NEW YORK, Aug 22 (Reuters) – If you ever question the value of hybrid work, just talk to L Parker Barnum.
The CEO of creative agency Mythology splits his week: three days from his home in New Jersey and two days at the company’s office in Manhattan.
His verdict: The agreement makes him more productive, not less.
“Just eliminating the commute gives me three and a half hours a day, three days a week,” Barnum says. “That’s more than 10 extra hours a week – half of which I spend working and the other half sharing household chores with my wife and taking care of the kids.”
The study – the most comprehensive of its kind to examine the impact of home office arrangements – concludes that the benefits are manifold: productivity is not affected, promotions and career advancement are not affected, and employee retention improves significantly.
“Productivity and performance remained the same. It saved office space and, crucially, (employers) saved millions in recruiting,” says Bloom, who tracked 1,600 employees at Trip.com to compile the results. “It was huge for the company.”
For example, the cost of replacing a new employee and training a new employee was estimated at $30,000. Thanks to flexible work options, employees are less likely to leave the company; the number of resignations has fallen by a third.
“There may have been a stigma around telecommuting before the pandemic, but I don’t think there is a stigma today,” Bloom says. “In many large companies, employees now typically come into the office three days a week. Hybrid seems to be the trend.”
Of course, there are also potential pitfalls to working part-time from home. Here are four tips to make the most of hybrid work arrangements:
PRACTICE EXTREME COMMUNICATION
The danger of being in your own location is that if you’re out of sight, you’ll fall out of mind. If you’re not physically in the office, you could miss out on big projects or not be the first choice for a promotion.
So it’s better to communicate too much.
When I work from home, “I don’t disappear where nobody can find me,” says Mythology’s Barnum. “If I’m not on Zoom, I’m texting. I’m on the phone. I’m still in touch.”
Barnum advises chatting with colleagues on the side to find out the latest news and the right moments to appear in front of the camera.
“I constantly communicate with my superiors about what my day, my week, my month looks like,” he adds.
Determine performance data
One thing that can help wary bosses cope with remote work and help employees prove their worth is a robust employee performance appraisal system.
“Obviously, when people are working from home, you can’t see what they’re doing every minute of the day,” Bloom says. “So you need sales targets, deliverables, performance evaluation data – whatever the metric is, you need to get that done.”
Be careful with full remote work
Bloom’s positive results are based on two days of work at home. Those who are out of the house every day cannot necessarily draw the same conclusions.
“Fully remote work is what CEOs really complain about,” Bloom says. “For promotions, coming into the office three days a week is probably enough.”
However, promotion rates drop by half when employees work from home four or more days per week.
COORDINATE SCHEDULES
An important strategy is to ensure that your office days coincide with those of others on your team.
If you go to work on Monday, your colleague goes to work on Tuesday, and your boss goes to work on Wednesday, this haphazard approach could negatively impact your team and your own career prospects.
“The downsides of working remotely are that it’s harder to supervise people, train employees, innovate and share ideas at meetings,” says Bloom. “Coordinate the days you come in so you actually see your colleagues.”
Barnum, in turn, has some advice for managers who cling to the 9-to-5 work model.
“People can easily work from home, from coffee shops or from co-working spaces,” says Barnum. “If you hire great people, you should trust them to get the job done.”
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Reporting by Chris Taylor; Editing by Lauren Young and Jonathan Oatis
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
