The Success of Hybrid Depends on Whether Corporate Leaders Are Ready

After some significant recent battles over office use — yes, we will go back; no, we won’t; oh, yes, we will; and so on — the Conference Board had an interesting recent view on the topic of the hybrid office. Many business leaders don’t have the skills to manage a hybrid workforce and will end up falling behind.

“The pandemic has permanently changed not just how work gets done, but where it gets done,” the organization wrote. “Ways of working now run the gamut from fully remote to fully on site, with a plethora of hybrid arrangements in between. However, with this newfound flexibility also comes unique challenges—especially for leaders—as they seek to continue managing their teams effectively.”

According to the group, there are a number of practices that executives need to regularly undertake:

“Bringing the right people into the organization and on their team”.

Coaching with empathy and compassion”.

Setting clear performance expectations”.

Developing people to improve competence”.

Retaining high performers and removing those who don’t fit”.

Improving employee commitment”; and

Helping employees have a positive work experience”.

These are just specific aspects of the more general need for business leaders to “support ongoing productivity and engagement in an increasingly common hybrid world of work.” It seems like what might ordinarily be aspects of good management.

All of which is fine, but an owner or operator of an office property isn’t typically in the position of management critic. However, in this case, executives who don’t succeed put their companies into competitive danger, given how easily they could lose employees and see a reduced ability to function in a time like the present.

What is someone in CRE to do when wagging a finger at a member of a C-suite won’t be seen as fitting? Perhaps sponsor a virtual workshop, mentioned in the report as one approach that has shown promise in teaching the specific skills needed in a hybrid work environment.

A building with multiple tenants could offer a such a series to all top management in the companies leasing space. One with a single tenant could potentially extend such an offering across larger such organizations. The main point is to encourage better approaches that can increase the likelihood of companies succeeding and maintaining the amount of space lease.