There are more signs that the pandemic is subsiding enough that companies feel comfortable bringing employees back into the office. According to Marketplace, companies like Ford, Citigroup, Target, and Microsoft have started making plans to bring employees back, but it will not be the same as it was.
These companies are, instead, moving to a hybrid model, with people working on-site and remotely with far more remote workers than in the past. Brian Kropp, chief of human-resources research at Gartner, has this to say:
“When everyone is working remote, everyone has a much more similar experience. But in a hybrid world, some people are going to be in the office 40 hours a week, some people are going to be there four hours a week. That unevenness and variability is going to be really, really hard to manage,” Kropp said.
The hybrid model has become quite attractive for companies. For business owners, it reduces overhead, and for many workers they prefer the flexibility of remote work. But there are challenges. For instance, how do you fairly rank workers for promotion or dismissal if you cannot monitor them in the office? What if your workplace is seen as playing favorites toward those who are in the office more often?
One way to relieve employees of these concerns is to have leaders also work remotely on a more regular basis. They can serve as a model for the other employees.