Hybrid work was born of the wild swings of the pandemic. It seemed we all went home to work, then we all came back to the office — only to be sent home again when another viral wave or variant began to surge. Eventually, we settled into a world where the hybrid model became norm: Some workers remained fully remote, some returned to the office every day, but most began to split their time between the two locations.

One tool that can go a long way toward helping an organization understand just what they need to ready themselves for the transition to the modern hybrid work model is the Crestron Modern Work Readiness Score, an online survey that can help determine just which of the roadblocks below may need the bulk of your attention.

Mindset

The first may likely be the toughest — a transition to a hybrid work model demands a change in mindset. And it’s a change that starts in the C-suite.

A prime example is this exchange below from the Crestron blog. We asked Distribute Consulting — a firm that specializes in helping organizations make this very transition — the question: “Are some executives still reticent (as in, still harboring fears of remote workers “slacking”), or are we past that?”

Their answer:

When something has been done a certain way for a very long time, people can be very averse to changing — and where we work is no exception. Even though many businesses found that their staff was more productive while working from home during the pandemic, we still hear things like, “Well, how will I know if they are working?” It seems that, particularly in the last year, we are finding ourselves … talking to C-suites and again having to educate them on the future of flexible work. They are feeling the pressure from staff, their industry, and the world as a whole, and yet they still can’t shake those old myths and outdated opinions.

Offering hybrid options, though, is absolutely critical to employee recruitment and retention, especially when it comes to younger workers. As Crestron notes in its recent analysis “At the Tipping Point: How Modern Work is Going Mainstream and Why Companies Need to Be Ready:”

[P]eople are unwilling to relinquish new freedoms they first tasted in the pandemic; for example, research by Nordic facilities company Coor in 2022 revealed that 41% of employees were willing to leave their job if not offered flexibility. This number increased to 51% among 18-30-year-olds.

Those stats aren’t outliers. This report from McKinsey, for example, notes that finding a flexible work schedule — that hybrid blend of in-person and remote work — is one of the top reasons workers are looking for a new gig. The survey further found that most staffers will absolutely take advantage of a hybrid schedule if offered the chance, and most averaged three days of remote work and two days in the office setting weekly.

But don’t sell off too much of that precious commercial real estate: A Unispace survey of European firms called the “The Reluctant Returner” (quoted in Crestron’s “Tipping Point” analysis) found that “69% of 18-34-year-olds want to go back to the office on a full-time basis ... This could reflect a need to socialize after years of lockdown and remote working, as well as a need for learning and development or mentorship opportunities which have been lacking in recent years.”

Clearly, a blend of remote workers and in-person staff on any given day is the ticket.

Policies

Crestron was an early adopter of the hybrid model. The team tasked with implementing the policies that ensured success worked with Distribute Consulting and began the audit process that was integral to the transition:

“We created employee lists and collaborated with the department managers to determine what roles can work hybrid, which ones definitely need to be on-site, and which ones could be fully remote?” says [VP of HR Operations Marcos Negron].

“We had to work a little bit closer with the managers to say, ‘Hey, if Andrew and Marcos are doing the same job, why is Marcos designated as fully remote and Andrew has to be on-site?” says [Anthony Morin, EVP of corporate operations]. The process demanded complete transparency with each employee and their manager and considerations for coverage that kept some portion of every hybrid team on-site on a given day. The plan keyed on Wednesday as the prime day for in-office collaboration, and for, say, a team of 10, five would also come in Monday and Thursday, and the other five would add Tuesday and Friday to the three-day work week.

Employees were expected to sign contracts that outlined their individual agreements. Nothing was “squishy” about the process: “All the information was out there, in writing, from safety protocols to attendance expectations,” says [Senior Director of Real Estate and Workplace Services Andrew Razgaitis].

