Around the world, the rush towards a hybrid workplace is on. It effectively blends people working in offices with those working remotely, often from home. It promises the best of both circumstances: flexibility for workers who work remotely and reduced overhead expenses for employers. Productivity is reportedly higher for those who work remotely.
Like many promises to revolutionise work, the hybrid workplace is no panacea. Along with the best, it also brings along the worst of both work modes. The hybrid workplace means that workers will engage with technology for virtually every encounter with others. Meetings in the workplace require those around a table to connect to the same digital environment as those attending online. In my experience, every communication technology adds significant barriers to success for even the most skilled communicators.
Perhaps most importantly, hybrid work creates a potentially unfair situation for those who work more time out of the office or do not overlap shifts with managers who make assignments and evaluate performance. Those working from home do not see, hear, or interact with others in the same, natural way as those in the office. Human communication is simply most efficient in face-to-face situations.
The EO Factor
One way to characterise a workplace might be its EO, or Employee Overlap, Factor. It's a measure of opportunity to do things that require people to work together in person. Defined as the average probability of finding any two employees in the office any given day, it reflects the relative likelihood of an unplanned encounter. Such chance meetings and the type of productivity that comes from them isn't well accounted for by any other workplace measure.
In simple terms, the EO Factor is the mathematical product of the probability of any two employees being in the office. For two people who spend exactly half-time in the office, their EO Factor is 0.5 multiplied by 0.5, or 25%, assuming their schedules are random and not coordinated. In the traditional workplace where everyone works in an office, the EO factor is close to 100%, reduced only by absences. In a remote-first environment where nearly everyone teleworks, the EO factor is close to zero.
The EO factor could be calculated based on every employee's time in the office, but this is impractical. As a workplace measure, we might approximate it using the square of the mean probability of employees working in the office any given day. For hybrid employees working remotely for an average of three days out of five, this probability is 0.4, and the EO factor is 16% (0.4 x 0.4). If employees work an average of 4 days out of five in the office, the EO is 64% (0.8 x 0.8).
How EO manifests in work
In the traditional workplace where the EO is close to 100%, meetings are natural and interpersonal skills rule the day. Relationships evolve naturally. The most successful employees often develop and refine their presentation abilities and other skills needed for face-to-face meetings: think firm handshakes, eye contact, movement and gestures, or using and reading body language. Many high-performing employees advance in organisations because of their interpersonal skills or business acumen. Rarely are so-called high-potential employees known for the technical problem-solving abilities required for flawless online meetings.
Remote-first workplaces with an EO of nearly zero present a different challenge. All employees meet from a computer, even if they physically report to an office any given day. Not all work fits this work mode, notably consulting work or other business-to-business activities. Still, it is an approach used by a growing number of business-to-consumer firms. Such workplaces actively explore ways for employees to build relationships and collaborate using remote technology, including virtual coworking time or online watercooler events. Working electronically all day and every day, coworkers share the challenge of making the most of their digital workplace.
It's only the hybrid workplace, with EO factors above zero and well below 100%, that presents awkward challenges. I recently wrote about some effects of employee overlap in the hybrid workplace. One concern is how the different challenges of face-to-face meetings and online meetings combine to make every meeting awkward at best. Most of us expect those attending remotely to have a diminished experience from those who participate in in-person. Technology now becomes a potential disruption to those seated around a table or in an audience. Requiring technology to facilitate every workplace meeting is a game-changer and not a welcome one.
Other effects
Missing from telework in general and not helped by a hybrid work model are chance encounters with like-minded coworkers that once happened before and after meetings or in hallways. Such encounters are essentially a natural collaboration between employees. These decrease as people work from home without planned activities, such as those used in remote-first workplaces. Ideas often come out of these meetings, ideas that can lead to new concepts, products, processes, or other important outcomes for any employer.
The long-term effects of hybrid work remain widely discussed, but the results have yet to manifest in the workplace. The decreased overlap between employees will play a role in presenting challenges to employees and employers alike. As we look at results as they become available, the EO Factor may be essential to help interpret them.
