Mastering Hybrid Work

The hybrid work benefits. The hybrid work disadvantages.

First things first: hybrid work benefits those companies which have the proper processes in place, and the proper teams to handle them.

This is why companies like Atlassian can even move beyond hybrid work and run a remote-first company that is distributed across more than 10 countries.

“The biggest blockers to productivity, connection, and innovation are not location-based. They center around how work gets done: back-to-back meetings, vague priorities, confusing email threads, and streams of distracting notifications. All knowledge workers face these challenges, regardless of where they work. “

Atlassian 

While rushing a new trend of hybrid work, it’s easy to forget why employees demand it in the first place, and what are the challenges it brings. Thus, some hybrid working attempts fail. This article will help you confirm your expectations and shed light on aspects you will need to focus on when introducing a hybrid work model. 

What is hybrid work?

Let’s sum it up a bit: hybrid work, is a flexible work model that allows people to work from both a traditional office and their home offices.

Well organized hybrid work isn’t just giving an opportunity of working from home in some stiff 2/3 or 4/1 models. Hybrid work is about handing employees flexibility and autonomy to adjust schedules to better fit their lifestyles. Hybrid work is about  freeing work from office walls and making it more approachable despite personal circumstances employees face. 

The benefits of hybrid work

Here’s a list of hybrid work advantages that are backed-up by data:

• Increased productivity
• Improved employee wellbeing and employee satisfaction
• Better employee retention as well as access to a more diverse talent pool
• Cost savings, as a result of office downsizing
• Significant reductions in carbon emissions

The Ctrip remote work experiment

Before diving into further details, let me tell you about an experiment taking place way before the 2020 pandemic.

• Company: Ctrip (China’s largest travel agency, 16,000 employees).
• Participants: 249 call-center employees (half randomized to work from home, half stayed office-based).
• Duration: 9 months (2010-2011).

Findings

1. Productivity boost:
   • WFH employees increased performance by 13% (more calls handled per shift).
   • Gains came from:
     • Fewer breaks/sick days (+9%).
     • Quieter work environment (+4%).
2. Employee benefits:
   • Higher job satisfaction: WFH workers reported improved morale.
   • 50% lower attrition rate vs. office group.
   • Saved 80 minutes/day on commuting.
3. Cost savings:
   • Ctrip saved $2,000/employee/year on office space.

After the experiment, 50% of WFH employees chose to return to the office, citing loneliness. Ctrip then offered hybrid options.

The Ctrip experiment was led by Nicholas Bloom from Stanford University and graduate student James Liang, who is also a cofounder of Ctrip. This was one of the first rigorous experiments on remote work, proving WFH can boost productivity if structured properly. It inspired later hybrid work models (e.g., 2-3 office days/week).

Now, let’s dig deeper into the advantages of hybrid work.

1. The hybrid work model improves productivity

A 2022 Microsoft study of 20,000 workers found 87% reported being more productive in hybrid arrangements. Now, you could argue that this is biased, that employees might feel incentivized to say that they feel productive when doing hybrid work. But it seems that also employers can see the value of hybrid working, as proven in the Cisco research: “From Mandate to Magnet: The Race to Reimagine Workplaces and Workspaces for a Hybrid Future.” 56% of employers believe hybrid working arrangements have positively impacted productivity in their organizations.

So, let’s look for some real-world examples.

Atlassian’s “Team Anywhere” program is reimagining flex work

Since 2020, Atlassian’s Team Anywhere initiative has reimagined workplace flexibility by empowering employees to work from any location. Unlike traditional hybrid work models that mandate office days, Atlassian embraces a distributed approach—enabling its global workforce to collaborate from over 10,000 locations beyond its 13 physical offices.

The program intentionally avoids rigid classifications like “remote work” or “hybrid work.” Instead, it grants Atlassians daily autonomy to choose where they work—be it a home office, coworking space, or company hub—without location-based constraints. This philosophy prioritizes outcomes over presence, allowing employees to optimize productivity while enjoying proper work life balance, regardless of their home country or time zone.

1000 days after the launch of the program, the first conclusions came out. And guess what? There was no productivity slowing down. Furthermore, employees spend 13% less time in meetings and reported a 32% improvement in focus. 

