Engineering Hybrid Work Success: Exploring New Data From Leesman, an HqO Company

Companies need access to reliable data on employee demands and preferences as they negotiate the shift to long-term hybrid work.

To meet this need, HqO has partnered with Leesman, whose insights on worker sentiment have long been regarded as the industry standard. Below, find a few key insights from two of Leesman’s recent reports.

Hybrid Employees Need Better Hybrid Workplaces

A large number of hybrid workers are dissatisfied with the resources offered by workplaces. According to a recent Leesman survey of roughly 45,000 hybrid workers:

• Roughly a quarter (27%) of surveyed hybrid workers do not feel that their workplaces support the sharing of ideas and knowledge amongst colleagues
• Close to a third (32%) of hybrid workers do not feel that their workplace environments allow them to work productively

The numbers are stark and clear: a large number of hybrid workers are now unhappy with their workplace environments.

Employers prefer hybrid to fully remote work models because the physical office typically boosts productivity, but this data shows a large number of hybrid workers are now dissatisfied with their office environments because they feel unsupported. If a large number of hybrid workers are unhappy with their office environments, employee satisfaction and productivity may suffer. As a result, some hybrid work companies may struggle to reap the benefits that generally come from hybrid work. These low satisfaction numbers only underscore the need to equip workers with practical tools to enable hybrid work success.

Highlighting Weak Workplace Connections

Additional Leesman data shows that many contemporary workplaces are also struggling to engineer meaningful workplace connections, which can also harm employee productivity and satisfaction. Leesman’s Quarter Two 2022 survey, for example, finds that:

• 38.4% of surveyed workers do not believe that their office space creates an enjoyable work environment
• 38.4% do not believe that their office space contributes to a sense of community at work

A large number of employees, in other words, now feel disconnected from their workplace environments and communities.

These numbers show that today’s employees don’t just feel poorly served by their workplaces from a utility perspective — they actually feel alienated from their offices, their workplace cultures, and their peers. This is a serious problem for hybrid work companies, who need to do more to keep employees tied to their corporate missions and cultures.

Using Technology to Better Serve Hybrid Workers

To improve employee satisfaction and productivity, employers need to connect their employees with the functional tools that enable hybrid work success.

As leaders in the workplace experience technology market, HqO knows that one of the ways to do this is by leveraging technology to bring product capabilities that support improvements in the following key areas:

• Collaboration: Remove the friction from trips to the office and improve collaboration among colleagues. Workplace experience technology offers flexible room booking, mobile access, and expanded access to service requests to make collaboration seamless for hybrid workers.
• Culture: Create stronger culture by building stronger workplace connections. Workplace experience technology allows companies to create better connections among colleagues by offering custom events that reinforce company culture. Targeted communication offered by a workplace experience app also allows coworkers to bond around special interests (like parenthood or sports).
• Analytics: In a rapidly changing world, companies need to be aware of what their employees are doing. They also need to know what workers want from their workplaces so that they can keep their hybrid workers satisfied and engaged. Data and analytics from a workplace experience platform help companies make smarter decisions to improve worker satisfaction and productivity.
• A destination office: Workplace experience technology helps make the office a destination by connecting workers to popular local events. Workplace experience technology also allows employees to order food directly from their phones, while simultaneously giving them access to exclusive deals on local events.

Improvements in these areas can help companies add fun and utility to the workplace that helps companies improve low satisfaction rates, which in turn helps them attract and retain the best available talent.

Interested in learning more? Download the Powering Hybrid Success guide now to understand how HqO helps companies improve the efficacy of hybrid work.