For many, the workplace of the future will be a hybrid one, with some work done at home and some at the office. In fact, by the end of 2023, almost 39% of knowledge workers worldwide will have a hybrid work arrangement, predicts Gartner.

Nonetheless, there are almost as many different hybrid work models as there are companies, even though they are all referred to by the same name. It might be daunting to choose the ideal option for your company and staff, so how can you be sure which will maximize health and productivity levels simultaneously?

We learned that working remotely is feasible, and in certain cases even preferable, during the COVID-19 epidemic. Studies reveal that employees are frequently more focused when working from home, and a shorter commute allows us to spend more time with our loved ones. Nonetheless, it is also evident that face-to-face collaboration is equally beneficial as offices begin to reopen. In the same way that working remotely allows us greater flexibility and concentrate, the office offers us a much-needed setting for peer collaboration and socialization.

However, there is no need for the separation of work and home to be either/or. You can get the rewards of both job models thanks to hybrid work.

What is a Hybrid Work Schedule? 

A flexible work arrangement that blends remote and in-office employment is the hybrid work schedule. Employees can work from the office some days and from home on other days. Although they are not required to work from home all the time, employees are also not strictly telecommuters. Rather, members of hybrid teams enjoy the advantages of both work environments: the flexibility and focus of remote work combined with the camaraderie of in-office employment.

Hybrid work is one of three different work models. Here’s how they compare: 

• In-office work schedule: Team members work from the office all the time, except for occasional work-from-home days for doctors appointments, childcare, and one-off life circumstances. 
• Remote work schedule: Everyone on the team works remotely from different locations. There’s no physical office, but remote employees may see each other in person a few times a year for team events or off-site meetings.
• Hybrid work schedule: This is a combination of the two prior models. Employees work from home on some days and from the office on others. Some hybrid work models let employees choose when to come in, while more structured schedules dedicate specific days for at-home or in-office work. 

Although hybrid work is not new, COVID-19 has made it more widely used. The epidemic shown that, because of increased flexibility, work-life balance, and concentrate time, remote work is not only feasible but even advantageous. It became evident that there were other ways to be active outside of the office as the globe began to open up.

When it comes to teamwork, workers are naturally drawn to the office, and when it comes to more focused work, they tend to go home. As a matter of fact, 49% of employees believe that the workplace now serves as a more social setting than it did in the past, particularly for group projects like strategy and planning, onboarding, one-on-one meetings, and training.

The remote-work infrastructure implemented during the pandemic is still in place, meaning it’s been easier for teams to adopt hybrid schedules and stay flexible amidst the continuing uncertainties of COVID. Now 42% of remote-capable employees split their time between home and the office, and that number is projected to top 53% in the coming years.

Types of Hybrid Work Schedules

There are various ways to implement hybrid work, so you may customize your team’s work schedule to meet individual requirements and preferences. Examine five popular hybrid work options and learn about the benefits and drawbacks of each as you navigate the world of hybrid work.

Cohort schedules

Cohort schedules are the most structured hybrid work approach. With this format, everyone follows one common rule set by their manager or the company. For example, everyone at the company works in-office on Mondays and Tuesdays, with the option to work from home Wednesday through Friday. 

Here are a few popular types of cohort schedules: 

• 3:2 model: Employees spend three days in the office and two days at home. This hybrid work policy is easy to coordinate and allows everyone to be in the office on the same days of the week. There’s at least one drawback, though—the 3:2 model doesn’t allow companies to downsize their office space, so it can be expensive.
• Bottom-up model: The company lets individual teams decide which days they need to be in the office.They set a goal (like two days in-office per week) and let each team decide what works best for them. The bottom-up model allows teams to work together to determine what office schedule is optimal for everyone—and since different teams are in the office on different days, you can downsize your office space. A potential downside to this method is that it’s harder to get cross-functional teams in the office on the same day. 
• Staggered schedules: This hybrid model doesn’t just specify the days employees should come in—it also determines what time they should come in, down to the exact hour of arrival and departure. Staggered schedules are the most rigid cohort schedule, and are best for shift-driven work. For example, a doctor’s office might use staggered schedules to ensure there’s enough staff available throughout the day, while still operating at reduced capacity to avoid COVID risk. This would allow doctors to see patients virtually on their work-from-home days, but still ensure there’s sufficient in-office coverage. 

Flexible schedules

Flexible schedules are just that—flexible. They provide no hard-and-fast rules. Instead, employees can work from home when they want and come into the office when they want. 

• Flexi-place: This hybrid model gives individual team members the freedom to decide where they want to work on a given day. It’s similar to the bottom-up method, but the decision-making power lies with individuals instead of whole teams. If you want to downsize your office, flexi-pace schedules can still work as long as you have a desk-reservation system. If you have limited space for in-office work, this means employees can reserve a workspace before they come in. Keep in mind that you might run out of space on a given day, so team members who want to come in may not be able to.
• Flexi-time: This model allows team members to choose their hours. For example, on work-from-home days team members could work from 8am to noon, run errands, then log back on from 3pm to 7pm. You can also combine flexi-time with flexi-place schedules or cohort schedules to provide even more flexibility for your employees. 