In a recent Atlassian experiment, employees were split into two groups: both received guidance on how to timebox their top priorities, and one group was also encouraged to track their top work priorities at the end of each day to improve goal clarity.

The main results? Timeboxing around top priorities works, and tracking progress daily adds an additional productivity boost. 65% of individual contributors and 71% of managers who took part in the experiment said they made more progress on top priorities than in a typical week. And compared to Atlassians who only restructured their time, those who also made it a point to track how they were doing every day reported a 36% improvement in how sustainable their workload felt. So, yes, productivity is about process, not place.

Wanna hear the whole story? Check our article: How Atlassian is Managing Distributed Teams.

The Dropbox “Virtual First Model” give autonomy to employees

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston believes in a virtual-first work model with trust and autonomy for employees. This approach lets them work remotely and manage their schedules while collaborating in synchronous meetings when necessary. 

The feedback from recent internal Dropbox surveys helps us understand why Dropboxers continue to feel successful in the current working model:

• Nearly 70% said Virtual First helps them work more effectively than they would in an office, and 73% said they’re comfortable in their home workspace.
• 76% said they’ve been able to create uninterrupted time for getting work done, and 70% said they’re using non-linear workdays to adopt more fluid schedules.

To be more productive, the Dropbox employees are recommended to take control of their own schedule: 

• Audit your calendar: Analyze a typical week. See how you spend your time, identify interruptions, and gauge the ratio of planned vs reactive work. Based on this and your goals, adjust your schedule. 
• Plan your week: Schedule critical deep work blocks, meetings for collaboration, and breaks (lunch, self-care). Reschedule conflicts as needed. 

To run more effective and focused meetings, the majority of Dropboxers are using the 3 D’s—points of discussion, debate, and decision-making. When partnering with a behavioral researcher to dive deeper into the matter, Dropbox leaders learned that they need to be more consistent about setting agendas, taking notes, and identifying action items. They can also be more thoughtful about how to run productive meetings across time zones. 

As a result of their research on focus, Dropbox also promoted internal playbooks for meeting practices through Quick Tips. Some of their recent focus-specific Quick Tips included how to enable and schedule Focus mode on devices, do “focus check ins” to renew attention, and identify peak energy levels throughout the day for optimal work. Read more in this Dropbox report.

The Atlassian and Dropbox stories prove that hybrid work benefits those companies that have the proper team and vision for its implementation. Hybrid work is still an evolving experiment. Learnings are still happening, but, at the end of the day, these are two very well performing distributed teams.

2. Hybrid work improves employee wellbeing and satisfaction

Hybrid working leads to an improved work life balance and satisfaction by blending the best of remote and in office work. Here’s how, backed by research and real-world examples:

• Time saving: An analysis across 27 countries found remote work saves workers 72 daily commute minutes—totaling 2 weekly hours during 2021-22, stabilizing to 1 hour post-pandemic. Workers reinvest 40% of this time into jobs and 11% into caregiving, with parents allocating more to childcare. The data reveals how location flexibility creates tangible value beyond traditional workplace metrics.
• Savings on gas and lunch: As the WFH research points out, this is the second most important reason for employees to want to work from home more.

Source

• Less fatigue and burnout: McKinsey research shows that both women and men cite less fatigue and burnout as a benefit of remote and hybrid work. But women, particularly those with childcare duties, continue to prize it more. In fact, 38% of mothers with young children say that without workplace flexibility they would have had to reduce their work hours or leave their companies. Less burnout equals: lower risks of workplace absence due to illness, lower risk of type 2 diabetes and hypertension, as well as a lower risk of developing depressive disorders.

Circling back to the Cisco research mentioned previously, 65% of employees and 59% of employers believe that hybrid working arrangements have positively impacted employee wellbeing in their organization.

Now, companies such as Quora focus proactively on ensuring the mental health of their employees. Because just allowing them to do hybrid work is not enough. Quora developed an employee assistance program, EAP, that provides mental health support and counseling.

Hybrid working can lead to stress and anxiety if not handled properly, especially when teams work async. Here’s how Hubspot approaches the issue in order to reduce uncertainty and stress: by providing clear information and support.

