It has been over a year since organizations were forced to adopt remote work and most organizations had to change their way of working overnight. It looks like remote work is here to stay, albeit with some tweaks, as organizations gear up for a hybrid work environment.

A study by Microsoft found that 70 percent of workers want the flexible remote work options to continue, while over 65 percent crave for more in-person time with their teams. Hybrid work is a solution for this dual need that is emerging among employees. A recent study by ManpowerGroup found that most employees would prefer working two to three days in an office, and working remotely the rest of the time.

To fully understand how a hybrid working world would look like, it is important to first understand what changes when an individual works remote vis-à-vis in-office. The fundamental changes in a remote working environment can be covered by analysing three attributes – inclusion, well-being, and managerial effectiveness.

One of the biggest impact remote work has is on diversity and inclusion. Here is how it gets impacted:

“Remote work reduces networking across teams and impacts innovation"

• Affects diversity of thought: Office work typically has a high frequency of unplanned interactions. On the contrary, meetings in remote work are typically planned. This can have detrimental impact on the organization. While bonding within a team will be relatively unaffected, research indicates that remote work reduces networking across teams. It can lead to team level silos being unintentionally built, potentially leading to groupthink, and ultimately reducing innovation and organizational cohesion.