Diversity & Inclusion — will hybrid work help or hinder?

Answering the big questions from our Work Reimagined festival

We’re continuing on our mission to answer all of your questions from our Work Reimagined festival. Today’s focus is potential inequalities that might arise in hybrid working and whether there is an appetite to better design the future of work for better diversity and inclusion.

At the start of lockdown 0.1 we conducted The Great Work From Home Experiment, we wanted to dig deep and use our human-centred research techniques to understand more about the impact remote working is having on behaviours and habits in order to provide a view on the future of work post C19. The study gave us tonnes of insights into some of the early risks and opportunities. One of the areas it highlighted is that there is a risk hybrid work mode could widen existing socioeconomic inequalities. The ability to work from home (WFH) or work from anywhere (WFA) correlates closely with income: those earning less than £20K a year can perform only 30% of their tasks remotely compared with 58% for those earning more than £58K. It is sector specific too: IT, finance, insurance, management and professional services are the dominant sectors that can WFA (and enjoy the benefits). And most importantly, the economic impact of C19 has disproportionately affected the young and women: 78% of those who have lost their jobs since the crisis began are women and two thirds are aged between 18 and 34.

Now we’re in lockdown 3.0, and remote working has lasted longer than anyone first thought. We’ve moved away from crisis mode and into the deliberate. I see this as an opportunity for businesses to think about and implement the right processes, technology and support systems to promote a healthy and balanced workplace. There’s more than a strong case to get hybrid working right for all. Most companies have an appetite to do this and create a workplace that is designed for better diversity and inclusion. They now see the broader benefits and value that diversity and inclusion can bring — innovation, creativity, problem-solving, but I don’t think they know how to achieve it or even how to start. And, I can understand why. It requires a cultural change, a shift in mindset and big companies are like huge tankers trying to turn against the tide, so finding the starting point without getting overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge is the key.

Fluxxer Ed Curwen is currently helping one of the biggest healthcare providers and their leadership team to make some of the big strategic decisions around hybrid working, and has some thoughts on the topic:

At the moment people are working in conditions that are far from ideal. The shift to home working happened fast and most people — particularly younger people — didn’t have a space in their home they could set up for work.

There’s definitely inequality in the way people are experiencing hybrid working now. The more interesting question for me is what happens when it’s done right and is a more long-term approach.

Hybrid working means people working between home and the office in a way that balances their needs and the needs of the company they work for. That increased flexibility opens up jobs to people that were excluded by the practicalities of commuting, the cost of living in certain cities, and the constraints of working fixed office hours.

What that means is people who didn’t apply for those jobs — people with caring responsibilities, or who live in more rural areas, or who can’t afford to live in the most expensive cities — can now consider them. Companies get a more diverse talent pool and our expectation is that will reduce inequality in the long run.

That said I think the companies that just let what happens happen will see big downsides. Being in the office will become a symbol of dedication to work and those that can commute will be promoted by sheer force of presence. That’s a terrible way to run a company! People that work remotely do work that is just as valuable but will feel forgotten, excluded, and unmotivated. On top of that an unnecessary and unhealthy obsession with office time creeps back in. Companies that use hybrid working to access a much bigger and more diverse talent pool will reap rewards but must think carefully about how to invest in the employee experience to make sure it works for everyone long-term. Part of that is looking at culture — Jenny and Natalia covered some top tips in our article last week how you foster the right culture in a remote hybrid model.

Tomorrow, we’ll be looking at the differences between managing a team of people in the office versus long term home working. If you have any to add please get in touch — would love to hear your questions, thoughts and experiences.

Jenny Burns is an Executive Partner at Fluxx. For more info on the work we’re doing to reimagine the workplace check out these links or get in touch at Jenny.burns@fluxx.uk.com.