office, remote, and hybrid — hybrid employees were the most productive. However, remote team members tended to work longer hours. Therefore, pure productivity may not be a good measure of the best model. Rather, as stated by the article’s author, “It’s not about the work model — it’s about how you implement it and whether it improves employee satisfaction.”

Another hidden challenge, this time with the hybrid model, is that it is complex and exhausting for employees. Employee engagement platform TinyPulse found that workers find it more draining than either remote or fully on-prem work. The reasons include too many variables, engendering a feeling of uncertainty.

These various conclusions lead to others — that no work model is always going to work for every company, and adjustments must always be made based on real-life outcomes. However, employees are loud and clear about one thing: they want more flexibility in their work lives.

Considerations for Choosing What’s Best

Adopting a remote or hybrid work model shouldn’t be taken lightly. Make the time to thoroughly explore both options and how they will impact the company and its employees. Be open to arriving at an answer you didn’t expect. Here are some questions to get you started down the path of discovery.

Which model do more team members prefer?

This question can go a long way toward determining which model might be better for your company. While employee preference shouldn’t be the only consideration, it should be a strong one. Before doing anything else, survey all team members, asking which model they prefer. Be sure to let them know the results of this survey won’t determine the outcome but that it will serve as a starting point for additional exploration.

What are employee concerns about both models?

You might include an opportunity for team members to identify concerns they have about the remote and hybrid models in your survey. Or you could list potential concerns and have workers rate those items in order of most to least worrying.

Which model is better for our bottom line?

Early in the process, run the numbers to determine what expenses you have now that could be eliminated by switching models and what new expenses you might incur. For example, moving to a remote or hybrid model may require less office space, equipment, and electricity. But you might have to pay employees to upgrade their internet service, buy office furniture, or hire a tech expert to configure their computers. A hybrid model might require new security technology to support new on-prem traffic patterns.

What metrics will we use to determine our level of success?

One good thing to determine before implementing a remote or hybrid work model is how you will know if it’s successful. Company leaders may have to switch from an “hours” mindset to an “output” one. With workers out of the office more often, it will be harder to tell who is putting in how much time. However, if you really need a certain amount of output, then hours may become an irrelevant indicator.

If we choose the hybrid model, how will we determine each employee’s hours in the office versus at home?

Some employers allow workers to choose their hours in the office versus at home, while others assign those times. Determine how you will decide each worker’s arrangements, starting with how many hours you want people in the office per week.

How will our approach to technology need to change?

Having team members work off-site, even part of the time will likely require a shift to more cloud services. Some companies are reluctant to go in this direction for various reasons, such as security concerns. However, a cloud approach can simplify work tremendously, giving workers access to information they need no matter where they are or when they are working.

How will our approach to communication need to change?

In addition to a more cloud-focused approach, companies that shift to a remote or hybrid model will need more communication methods and more rules about how communication is achieved. For example, managers might be required to have brief check-ins with every person on their team at least once per week and longer conversations once per month.

Does everyone expected to work at home have access to the resources they need?

Do most of your team members live in areas with reliable internet service? Do their homes have space to work? Are their living arrangements conducive to concentration and frequent online meetings? Can an IT professional be available to help them with any technology issues?

Will we need to downsize or eliminate our office space?

“Office space” can mean many things, from an as-needed conference room to meet with clients to a multi-building campus. What will your company’s office needs be based on your chosen working model? Will you need to downsize or eliminate your current space altogether? Or just make modifications to accommodate the new arrangement? This issue is a big one to consider because it is the starting point for other decisions.

What strategies can we use to make the most of online meetings?

Online meetings can never take the place of those that happen in person. But you can make the most of them with tools such as whiteboards, screen sharing, polls, and other features of Zoom and other video conferencing applications.

What measures can we take to keep workers healthy at the office?

If you move to a hybrid model, people will still be at the office much of the time. While vaccinations and other measures have slowed virus transmission considerably, it’s still possible to catch it and end up with a severe case. Were the accommodations you made while everyone was working from home enough? Do you need to take additional measures, such as installing hand sanitizer stations, eliminating coffee counters, or rearranging desks to keep people farther apart?

If we go to a hybrid model, how will we efficiently keep track of schedules and space reservations?

A hybrid working arrangement can be complex, and you will need systems to track who is where and when. If you purchase a platform designed for this purpose, do your homework first to make sure you get one that most closely meets your needs.

Looking Back to Move Ahead

Each company is unique; therefore, each working style must be as well. While remote work had been gaining popularity before the pandemic, many companies were still resistant to it. They believed myths such as “Workers will be less productive,” “We won’t be a cohesive team,” “We don’t have the tools,” and “Our culture will diminish.”

Those fears may have been realized in some cases, but the overall trends of the remote work movement were that employees were just as productive and happier. Additionally, companies found ways to be more efficient and save money.

With COVID-19 much less of a threat, companies now have a choice of whether to keep those remote practices in place, go back to a fully on-prem model, or settle somewhere in between with a hybrid arrangement. Information and data from the last three years can help inform what might work best as companies think about what has worked well and what could be improved. And information such as the advice above can contribute as well.