When corporate leaders at Experian were considering how they would handle the return to office following the pandemic, they surveyed their employees and found that nearly 90% chose their homes as their primary work location, where they would spend 50% or more of their working hours.

Even some employees who lived just five miles from the company’s headquarters wanted to work primarily from home, said Mary Burke, senior vice president of human resources during From Day One’s October virtual conference.

“So, we have doubled down on the power of choice and have observed the return to office mandates that other companies are trying to enforce,” Burke said. “They are achieving a high noncompliance rate.”

Burke says people don't come to the office to work, but to connect. Therefore, Experian fostered connecting days such as Collaborative Thursdays, where employees were encouraged to go into the office.

During Collaborative Thursdays, employees typically eat together and participate in activities such as celebrating the Lunar New Year, an important holiday for some of the workers at Experian. “What we are trying to do is make that a great experience so that people continue to come in one day a week,” Burke said.

The Importance of Human Connection

Although many workers enjoyed working from the comfort of their living room couches during the pandemic, they also realized the need for human connections with their teams. Hybrid work ideally gives employees the best of both worlds, according to Kristen Duffey, head of IT people operation and chief of staff to the CIO at National Instruments.

“I think the biggest thing is really making sure that office time is purposeful,” she said. “Do you want to come into the office and sit in a Zoom meeting? No, that doesn’t make sense.”

According to Duffey, companies need to determine which activities are better in person, such as workshops.

Andrea Osborne, vice president of HR for Genesys, said, “Seeing the workplace become more human-centered and people being able to bring their whole self to work" has motivated her over the past few years.

However, she acknowledged it can be challenging to make that human connection in a global company like Genesys, which has 6,000 employees in more than 100 countries.

“I have some relatively junior managers that are managing people in four countries, so they’re never with their teams,” Osborne said. “Then we have others who are centered in Raleigh or Indianapolis, where they are together. But for those local teams, half are flexible, while others declare they are not coming into the office on a regular basis.”

Genesys has experience coordinators at all its primary locations. Osborne said their job is “About what they are doing to engage the community with those site leaders and owners, so that they are really driving an experience.”

For teams that are more distributed geographically, experience coordinators try to encourage managers “To create work events that make sense for their teams to come together, because that connection is so important.”

Osborne lives in Colorado, where Genesys doesn’t have a local office. However, 40 employees live in that state, so they can still gather at a non-Genesys site. For example, during the company-wide Community Give Back Day, the Colorado workers can get together to prepare meals for local homeless shelters.

Training and Development in a Hybrid World

Three years ago, when employers were first trying to figure out new ways to work, many learning and development professionals said it might be better for employees to train on their own time from home rather than come to the office for it. However, that view is now changing.

“Learning isn’t just what we read,” said Casey Wahl, Founder and CEO of Attuned. He noted that learning from peers is important because it challenges people to get out of their comfort zone and helps them retain knowledge.

It’s important to “Get people to learn, experience, and grow together, with other people so you have those shared experiences and get that emotional chemical drop on your brain. The experience is going to stay in there a little bit longer,” Wahl said.

According to Duffey, on-site learning events also help employees get to know those outside of their teams. People who don’t usually work together can meet virtually for training, “But if you weren’t ever in the same room with them, it’s much harder to build that connection.”

How to Keep Employees Engaged Virtually

One of the biggest challenges for managers is making sure everyone feels connected, even on days when they are working remotely.

“We will always have virtual town hall meetings, so the experience is the same for all employees,” Burke said.

It’s also crucial to use tools such as Microsoft Teams, which has a chat function, says Burke. “There's an ability to send emojis and claps and sometimes seeing all these activities and emojis make it more of an engaging experience, versus just attending a webcast call,” she said.

Duffey recommends having someone monitor online attendees during hybrid meetings to ensure they are allowed to participate. She also said it’s essential to have frequent one-on-one virtual interactions with employees who are working remotely and make sure those discussions aren't always focused on work, “So you’re learning about the person and making them feel included.”

Hybrid Work is Here to Stay

Wahl said he hopes employers never return to full-time in-office work because hybrid work gives employees the flexibility they crave to tend to their personal lives, including taking care of children or other family members.

“So, how can we get more sophisticated in these practices and keep hybrid work so we can have a more enriching life, but also have that in-person connectivity, and that creativity that exists in an office?” said Wahl. “It's probably not going to be something super revolutionary, or it's just going to be slow, steady sophistication as organizations get better at this.”

Mary Pieper is a freelance reporter based in Mason City, Iowa.