Hybrid Work: Myths, Stickiness, and the Future of Work

In the never-ending battle between hybrid flexibility and in-person work, the landscape has been evolving so frequently that the true winners are those who can keep up with the changing tides. With exhausted managers, tightening budgets, and Gen Z hitting the workforce hard, space planners are still working to get hybrid right.

Richard Scannell, CEO of Lambent, brought industry experts Suzanne Heidelberger and Michael Casolo together to discuss the challenges and opportunities presented by hybrid work models. As companies grapple with the post-pandemic reality, the conversation centered around three key themes: innovation, productivity, and corporate culture. If you’d like to watch the video for yourself, here’s a link to the recording.

The Myth of Reduced Productivity from Hybrid Work

Contrary to popular belief, the panelists suggested that productivity hasn’t necessarily decreased with remote work. Like other hybrid conversations, panelists agree that home or other work environments can be just as if not more effective for getting specific types of tasks accomplished. Suzanne Heidelberger noted, “I think there’s definitely a perception that innovation, that productivity is lessened. I think it’s a myth.”

The Real Challenge: Cultural Stickiness

What’s truly at stake, according to the experts, is the “stickiness to culture.” This concept, introduced by Heidelberger, refers to the ability to build strong, resilient relationships within an organization. The panelists agreed that the ease of transactional interactions in the digital world has come at the cost of deeper, more meaningful connections.

That’s not to say that the hybrid world can’t build meaningful relationships, but that there’s something intangible about teams that sit in the same office together, that sharing spaces build something harder to walk away from. Leaders find that mentoring and coaching are easier to do in face-to-face situations, and innovation is faster when people have time together.

Real Estate Utilization Metrics Have Gone from Luxury to Table Stakes

“BMS, systems and smart building systems have been around for a while. But they were really focused on running the equipment,” said Heidelberger, but today’s technology stack has gone deeper and offered custom tailored solutions that can accelerate successful real estate management, help predict future needs, validate spends, and build in flexibility. “It cannot be in excel spreadsheets anymore,” said Heidelberger.

Building Management Tools and People Management Tools Need to Interact

While BMS and scheduling softwares have been around awhile, the next evolution of technology needs to be in the way that all these systems interact with each other, mused Casolo. When we merge the management of facilities and people, we can build better workplace experiences and create the types of meaningful spaces that reinforce the stickiness of office culture.

Leading with Data Not Fear

The data is out there – the prop tech world is experiencing a technology boom with AI driving analytics in new, critical ways. From Wi-Fi occupancy analytics like Lambent to IWMs systems and more, there’s data to support critical business decisions about your Real Estate. “Getting the numbers and leading by numbers, not leading with myth or fear, or exhaustion, but really leading with the numbers and the fact that those numbers are available,” said Heidelberger, will help real estate leaders galvanize the data available to them and be more effective and efficient with their real estate planning.

“Getting the numbers and leading by numbers, not leading with myth or fear, or exhaustion, but really leading with the numbers and the fact that those numbers are available.” Suzanne Heidelberger

Nurturing Teams in a Hybrid World

Michael Casolo highlighted the growing need to shift from managing teams to nurturing them in the remote work era. When teams were forced en masse to move to remote work, managers and leaders had to be tactical in their managerial approach. This created the transactional management style in use in some of the companies that feel they’re still not “getting hybrid right”. He emphasized the need to focus on building bonds among team members that can transform projects and tasks. This approach requires intentionality and new strategies to recreate the spontaneous interactions that once occurred naturally in office settings.

Ditch the Mandates: Lead with your Why

Richard Scannell posed an interesting question to the group surrounding the divisive mandates coming out of tech leaders and corporations across the globe. Are managers getting exhausted and calling people back to the office as a knee jerk reaction? Experts Casolo and Heidelberger agree that these mandates without explanation are signs of fatigue and that good leaders always lead with their why.

Getting through the inertia of changing workers commuting habits is going to take more than mandates, they’re going to need to be brought on a journey of the why, said Casolo.

Managing Real Estate Leases in Times of Change

With so much change in how we work, how can real estate leaders plan accordingly for 10 year leases? “It’s an awesome puzzle, isn’t it?” said Heidelberger, “I think that looking at your portfolio overall and seeing where you can drop space and what the pain involved is to do that, what the impact to associates are going to be, what the cost to achieve is going to be, and what the size of the prize is going to be for every part of the portfolio.” And while that’s always been crucial to the real estate manager’s success, having contingency plans and being able to articulate the opportunities to finance and other organizational leaders is paramount in today’s landscape.

Casolo’s advice is to build in flexibility into any plans, reminding the audience that it’s always been a challenge to see into the future but that building intentionally flexible spaces and real estate plans can help you adjust to shifts in workplace culture swiftly.

The Evolution of Work Culture

The discussion touched on how work culture might evolve to fill the voids left by reduced in-person interaction. Casolo expressed confidence in human adaptability, stating, “We will evolve. Well, you know I have confidence in the human race and the corporate culture even, and we will get through that.”

As organizations navigate this new landscape, the key will be finding innovative ways to foster relationships, mentor new hires, and maintain the cultural fabric that defines successful companies. The future of work will likely involve a delicate balance between leveraging technology for efficiency and creating deliberate opportunities for meaningful human connection. Measuring both facilities as facilities and for their hospitality, experience, and operational success will be the difference between getting hybrid right and getting it wrong.

If you’re looking for occupancy and utilization data that has the power to transform your real estate strategy and experience, reach out to our sales team for a demonstration of Lambent Spaces.