Creating a successful culture for hybrid work goes beyond scheduling, however. In another article from the Crestron blog, we spoke with Karin M. Reed and Joseph R. Allen, Ph.D., authors of  “Suddenly Hybrid: Managing the Modern Meeting.” Reed and Allen lay out nine steps to ensure great collaboration when half a meeting’s attendees are virtual, and half aren’t. Their tips run the gamut from establishing what’s known as a “speak up” culture (to help recognize every participant in a meeting no matter their locale) to creating a training program so that everyone understands both the “rules of engagement” and the technology that facilities a hybrid meeting — a real blend of hard and soft skills for the workplace.

There’s a surprising benefit to this shift, too: Joseph Allen’s research on the subject has concluded that hybrid meetings are actually superior to other types of collaboration. In this piece, Allen outlines how “hybrid meetings encourage more participation, less counterproductive meeting behavior, and greater inclusivity than other meeting modes.” (It’s an excellent counter to any “hybrid naysayers” mentioned in Roadblock Number One.)

Calculate your Crestron Modern Work Readiness Score

IT Resources

The pressure of the hybrid model on the help desk shouldn’t be underestimated. The challenge is creating a frictionless transition between the home office and the in-person experience. Is the employee shifting between a work and home desktop? Are they transporting a laptop back and forth? Is their monitor, keyboard, and mouse setup consistent? Are the proper security protocols in place on every network? Is there a desk scheduling system in place, or are some chairs simply empty three days a week? Has the team accounted for BYOD (“bring your own device”) needs as employees (and guests) use outside gear for collaboration and presentation solutions?

And that’s just for starters.

All of this may be taking a toll on the IT department. As Crestron’s Sam Kennedy noted in this piece: “[H]ere’s a pair of stats that should alarm every C-suite (as we found via ManageEngine):

• 55% of IT department managers feel less loyal to their employer than two years ago.

• 58% of ITDMs are actively looking for a new job.”

Kennedy went on to outline three key areas to focus on to keep the IT team a little less stressed:

• Implement the right technology management platforms. In short, “Platforms that help manage room scheduling, report on actual usage, and signal alerts when equipment’s down (or nearing the end of its life cycle), or licenses need renewal can be a huge help to an IT department.” Additionally, an effective desk scheduling solution is an absolute must if employees are using the same physical space, but on different days.

• Broaden your horizons beyond the office. This is the concept of “mirroring” the home office and the in-person experience, from ease of connectivity to familiar peripherals. There’s nothing more frustrating than coming to work for an “in-person day” and spending the first 30 minutes trying to find a space, get online, and begin work, and that will often result in another call or ticket to an already challenged IT pro.

• Empower employee collaboration and feedback. By encouraging that info loop between the broader staff, the C-suite, and the IT team — and by really listening to concerns and ideas and giving the IT department the power to implement solutions and offer advice — you’ll have gone a long way toward hanging on to the talent that can keep everything running properly.

All of this dovetails back into Roadblock Number Two: By setting clear expectations and boundaries regarding work equipment and spaces, you’ll reduce pressure on your IT specialists. You’ll find that clear “do this/don’t do that” policies can eliminate a lot of friction among personnel.

Download the Crestron white paper “At the Tipping Point: How Modern Work is Going Mainstream and Why Companies Need to Be Ready”

Collaboration Spaces

In the modern workplace, any place can be a meeting space. And if any collaborators in those spaces are remote, that part of your facility needs the connectivity and tools to allow them to join that meeting effectively and equitably. In the universe of hybrid work, that goes for every potential meeting space in a building, from the smallest huddle area to the biggest auditorium. As Crestron’s Director of Channel Marketing (Consultants) Mark Pellegrino noted in this article, “Whether it’s a handset that also has some video capabilities to a full-on auditorium or training facility — and every type of space in between, small, medium, and large — they all need video conferencing capabilities.”

That means designing spaces to allow for effective sightlines and excellent audio for both those in the room and those on-camera — the experience has to be great for both kinds of attendees in a modern hybrid workplace.