HubSpot has templates for managers that look like this:  “success in 30 days looks like (list here), some norms of our specific team are (X,Y,Z), if you’re lost, the best place or person to ask is here or we have a weekly water cooler at X time.”  Often employees might have a FOMO feeling (fear of missing out), because some employees are doing remote work, while some are doing in office work. Clarity is essential here, so that employees know what to do, and who to talk to in case of any need. 

3. Hybrid work helps companies improve employee retention as well as access a more diverse talent pool

Hybrid work has become a competitive advantage for talent acquisition and retention.

Since Atlassian implemented its “Team Anywhere” program, they noticed:

• 91% of employees say it’s an important reason why they stay at Atlassian. 
• The number of candidates per role is more than 2x higher. 
• Candidate offer accept rate has increased 20%. 
• Atlassian went from spot 47 to spot 7 (jumping up 40 spots!) on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For list. 

In the case of Spotify, attrition rates in the second quarter (Q2) of 2022 were 15% lower than in Q2 2019, because of their “Work from Anywhere” program. Another benefit has been diversity. Nearly half of Spotify’s hires come from outside its US hubs in New York City and Los Angeles. Also, women in leadership grew from 25% and 42% between 2019 and 2021, while the number of Black and Hispanic employees increased from 12.7% to 18% in the same period.

Also, a Gartner study showed that high-performing employees report a 16% lower intent to stay in the face of on-site work requirements. This could be the winning card for smaller and more agile companies.

Did you know that 94% of knowledge workers want schedule flexibility and 74% expect location flexibility? The pandemic showed us that flexible working is possible, and it doesn’t cause companies to collapse. Mix it with raising awareness of wellbeing and BOOM, suddenly everyone wants to adjust work to life, not the other way around. The numbers speak for themselves. 

If companies offer hybrid work as a benefit to their employees, then this can also serve as a competitive advantage. Recent data shows that employees are also willing to sacrifice salary in order to benefit from hybrid work.

4. Hybrid work helps companies cut owned office space

74% of CEOs from Fortune 500 companies plan to reduce their spendings by cutting off owned office space. You won’t believe how they want to do that. Yeah, hybrid work is an answer. Seems impossible? Let’s take Cisco for example. The company was able to save around $500 million during 5 years of hybrid work, by cutting 50% of its real estate footprint.

And then, there’s Atlassian. The company believes that without “Team Anywhere”, they would have needed twice the office space they have. 

Cost reduction thanks to hybrid work isn’t just possible, it’s withing arm’s reach. 

5. Hybrid work goes had in hand with a smaller carbon footprint

We all know how morning commute and afternoon rush hours work – you waste a lot of time slowly crawling through the city, letting fumes to the environment. Too bad if it is just to do the work you could as well do in your home office. 

Hybrid work’s solution is simple. Fewer days in the office = less commuting = less carbon footprint created. This becomes more important for employees as even 44% of them expect their companies to have sustainability goals and to achieve them. Sustainability can mean having a sustainable office and having a sustainable product development and selling.

The disadvantages of working hybrid

Let’s be real, every change brings some challenges. The same applies to the hybrid work model. Fortunately, its hardships aren’t many.  

Here is a shortlist of potential disadvantages of hybrid work:

• Hybrid work doesn’t fit all
• Security concerns
• Relationship building can be tougher
• Belonging can drop

Let’s take them one by one, and see how companies can overcome these challenges.

Yes, this is the good news: a disadvantage can be solved!

1. Hybrid work is not for everyone 

Let’s start with the biggest “ouch” for the hybrid work model: not every company can introduce it. Some jobs require employees to be on site, otherwise the work cannot be done. Thanks to technology the list of those jobs is becoming shorter and shorter every year. Thus, it’s good to give hybrid work a shot to some extent. In the end no one expected doctors’ tele visits to be real and still we experienced them during the pandemic. 

Also, there are employees that need the face-to-face connection more than others. They are the ones that could struggle with loneliness and anxiety when working from home.

This is why it is very important for companies to get the employees’ feedback when developing their hybrid work policies, and also create the space for meaningful office interactions. This way they will feel valued and you will notice a boost in employee satisfaction.

