14 Essential Hybrid Work Trends To Watch In 2023 (And Beyond)

The world of work has undergone a dramatic transformation in the last few years, with remote work skyrocketing and the pandemic forcing businesses to adapt in ways they never thought possible. 

Now, more than ever, it’s crucial to stay informed about the latest trends in hybrid work to ensure your business stays competitive. In this article, we’ll take a look at just that – the most important hybrid work trends to watch out for in 2023. 

Quick Summary: Here are the most expected trends related to hybrid and remote work as of 2023:

• Leadership will value managers who can get optimum results from hybrid teams
• Proximity bias will continue to challenge managers
• Employee compensation will continue to be an issue
• Attracting talented employees will be harder for small companies
• Employees will fight to make hybrid work, work
• Hybrid workplaces will transform into intentional workplaces
• Business owners will continue to shrink their real estate footprint
• Homebuilders will design future homes for the at-home employee
• Millennials and Gen Z will dictate the direction of hybrid work
• Asynchronous communication will be more common
• Work-life balance and the question of, “Is it worth it?”
• The increased adoption of hybrid work models will continue
• More sophisticated hybrid work tech
• Greater focus on training and development

From the increasing adoption of hybrid work models to the rise of A.I., we’ll explore how the landscape changes so you don’t stay behind. We’ll also see the ways in which businesses are adapting to the new normal. 

Keep reading to find out how you can stay ahead of the game and make the most out of the latest shifts in the exciting world of hybrid work in 2023.

Hybrid Work Trends For 2023 (And Beyond)

To be effective in this new model of work, managers and business leaders need to see the coming trends so that they can align their business strategies and adapt their policies and practices.  

With that in mind, here are some of the major hybrid work trends for 2023.

#1 Leadership Will Value Managers Who Can Get Optimum Results From Hybrid Teams

How do you manage a team of distributed workers, some of whom you see every day, others you see once or twice a week, and some you will only meet in a Zoom meeting? 

According to a study by Workplaceless.com, 54% of managers think leadership is out of touch with employee expectations. Another 74% say they don’t have the influence or resources to manage their team.  

The ones that succeed find the sweet spot between micromanaging remote employees and forgetting about them (the latter approach will soon have employees wondering if they matter and looking elsewhere for a job).

Managers will be evaluated not only by the work produced by their team but also by whether they retain employees.

That’s why social media is flooded with ads promoting online courses and training programs related to hybrid work. 

And new hybrid and remote work influencers emerge, preaching about the importance of adapting to the new work norm. 

In addition, business schools are starting to answer the demand for additional training. Stanford has launched an online class, and The Harvard Business Review has published several articles. A slew of private firms have started offering managers training in the hybrid workplace. 

In 2023, expect more training programs and courses on hybrid work as more and more organizations will adopt the model.

#2 Proximity Bias Will Continue To Challenge Managers 

Remote employees and those not in the office every day are concerned that employees present in the office daily will have more face time with management and leadership and access to better information. And that will make them eligible for different privileges. 

According to the State of Remote Work 2022, a report by Owl Labs, there is a gender difference on at least one issue. 

Of men, 54% are concerned that working remotely gives them less say at work and that they are more likely to miss out on career opportunities. Only 42% of women expressed this concern.

Team meetings are particularly challenging. The Owl Labs’ study noted, among other things,  that in meetings where participants were a mix of those on-site and others working remotely:

• 34% were hesitant to interrupt someone who was speaking.
• 32% were concerned about not seeing faces and missing visual cues.
• 29% were concerned about not being able to see who was speaking.
• 26% were concerned about not being able to see the whiteboard.

Some managers solve this problem by requiring all employees to be on individual video feeds, regardless of location, thereby giving everyone the same perspective. 

Even so, we’ve all been in remote meetings where select participants have a second meeting via text messages on cell phones held underneath the table. 

Virtual Team Builders, a firm that helps train company owners and managers to implement hybrid work, suggests having all managers and leaders work from home at least once a week.

When an employee sees supervisors engaging in hybrid work, it says that this is part of how everyone in the company works. 

#3 Employee Compensation Will Continue To Be An Issue 

Compensation is a sticky topic for company owners and leaders.

How do you compensate members of a hybrid workforce fairly?  

Some are in the office five days a week. Others come in two days a week. Then there is the remote worker who spends half the year working from a family home in the Appenine mountains of Italy (but has a fiber-optic WiFi connection that can fry an egg). 