5 Examples of Hybrid Work Schedules that Boost Employee Experience

The first four examples of timetables are cohort schedules, which adhere to a standard that is established by the manager or firm as a collective. The last example, on the other hand, is based on individual choice; each worker choose where and frequently when they work. Both kinds have advantages; the best option is the one that best suits your particular business.

1. Three Days On-Site, Two Days Remote

One of the most common hybrid schedules right now has employees in the office three days per week, with two remote days. It’s in vogue because it gives teams plenty of facetime and collaboration time together while also allowing the flexibility of two days of the week at home.

Read Also: The Top Hybrid Work Tools and Software for Remote Collaboration

The most popular days for in-office work right now are Tuesdays and Wednesdays, according to SHRM. It’s not ideal to be extremely rigid with the days employees need to be in the office, for example making them all come in on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, because that takes away some of their autonomy which is critical for employee engagement.

And it lessens one of the major benefits of hybrid work environments — flexibility — if they’re packing up to come in every other day instead of determining alone or together what works for them and the team.

If your employees would prefer more time working remotely, you can easily flip this schedule to be remote for three days and in-office for two, but if you choose that path you’ll certainly want to coordinate closely with the whole team or department to make the most of the in-person time together.

2. One Set Day On-Site, Remote or In-Person Otherwise

If your company has a stronger preference for remote work but still wants the benefits of regular in-person collaboration, you can offer a more flexible option. The whole company decides on a set day for office work — perhaps it’s Thursdays —- when everyone is required to be in the office.

This allows the company to conduct the kind of work that functions better in person, such as 1:1 meetings, brainstorming, onboarding, and strategy and planning. It also offers all employees the flexibility to arrange the rest of their weeks as they like, whether that means remote work to avoid a long commute or coming into the office because they live in a small space.

3. Team-Driven Days

Instead of taking a top-down approach to hybrid work schedules, you can also allow each team to determine how many days they’d like to be in the office per week and which specific days those will be, to allow for both teamwork and flexibility.

This offers each team the flexibility to set their schedules according to the kind of work they do — for example, your marketing team might want more time for face-to-face meetings for creative work, while your finance team prefers the increased focus they get from remote work so they choose fewer in-office days.

You can set some loose guidelines for these schedules, like requiring at least one day per week in the office, but avoid anything too rigid as that takes away from the autonomy this kind of schedule offers to your team members.

4. Staggered Schedules

Sometimes, it’s simply not feasible to offer all your employees a lot of flexibility in where they work because you need office coverage, especially if they work in a customer-facing role. In that case, staggered schedules can offer a mix of the benefits of some remote work while also ensuring you have enough people in the office at all times to cover customer needs.

For example, a dermatologist’s office needs to have staff in-person at all times, so you could schedule staggered shifts to ensure coverage while allowing team members to work remotely the rest of the time to complete paperwork and conduct remote appointments as needed.

5. Flexible Scheduling

Finally, if it’s feasible for your company, you can offer employees the flexibility to work where they determine is best for them. That means five days per week in the office if they choose, or just one, or a schedule that changes on any given day or week depending on their workload and tasks. This gives them the ultimate control over their work-life balance, which is great for employee engagement and employee satisfaction.

Nonetheless, there are certain practical issues with office space when using this type of flexible work arrangement, especially if your company is tiny and your staff work remotely most of the time. It could be necessary to put in place a desk reservation system so that staff members are aware that they will have somewhere to sit when they choose to come into work.

Summary

For many HR directors today, maintaining a coherent and interesting corporate culture in a hybrid work environment is a difficult undertaking. Examining why employees value staying in the office, however, might be helpful. According to 49% of workers, the office is now more of a social space than it was in the past, especially for activities requiring collaboration.

A excellent hybrid work culture makes sure that workers can effortlessly integrate their personal life into their work life with remote days and use their in-office days for collaboration, networking, bonding, and even socializing.

When outlining expectations for your staff, be sure to be as specific as possible to maximize the effectiveness of your hybrid work policy. Their personal and professional life can be planned appropriately if they are aware of exactly what is expected of them.

It’s also a good idea to proactively share with your stakeholders the decision-making process that went into your hybrid model. For example, why did your executives decide that employees need to report to work three days a week rather than two? While treating employees like the capable professionals they are rather than just giving them instructions won’t guarantee that every employee will agree with your judgments, it does.

Lastly, ensure that relationships people have at work, particularly those formed in an office setting, feel meaningful. If workers are forced to commute into a mostly empty office where they have all of their meetings via Zoom and project discussions via Slack—discussions they could be having from home—mandatory office time will lose its meaning.