2. Hybrid work models come with some security risks 

Hybrid work introduces new cybersecurity and data privacy challenges, as employees split time between home, offices, and public spaces. 52% of companies report physical security incidents since adhering to a hybrid work model (Forrester 2024).

Here are a few of the risks companies might struggle with when doing hybrid work:

• Unsecured home networks (e.g., weak Wi-Fi passwords, shared routers).
• Use of personal devices without proper security controls.
• Phishing & social engineering (remote employees are 3x more likely to fall for scams, IBM Security 2023).
• Employees using unauthorized apps (Slack, personal Dropbox) to share files.

How hybrid companies are mitigating security risks:

1. Zero Trust Architecture (verify every access request).
2. Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR) on all devices.
3. Strict BYOD Policies (e.g., mandatory MDM software).
4. Security Training (simulated phishing tests).
5. AI-Powered Anomaly Detection (e.g., unusual login locations).

Hybrid work does increase security risks, but with the right tools (like Zero Trust) and policies, companies can stay secure without sacrificing flexibility.

3. Relationship building can be a challenge in a hybrid work environment

If you are researching the topic of hybrid work, you probably came across a discussion about employees’ relationships and working atmosphere suffering because of rare office visits. That’s kinda true. According to Microsoft report, 43% of leaders say relationship-building is the greatest challenge in hybrid and remote work. 

Maintaining team spirit while working hybrid can indeed be challenging. However, it doesn’t mean it is impossible. Earlier practices have become a bit outdated and thus we need to think about and implement new ideas on how to make people more connected. 

Let’s look at Atlassian for inspiration. Teams at Atlassian meet at one of their offices about three times per year to bond and advance important projects. Their research shows that these intentional team gatherings lead to a 27% increase in feelings of connection, especially among new graduates and new hires, and that this boost lasts for 4-5 months.

Dropbox is inspiring as well. Dropbox is one of the many companies that embraced the “Virtual First” approach, meaning remote work is the standard for all employees – from engineers to salespeople. This provides incredible flexibility, allowing them to work from virtually anywhere.  Dropbox has over 2,000 remote workers in 11 countries. 

Dropbox’s Virtual First model aimed to create a flexible work experience that prioritizes remote work while recognizing the value of in-person connection. This approach allows employees to choose when and where they work, enhancing job satisfaction and commitment, and boosting the work life balance.

To foster a strong company culture, Dropbox intentionally incorporates in-person gatherings, such as offsites and retreats, to deepen connections and spark innovation. Coworking options, including general coworking and anchor weeks, facilitate collaboration and streamline decision-making.

3. Hybrid work can affect the feeling of connection and belonging to a company/team

Hybrid work reshapes workplace culture, creating both opportunities and challenges for fostering a sense of belonging. Here’s what the data says—and how leading companies are addressing it.

• Employees report 27% fewer informal interactions (watercooler chats, lunches) vs. full-office work, as per a Microsoft report.
• Also, it seems that 42% of hybrid workers feel “left out” of office-based decisions (Gartner, 2024)
• Proximity bias does exist, and it is enforced by certain managers, unfortunately. Office-goers are 30% more likely to be promoted (MIT, 2023), creating a two-tier workforce, making remote employees feel “invisible” to leadership.
• 56% of hybrid teams struggle with misaligned norms (e.g., some always on-camera, others off) (Slack, 2024)

Looking at the root cause of all these issues, you can notice that the problem is a cultural one. Proximity bias happens because of insecure managers, that need to micromanage, and always feel in control, and without having the proper tools to measure results and goal achievements.

Misalignment of norms means a lack of alignment, right? What about the feeling of being left out? Definitely this is about transparency and communication.

Conclusions on building the right hybrid work environment

Unfortunately, hybrid work won’t strike your office with a magic spell of perfect working environment. I wish it could. If you want to benefit from a new way of working, you will need to adjust and experiment.

As we’ve already pointed out, hybrid work models have lots of benefits, but also some challenges to overcome.

Try to gather some data on in office work, the office usage and employees working habits. Based on that knowledge you will be able to change ineffective practices and see what works best for your company. 

Remote and hybrid work can work, there’s plenty of success stories out there. Just let yourself inspired by them!

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