While the adoption of a hybrid work setup gets more attention, most companies are focused on equipping the workforce with the latest and most reliable digital technologies. However, the recent study from Software as a Service (SaaS) company found that the most crucial department, human resources, still needs guidance in the implementation of this arrangement.

The study titled “Going Hybrid: The Future of Work” saw that among the respondents, 64.6% of HR admins and managers need help to understand how to make a hybrid setup work, while 70.71% of remote employees love their current remote setup but only 43.54% feel engaged.

For many, the future of work is a hybrid model, which is neither fully remote nor completely back to the office: rather, it’s a little bit of both. A hybrid setup combines both working from home and the office, and the manner in which this is practiced varies from company to company.

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The study was made among 485 respondents from HR Departments and 8,194 employees. Of these, 20% of HR professionals wanted a return to the Work From Office model, and 80% of HR respondents wanted a Hybrid or Remote workplace. Among the employees, 9% wanted to report back to work at the office while 91% wanted Hybrid or Remote.

“As the workplace landscape adjusts to the hybrid future, HR teams need to re-evaluate and redefine current roles rather than to simply cherry-pick which roles can be done remotely,” said Arlene De Castro, chief people and customer officer, Sprouts Solutions. What they can do is to centralize support functions and make output-based work the primary guiding principle of their organization.”

The Sprout Solutions study finds that 64.6% of remote leaders share that they need support to make the hybrid model work, 50.8% of WFO managers foresee a post-pandemic workplace that’s pre-dominantly remote, 70.7% of remote employees love their current remote setup but only 43.5% feel engaged and 44.6% of WFH workers foresee a fully remote future workplace.

Flexibility, collaboration

With Hybrid work on the horizon for many industries, the key takeaway from the study is that there are gaps that need to be addressed to maintain or even boost productivity using this model.

“The future of work needs flexibility, collaboration and engagement,” De Castro said.

There are several ways to implement a hybrid workplace arrangement. Remote Hybrid is made up of remote employees that may report to a physical office when necessary; In-Person Hybrid consists of employees that work at a physical office but have the option to work remotely; Mixed Hybrid is split into a fully remote and in-office workspace; Split Hybrid operates on a shifting schedule: for example, WFO on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and Work From Home on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“To make this effective, companies need to recalibrate their tech stack and benefits portfolio. Tech plays a significant role in making a hybrid setup work. With the right remote work tech stack, admins and managers can track employee productivity and performance better. The type, amount, and category that companies will use will depend on their size, industry, and budget. A successful remote work setup should consider having communication, remote collaboration, cloud storage, remote work management, and workflow management tools at their disposal,” De Castro explains.

Adopting a hybrid setup is a must for organizations that value productivity and engagement. Make the most of your agile workforce and provide support where it matters the most. Improve retention and give your employees the holistic care they deserve with Sprout’s end-to-end employee experience platform. With Sprout, companies have access to a cutting-edge, world-class suite of HR solutions and create a future-proof hybrid workplace.