The other benefit of great room design is that it’s one of several ways to “make the commute worth it.” In addition to creating the right communications solutions, bringing more amenities and comfort to the in-person experience is always a plus. Pellegrino, along with Crestron partners like Steelcase, have been diving into the challenge headfirst. While the article mentioned above gives much more detail, here’s a quick look at some tips that can help:

• Change the room orientation from “portrait” to “landscape:” Putting cameras and displays on the longer legs of a rectangle gives the remote viewer a better look at their in-office collaborators.

• Consider implementing curved or trapezoidal conference tables: Non-traditional shapes allow for better eye contact among in-person collaborators without sacrificing the view for virtual meeting attendees.

• Use non-traditional seating design, including soft seating: A sofa placed in front of a high-top table or two isn’t just cozy; it creates levels of seating for a better camera shot of every attendee in the room.

• Add “homey” touches: fabrics, drapery, plants, and so on: In addition to recalling the comforts of home, those items make for excellent sound absorbers, mitigating the unpleasant audio experience so often caused by rooms full of glass and other hard surfaces.

• Ensure the right lighting and shading solutions are deployed: Windows are wonderful — until the in-room attendees are backlit (and impossible to see on camera) and a display is washed out by the brightness of the sun.

• Keep user interfaces as intuitive as possible: When touch screens and remotes are as easy-to-use as they are aesthetically pleasing, that’s a win.

• Consult a technology professional early in the design process and facilitate discussions with end users in order to bring the right technology into the mix: Whether you’re building a room from scratch or retrofitting an existing space, knowing what cables need to run where (among a thousand other variables) can save you time, money, and heartburn as the room comes together.

And, of course, that last tip leads us to:

Technology

Removing roadblocks one through four is great — but all that thoughtful work means nothing if the right technological solutions aren’t there, running smoothly, all “working and playing well with one another.”

But the right technological solutions do so much more than simply allow us to see and be seen, hear and be heard — they can help achieve something called “meeting equity.” As we outline in this article on the Crestron Sightline Experience:

When a remote worker’s presented with what’s best described as a “view down a bowling alley” with a single camera perched at one end of a conference table ... disengagement is bound to occur. “When you’re remote, it can be really difficult to see everyone at that table, to read body language, to see those non-verbal cues that are so important — those very things help you understand when it’s the right time for you to offer an interjection,” [Crestron’s Director of Product Marketing Lauren Simmen] explains.

Another challenge? The natural movement of attendees when they’re speaking to one another. “If I’m in a conference room and a camera’s on my right, the moment I speak to the person on my left, the remote viewer sees the back of my head,” says Simmen. Not only is audio quality likely diminished, but the speaker’s facial expressions are completely hidden from sight for the virtual attendee.

To overcome these issues, a multi-camera, automated switching system — literally, an AI program that follows who’s speaking at a given moment and “cuts” to that individual — can have a profound impact. This technology tracks a speaker’s voice and automatically frames that individual on a screen, giving the remote worker a look that’s not dissimilar from the layout one finds when every attendee is virtual. It’s quite literally a close-up of the speakers, revealing all those critical nonverbal clues and providing the best available audio in that hybrid situation.

The Crestron Sightline Experience — in addition to using the visual language of film and television that we all understand — carries with it another benefit: It’s an excellent example of inclusive design, especially for those with hearing loss.

Creating a holistic solution — one in which the technology operates so seamlessly that the user almost forgets it’s there — requires an expert with knowledge of a variety of sub-systems: intelligent video, proper microphones, cloud-based management systems, and many, many more.

Helping you navigate the transition to the model of modern hybrid work is why we created the Crestron Modern Work Readiness Score. Many specifiers simply “don’t know what they don’t know,” and a tool such as this is a terrific first step toward understanding just what it takes to design and deploy the hybrid technologies that fit your specific needs. When you share the results with a Crestron professional, you’ll see just what specific solutions will deliver the results that keep your organization running at its very best.