Prediction #5: Companies will accept and adopt hybrid work models.
Hybrid work will become the norm—not a policy—requiring leaders to design meetings and work schedules that maximize productivity regardless of location.
When we think of hybrid work models as a policy, it becomes a problem that must be controlled and enforced. Flipping that perspective on its head empowers organizations to establish the office as a "collaboration center" that becomes an inviting location to connect with colleagues.
While there are many benefits for both employees and organizations when work location flexibility is accepted, suitable infrastructure must be in place to support workers no matter where they are. Leaders must give thoughtful deliberation to how the organization can:
Design in-person meetings and in-office time as useful and worth employees' commute time
Invest in sophisticated technology that gives conference rooms the feeling of everyone in one place
Create effective communication channels for all needs
Train managers for effective "presence" and availability for employees
Plan in-person, all-team gatherings to solidify collective connection to each other, the company, and its purpose
Following the radical shift to work-from-home at the height of the pandemic, companies have devoted much energy to establishing long-term policies around who can work from home, how often they can work from home, and how productivity is measured. In 2024, taking a different approach to hybrid work models and flexibility can positively affect employee engagement and performance.
At the Academy, our library of articles and courses to support you in developing hybrid model initiatives is extensive, including topics dedicated to performance management in a post-Covid world, managing hybrid work, remote hiring, scheduling hybrid teams, and many more. Our courses, Hybrid Working, Performance Management Redesigned, and Design Thinking for HR, can help you think through hybrid work with a new perspective and are open now for enrollment.
Open to everyone: Help inform the Academy's research and resources by taking this 2-minute pulse survey about your company's DEI practices.
From Josh’s Desk
“This week, I am looking forward to connecting with the entire Bersin Team in person for our annual all-hands company meeting. While the timing of this meeting is purely coincidental to this week's profile of Prediction #5 above, I'm thrilled whenever I see our research, predictions, and recommendations come to life. Our team operates virtually year-round. We've worked hard to set up the technology and expectations that support a virtual team and ensures everyone feels the connection to our mission, not to mention immediate line managers and company leaders. Our flexibility in how people show up for meetings enables each person to be on camera or off, and our managers are skilled in one-on-one conversations to ensure everyone's needs, ideas, and concerns are heard, whether they express ideas immediately during meetings or plan out their points for comment later. Having the periodic in-person events allows us to reestablish our ties to each other and spend time together in a way that deepens professional relationships and allows us to talk with people we don't normally cross paths with in our daily meetings. To my team, I say I can't wait to see you all; you make this company run like clockwork!"
We invite you to share this newsletter with colleagues and friends in HR and L&D!
Resources and Connections
NEW!Should L&D Professionals Worry About Losing Jobs to AI?—In this Resource, Will Brown, L&D professional at HP, shares valuable insights around what L&D professionals can do to safeguard their jobs and elevate the impact they have on learning experiences in their organizations.
Performance Management Tools—In this video, Josh shares his advice for evaluating performance management tools, especially during times of rapid transformation and change. He talks about the value he sees in piloting new performance management tools as part of how we navigate hybrid and remote work models.
Managing Hybrid—Managing a remote team is unlike managing an in-office team. And managing a hybrid team is its own distinct art form, different from either alternative. In this Resource, we’ll explore the specific skills that managers of hybrid teams need to have in their toolkits. Review it now.
Open to everyone! People Analytics Survey—People Analytics data has long been an essential tool for strategic planning. Help us see the contours of data-based decision-making in a brand new light. Take this survey and we'll use the results to demystify the precise data elements valuable to business outcomes. Click here!
Join the Academy now for this members-only webinar!Conversations with the JBA: Building an Irresistible Employee Experience — Join the JBA to hear from Ray Narine, People Business Partner at Mastercard, and Robert Milnor, Founder and CEO at People Analytics Partners, on Wednesday, March 13 at 10 am ET. They'll host an engaging panel discussion on how HR practitioners can embrace AI innovations. Enroll in the Academy now to register.
The Dynamic Org in 2024: AI, HR, and a New Leadership Model — Join Josh Bersin and Unleash on March 21 at 12 pm ET to get a detailed look at the impact of AI on leadership strategies for HR. Josh will share critical insights about the pressures brought on by industry convergence, the tight labor market, and AI's disruption of business. Register now.
We cannot anticipate or control every potential internal or external change within an organization. The good news is that it’s not necessarily about being able to predict change before it happens. It’s about being flexible when it happens.
Employees, even the ones in HR, don’t always have clear guidance on what it takes to grow, which skills they need to get ahead, or whether their current organization is the best place for them to achieve their goals. Learn how to look at building a career as a process with this course.
Right in line with this week's Prediction #4, this course is focused on what's next in employee engagement. We'll explore how we can redesign how we measure employee engagement and turn it into tangible actions that create meaningful change.
This workshop is for HR professionals responsible for designing, implementing, and transforming the HR Tech ecosystem in their organizations. It introduces an iterative process for assessing, discovering, testing, scaling, and improving HR technology.
To see all upcoming Certificate Programs, check out the schedule here.
The Josh Bersin Company, 6114 La Salle Ave., Suite 475, Oakland, CA 94611
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