Employees and employers can finally reach a happy medium in remote work arrangements, A new report has been found. And it’s not the old model of requiring workers to come into the office every day.
The majority of companies now offer hybrid work arrangements, according to the latest Flex Report from remote work platform Scooping. The report found that in 4,000-plus companies collected this data, 51% of companies are hybrid Q2, compared to 43% in the previous quarter. The growth in hybrid employment “comes largely” from the decline in the share of companies that require workers to be on-site full-time: That fell from 49% in the previous quarter to 42% today. The last 7% of companies are completely isolated.
In fact, the average number of days companies need to be in the office is somewhere between fully remote and fully in-office, at 2.5, according to the report.
“I see this as a truce between employers and employees,” said Rob Sadow, CEO and cofounder of Scoop. “Most companies expect employees to work two or three days a week… That’s a lot of bargains to do.”
Large swaths of workers are starting to log their 9-to-5s from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. For many workers, flexibility is a gift—and one they want to keep, much to the chagrin of some employers, who say that The collaboration fostered in offices is essential to the success of a business, among other arguments for personal work. Within months, some employers and employees clash over back-to-office plans and mandates.
But the embrace of hybrid policies in recent months shows that some employers see the value of maintaining some of the employee flexibility in the coming years.
The rise of the ‘structured hybrid’
What Scoop terms “structured hybrid”—setting specific expectations about when employees will work from the office—is winning as a standard arrangement for many large companies that aren’t fully remote or fully in-office, with 30% of companies adopting this model.
Expectations vary, with some companies requiring a minimum number of days in the office, others requiring specific days, and/or others requiring a minimum percentage of time that employees must be present. in the office. Of those options, asking employees to come to the office a minimum number of days per week is the most popular.
“We’re seeing a general shift toward a less prescriptive hybrid model, which may help balance office needs with the remote flexibility that we know the value of employee,” the report read.
Scoop also knows that employers who need employees come on certain days, Wednesday being the most popular, and Friday the least likely.
“There used to be Fridays in the summer, going out early,” Sadow said. “Now we’re starting to transition into what really feels like a year-round summer Friday for people.”
Of course, work arrangements vary by sector and profession. Tech is still the most flexible industry, according to Scoop’s report: 75% of tech companies are either completely remote or allow employees to choose where they work. But banking, insurance, manufacturing, and real estate are increasingly adopting the structured hybrid model.
Companies with 50,000 or more employees are more likely to offer structured hybrid arrangements, according to Scoop’s report: 66% of large companies have a hybrid structure, compared to 14% of companies that less than 500 employees.
That said, large companies are also seeing the biggest shift away from fully flexible arrangements.
Sadow expects to see a percentage of companies offering fully flexible arrangements—but he also expects fewer and fewer companies to require employees to be in the office full time. The Hybrid will continue to win, he said.
“Companies that require people to be full-time are harder to do. Competitors offer more flexibility,” he said. “Employees don’t really want to be in the office five days a day. weeks and explained that to their employers.”