According to a white paper titled Fairness & Equity in Remote Compensation by Boundless, a firm that handles global employment for companies, there are three main approaches to compensation of a hybrid workforce:

• 38% of companies compensate remote workers based on local market rates where they live.
• 35% of companies approach compensation based on equal pay for equal work. 
• 28% of companies use a method based on a formula that includes the local cost of living, local taxes, and the type of work. The list goes on and differs for every application. 

Notice that these approaches do not embrace hybrid workers. A worker that comes in two days out of the week saves money on automobile costs, purchasing lunch, clothing, and dry cleaning. On the flip side, they dedicate space in their home, often an entire room, as their remote office. 

It is interesting to note that of the three approaches listed above, they are closer to being evenly distributed, more than one might expect. 

A remote worker in Canada has government-sponsored healthcare. Do you pay them extra money for their health insurance? 

Some companies solve this by offering benefits in a cafeteria-style arrangement where employees can choose their benefits. This is called benefits harmonization. 

According to Boundless, 44% of companies have not addressed compensation. This might change. Remember, hybrid work is still a new concept. 

There is also the issue of unintended consequences. You might have an employee working in a country with a low cost of living. What happens when they decide to move to Paris, France? If you have a formula based on the local cost of living, do you give them a raise?

These and similar questions will continue to keep HRs and People Managers up at night. Figuring out the answers will give them an edge in the competitive workplace landscape as employers. 

#4 Attracting Talented Employees Will Be Harder For Small Companies

Restructuring the workplace to accommodate a hybrid staff, upgrading technology and video conferencing, and the cyber security aspects of remote workers all mean added costs.

Referring to the State of Remote Work 2022, the report by Owl Labs, 27% of enterprise companies (defined as 10,000 employees or more) are requiring employees to return to the office. If you look at small companies with 10 to 50 employees, that number goes up to 41%. 

Owl Labs also reported that two-thirds of employees would start looking for another job if they could not work from home, with 39% of those workers stating they would quit. 

How do smaller companies attract talented employees who want a hybrid workplace? It will probably be a combination of reminding them of the excitement of working for a small company where major innovations often occur and those same companies conceding to some hybrid work.

If employees at a small business want hybrid work, they will also have to demonstrate that it provides a better outcome for the company. This gets us to the next trend.

#5 Employees Will Fight To Make Hybrid Work, Work

There is a mountain of data and research about the hybrid workplace, and most of it talks about how company owners and managers can make hybrid work. 

The reality is that hybrid is a two-way street. Employees must demonstrate that hybrid work improves their performance and, more importantly, makes things better for the company. 

How can employees manifest this? Giving it the extra effort is a place to start, and there is evidence that they realize this.

Dr. Lynda Gratton, a professor at the London Business School and author of Redesigning Work, participated in an interview with Tortoise, a UK news website.

In her own words:

We actually work longer. If you commute for two hours a day, then what you do in your mind is give an hour to work and an hour to yourself.

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) backs this up. In the first year of the pandemic, NBER research found the average at-home workday increased by 8.25, or 48.5 minutes. 

Their research included meeting and email meta-data from 3,143,270 users in North America, Europe, and the Middle East. When it comes to the hybrid workplace, employees are motivated to make it work and that trend will continue in the years ahead.

#6 Hybrid Workplaces Will Transform Into Intentional Workplaces

The workplace will continue evolving. 

No two days in a hybrid workplace are alike, and as different hybrid models emerge, offices need to adapt. 

The most productive hybrid workplaces will feature open-space designs, furniture that reconfigures, and ease of access. Space management will also be an issue. Check out this case study of how Common Desk used OfficeRnd’s management platform to solve the flexibility issue. 

Even the firms that are used to operating remotely need to get people into the office for intentional collaboration – face-to-face brainstorming, important meetings that are better held in person, and other activities. Companies will invest time and resources into creating workplaces that make employees want to come into the office. 

Gone are the lifeless cubicle farms. Expect more open spaces with casual seating, sofas, coffee tables, and attractive amenities.

The goal?

To make employees feel at home. For that, the space will need to become a place. This is a trend we captured while attending the CoreNet Global Summit Conference in Chicago in late 2022.

#7 Business Owners Will Continue To Shrink Their Real Estate Footprint

One of the benefits for owners is that although you may have 1,000 employees, only 200 might be in the office at any one time.

This requires less real estate which equals massive cost savings. Up to 40%, to be exact. Business leaders will continue to realize that hybrid work could save them tons of money, so they will figure out ways to adopt the model, in order to scale down their real estate footprint.

