A new AT&T study finds that the future of work is hybrid. Yet most companies, despite everything that has happened, are not prepared.
The AT&T Future of Work Study, issued earlier this month involved interviews with corporate execs to find out how they see the future of work.
Here are some of the headlines.
The Future is Hybrid. Among the respondents, 81% believe hybrid will be the dominant working model by 2014. And they see 56% of work being conducted offsite.
Different Strokes. Notably, they also feel there is a pretty significant disconnect between what employers and employees consider an optimal work model. Among the respondents, 86% believe employees want a hybrid working model. Meanwhile, 64% believe employers would rather bring everyone back under one roof. We wonder who ultimately will win this tug of war. Right now, our money is on employees. But the winds could easily shift back in favor of employers.
The Youth Vote. Also interesting was the literal unanimity (100%) on the question of whether a hybrid model will make it easier to recruit young talent. We agree. Although it’s notable that this applies to hybrid and not a fully remote model. Our sense is that many young workers like the flexibility that hybrid offers, but also the social aspects of the office. Hybrid offers the best of both worlds.
No Plan. The study also found that despite the consensus that hybrid is the future of work, only 72% of companies lacked a detailed strategy to implement a hybrid work model.
Validating Data
Of course, as with most surveys, the sponsors have ulterior motives. The angle here is to convince corporations that they need to revamp their technology (enter AT&T) to adapt to this new way of working.
Self-serving angles notwithstanding, the AT&T survey does validate what we have been seeing and hearing across the business landscape. The office isn’t dead. But it seems increasingly clear that we are going to need a lot less office space going forward.
The study involved 303 interviews with corporate execs at the director level and above. The respondents represented retail, energy, healthcare, manufacturing, and banking/finance. Notably, media and technology were not included. We wonder if the results would have been even more pronounced in the direction of hybrid work if they were.
No More Nine to Five
In his recent posts, my colleague Neal Polachek has recently shared more evidence, both qualitative and quantitative, that we’re heading toward a permanent hybrid work culture. At least in the knowledge-worker space.
Earlier this week, for example, Neal shared results from an OpenView Venture Partners report on SaaS hiring trends.
The report found that just 11% of new hires into SaaS companies expect to work full time in person. Another 19% expect to be partially remote. And a whopping 70% expect to be fully remote. To us that is staggering but it also speaks loudly to the challenges observed above.
Neal also reported on SaaS industry employment expert Robert Hawthorne’s talk at the recent Borrell event in Miami where Hawthorne made it very clear that we are in a different world now.
“Robert’s core message is that things will never be the same as they were,” Neal wrote. “Any operator expecting employees in company offices 5 days a week will struggle to hire and retain the best talent.”