 A recent article in the New York Times reported how corporate layoffs and rising interest rates have negatively affected the office real estate market. The article also mentioned the increased prevalence of hybrid workspaces. 

The article cited KPMG, one of the big-four accounting firms. The firm adopted a hybrid work model, allowing them to vacate three older buildings, reducing the firm’s lease space by 40 percent.

The article quotes W. Scott Horne, a KPMG spokesman:

For our business, we believe a hybrid future — a blend of fully remote, hybrid, and on-site teams — will deepen connections among current and potential employees and leaders, delivering us a competitive edge in the marketplace.

#8 Homebuilders Will Design Future Homes For The At-home Employee

For someone who works in a hybrid work environment, their next home purchase will include a need for an at-home workspace. 

Such a space might need extra electrical outlets, accommodations for heavy-duty WiFi, and window placement that reduces distraction. An article in BuilderOnline.com discusses whether your in-home office occupies a spot near the kitchen or other areas of household activity. 

An alternate option is near the entrance of the residence to provide more privacy or to avoid having to straighten up the rest of the house when you host business-related visitors. 

#9 Millennials And Gen Z Will Dictate The Direction Of Hybrid Work 

The younger generations are most likely to leave a job that does not meet their expectations and brings them stress. They will bring that ethos with them as they mature in the workplace unless employers meet their needs. 

Boomers, on their way to retirement, will have the least influence on the hybrid office. Many have spent most of their careers working in an office environment and are comfortable with it. 

#10 Asynchronous Communication Will Be More Common

The increased implementation of hybrid workplaces means greater numbers of team members, potentially all over the globe. 

Asynchronous communication–(also known as asynch) acknowledges people working in multiple time zones (synchronous communication refers to employees exchanging communications in real-time). 

In asynch communication, a project manager in California leaves a message on Slack for a programmer in Greece, who answers it ten hours later. 

You will also encounter the occasional meeting where someone has to log in at 3:30 a.m. their time when for everyone else it is early afternoon. 

The other option is the increased use of remote video asynchronous collaboration tools such as Loom, as pointed out in a blog post on Workplaceless.com.  

The impact of this is that not all communications will be instant. Teams need to build time into planning for information exchanges that are not immediate but rather take a few hours or even overnight to get to everyone.  

#11 Work-life Balance And The Question Of, “Is It Worth It?”

Almost everyone knows someone who died of COVID-19 in the last three years. It has also been tumultuous worldwide with civil unrest and international tensions. 

One of the net effects, points out the Microsoft 2022 Work Trends Index, has been for many to re-evaluate priorities and ask, “Is it worth it?” 

The report found that 53% of employees are likely to prioritize health and well-being over work. Another 47% are likely to put family and their personal lives first.

Employers will remain sensitive to this. 

A severe recurrence of COVID-19 or one of its variants, or another pandemic might compel employees to consider relocating their homes from urban and suburban neighborhoods to a more rural setting. 

An employee in the office two or three days a week is then fully remote. How will that affect the team? Well-established hybrid work policies and practices can ensure minimal disruption. 

#12 The Increased Adoption Of Hybrid Work Models Will Continue

We mentioned that several times already but it’s so important that it deserves a heading of its own.

The expansion of hybrid workplaces will only perpetuate more expansion. Gallup reported that companies and owners continue to find that a hybrid workplace helps retain workers, expands the hiring pool, attracts high-talent job candidates, and improves employee performance.

The world is going hybrid and that’s the future of work.

For more interesting insights related to hybrid and flexible work, check out our article on the latest hybrid work statistics.

#13 More Sophisticated Hybrid Work Tech

Companies will move towards greater use of collaboration tools.

This is an area where company owners seem to be holding out. That will change in 2023 and beyond. According to the Owl Labs State of Remote Work 2022, only 36% of employers have upgraded their video-meeting technology. 

Thirty percent of in-office employees report frustration about not starting a meeting as scheduled because of unreliable or confusing technology. Why the hold-up in adopting this new technology? 

We’re not sure.

The possibilities include company buyers waiting for second-generation products to emerge in the market, while others might be holding off on the investment until they decide on a definite commitment to hybrid work. 

However, according to Statista, the collaboration software market revenues have been on the rise globally, rising from around $7 billion in 2015 to nearly $19 billion in 2021. It is expected to continue growing, reaching an estimated $21 billion by 2026. Plus, in-person collaboration helps businesses grow.

At OfficeRnD, we already developed advanced tools that stimulate in-person collaboration.

Greater Use Of Automation And AI

In late 2022, Jordan Peterson said it best:

ChatGPT and AI will take over

And given the widespread popularity of ChatGPT and similar tools, he was right.

Just take a look at the infographic below that shows the adoption rate of unarguably the most popular online AI tool right now.

Business owners can expect to find solutions in automated and more sophisticated hybrid work software, too. 

Automation Anywhere, in its September 2022 report, Automation Now & Then, discusses the increased use of automation to meet business transformation goals. 

Many of these will be cloud-based solutions. AIthority.com, a technology news website, reports that AI and automation solutions lend themselves to monitoring employee productivity, well-being, and communication.  

Greater Investment In Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is always an issue, but the hybrid workplace brings new concerns. Tim Liu, CTO of Hillstone Networks and a member of the Forbes Council, wrote in Forbes that:

Many OT/IoT networks are apparently under little or no protection.

He added that:

Networked cameras, automobiles, and other devices are vulnerable.

If your company maintains a fleet of cars for your sales force (who are remote workers), those cars are often registered on an app from the manufacturer (something which is increasingly common). 

What does that mean for the security of your workforce and the information they share through text messages and emails when they are in their car?

Greater Use Of Data And Analytics

In order to make more informed strategic business decisions, leaders will more and more use analytical tools that help them see how the hybrid work model performs. 

Shameless plug as an example: OfficeRnD Hybrid’s Workplace Analytics allows leaders to track important hybrid work KPIs such as office space utilization, workplace engagement, hybrid policies adoption, and more.

To make hybrid work, work, business decision-makers will need such type of software. And the market will respond.

Many companies started developing products that can help employers track absence trends to determine if staff are in danger of burnout. Pulse surveys with important hybrid work questions and continuous conversations to keep remote employees, and everyone else, engaged.

Greater Use Of Virtual And Augmented Reality

Earlier we mentioned how 32% of online meeting attendees were concerned about not seeing faces and missing visual cues. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) tools change dynamics, making everyone feel like they are in the meeting. 

Properly onboarding new employees increases retention by 82% and improves productivity by 70%, according to Zippia. VR and AR technologies can enhance that experience.

#14 Greater Focus On Training And Development

Leadership and management are not the only roles affected by change. Employees at all levels need training on new technologies, new policies, and greater cybersecurity, even how to book space at the office. 

Expect more online training, webinars, and in-office training to make sure employees are current.

 According to Gallup, 27% of employees say that “training or other learning and development opportunities” is the second most commonly identified activity for those working at home (“working independently” is first on the list with 86%). 

In Conclusion

For the majority of business leaders, the hybrid workplace went from, “Something we’ve been looking at for a few years,” to “Now we don’t have a choice.” It happened all around the world in a few days. 

Business leaders are now approaching it from the perspective of, “How do we make this work, and work better, for the long term?”

One way to make it work is by identifying the key hybrid work trends and analyzing how they affect your business. Some managers will naturally become hybrid evangelists, while others will need training and education. 

Making sure all employees feel valued and included will be an ongoing effort. Companies will struggle with the compensation question. And it will be interesting to see how small businesses define their version of the hybrid workplace. 

There will be experiments. There will be failures. There will be successes. The best companies, however, will be the ones that keep on trying.

FAQ

What’s the most expected hybrid work trend for 2023?

The most expected hybrid work trend for 2023 is undoubtedly the increasing adoption rate of the hybrid work model. Already 63% of high-growth companies use that model (one way or another) and that number will become bigger in 2023.

Why are companies moving to hybrid work?

Companies are moving to hybrid work for a variety of reasons, including increased productivity and cost savings. According to a study by Buffer, remote workers reported an average increase in productivity of 20%. Additionally, companies can save on expenses such as office space by having some employees work remotely. Feel free to read more about the benefits of hybrid work.

Is hybrid work the future of work?

Yes, it’s safe to say that hybrid work is the future of work and it’s already happening at a great speed worldwide. A survey by McKinsey found that 70% of executives plan to shift some employees to remote work permanently, and many companies are experimenting with hybrid work models.

Do employees prefer hybrid work?

Employee preferences for hybrid work vary but in general, we can say that employees do prefer hybrid work because that gives them flexibility and improved work-life balance.

With that being said, some employees prefer the flexibility and autonomy of remote work, while others prefer the structure and social interactions of working in an office. A survey by Buffer found that 43% of remote workers would like to continue working remotely at least some of the time, even after the pandemic. The research also shows that hybrid work models are proven to increase employee satisfaction and retention.