What Are Hybrid Companies? [An Overview and 5 Examples]

“Going to work” used to mean physically transporting yourself to an office, factory, or other workspace.

Not that employees didn’t take work home at all — after all, the whole point of the briefcase was to load it with files for after work hours or on the weekend.

Yet, the bulk of work took place at a workspace — that is, until the coming of the internet.

Employers began to experiment with remote work once workers could connect digitally to their workplaces. And things evolved naturally until a global event — the COVID-19 pandemic — changed everything.

Millions of employees were told to stay home and work remotely due to the pandemic, and many realized they loved this new way of working. By the time the pandemic settled, the office paradigm had shifted, and hybrid work had become the default for many knowledge workers.

Below is a plain look at what a hybrid company is, where employee attitudes stand now, what it takes to run a hybrid model well, and five real examples worth studying.

Quick Summary

A hybrid company lets employees split their working week between the office and a remote location. This article covers what defines a hybrid company, where employee attitudes stand in 2026, what businesses need to run the model well, and how the recent return-to-office push has reshaped the landscape. It closes with a look at five companies handling hybrid work in different ways:

1. Spotify
2. Target
3. Klarna
4. Salesforce
5. Google

What exactly are hybrid companies?

A hybrid company is a business that runs a hybrid work model, letting employees work both remotely and in person at the office.

The model gives employees flexibility over where they work while keeping some in-person collaboration and communication.

Hybrid arrangements vary by company. Some employees spend 1 to 3 days in the office and the rest at home; others flip that ratio. A growing number let teams, rather than individuals, set the schedule.

Pre-pandemic, only about 8% of remote-capable US employees worked fully from home, and roughly a third followed some hybrid pattern.

Today, hybrid work is the norm for most remote-capable roles. The percentage of remote-capable U.S. employees working in a hybrid work model has decreased from 55% to 51% over the past two quarters. But during that same period, fully on-site work and fully remote work each increased by two percentage points. Hardly a win for the back-to-office camp.

Why do employees prefer hybrid work?

Working part of the week from home appeals to many people now that they’ve tried it. They like the personal benefits, such as the following:

• A flexible work schedule
• More autonomy over when and where they work
• Reduced commute time and stress
• More support for individual work and productivity styles
• More time to spend with family
• Better mental and emotional health
• An improved work-life balance
• Cost savings, such as those tied to transportation and meals

The preference is consistent across the research. Gallup finds that most remote-capable employees want a hybrid arrangement, and satisfaction tends to peak at roughly three office days and two at home.

There’s a wellbeing angle too. Only 36% of fully remote workers report thriving compared to 42% of hybrid workers and 42% of on-site remote-capable workers. Hybrid workers sit in a sweet spot: the flexibility of remote days, the connection of office days.

A hybrid model can also be good for the environment, given the right sustainability strategy is in place. Fewer commutes means fewer emissions.

What does it take to run a hybrid company?

Many businesses adjust to these preference trends by becoming hybrid companies. That usually means figuring out new ways of working and implementing new technologies to support them.

The details matter more than the mandate. Gallup’s data points to a clear pattern: hybrid works best when teams set the rules together. 91% of employees who say their team decides their hybrid work schedule see their hybrid work policy as fair —the same rate as those who determine it themselves. When leadership dictates the schedule top-down, that fairness rating drops to 73%.

Trust is the other half. Just over half of managers (54%) who manage remote workers strongly agree they trust their teams to be productive when they are working remotely. Closing that gap comes down to a few basics: consistent communication, a sense of team community, clear accountability, and equal access to feedback and development whether someone is home or on-site.

That’s where technology and strategy come in. Desk booking, room scheduling, and attendance data help teams coordinate who’s in on which days, so the office time actually pays off. Getting the coordination right is one of the important hybrid work KPIs to track.

From Spotify to Target, here’s how five companies handle hybrid work. Some lean hard into flexibility. Others have pulled back toward the office. Studying both ends of that spectrum is more useful than pretending everyone landed in the same place.

5 companies and how they handle hybrid work

A quick note before the list: the last two years brought a wave of return-to-office mandates. In January 2025, President Trump ordered all federal employees to return to the office full-time. Amazon called 350,000 employees back to the office full-time in January 2025. JP Morgan Chase ended remote work in April 2025. Despite the headlines, the overall numbers barely moved. Most companies still offer some flexibility, and hybrid remains the dominant model for remote-capable roles. The examples below show how differently companies are drawing the line.

1. Spotify

Spotify is the clearest example of a company that stuck with flexibility while peers reversed course. Spotify introduced its “Work From Anywhere” programme in 2021, allowing employees to choose whether they work remotely, from an office, or a combination of both.

The company hasn’t blinked as RTO mandates spread. Its HR leadership has been blunt about the reasoning. “You can’t spend a lot of time hiring grownups and then treat them like children,” Spotify’s chief human resources officer Katarina Berg told Raconteur, explaining the group’s continued flexible work location policy.

The model has business results behind it. Spotify said attrition rates were 15% lower in the second quarter of 2022 compared with the same period in 2019. Employees pick a “home mix” or “office mix” and can revisit the choice once a year. To fight isolation, teams gather for in-person “core weeks,” and the company runs a global wellness week every November.

Berg is honest that remote-first isn’t frictionless. Berg acknowledged it wasn’t an ideal setup. “It is harder, and we all struggle to collaborate in a virtual environment,” Berg said. The takeaway for operators: flexibility can be a retention edge, but it needs deliberate structure around connection.

2. Target

Target Corporation, one of the largest employers in downtown Minneapolis, has run a hybrid model since the pandemic, giving team leaders significant leeway over office days.

That’s tightening. Beginning in September, all employees within the company’s commercial division will be required to work on-site three days per week, according to The Minnesota Star Tribune. The commercial division, one of Target’s largest, includes teams involved in merchandising and related functions. The new return-to-office (RTO) directive marks the most expansive in-office policy the company has implemented to date.

Even so, Target hasn’t abandoned hybrid. Target’s corporate policy still has not changed. Besides five mandated in-office weeks per year, the company lets work groups decide whether they should work in the office. Chief Commercial Officer Rick Gomez framed the three-day expectation as a way to align teams while keeping flexibility over which three days each person picks.

Target shows the middle path a lot of large employers are walking: more structure and more office time, but stopping short of a full five-day mandate.

3. Klarna

Fintech company Klarna launched a global flexible work policy for its staff. Employees can decide whether to work from the office, from home, or internationally for up to 20 days a year.

The policy gives employees the option to work remotely within their country of employment – or state or province in the US and Canada – as well as from the office if they choose. In addition, staff can work abroad for up to 20 days per year at Klarna offices outside of their home country, a move that the firm says will promote global team building, personal development and professional career growth opportunities.

Klarna is providing each employee with an annual payment contribution and equipment which can be used to improve personal home office space or upgrade work accessories.

The company built the policy on its own track record. Klarna has announced a new worldwide hybrid working policy, saying that the past two years had “proven” significant growth and success can be achieved with flexible working.

The new model will facilitate monthly in-office gatherings in order to tackle aspects of work where in-person interaction “remains valuable”, whether that’s creative problem-solving, brainstorming, or building professional relationships. Klarna’s hybrid teams can also work from Klarna offices worldwide.

4. Salesforce

Salesforce is a useful example of a company that swung the other way. During the pandemic it ran a flexible approach called “Success from Anywhere,” tailoring work by role and preference.

Then it tightened. Office-Based: Work in-person four to five days per week · Office-Flex: Work in-person three days per week; or 10 days per quarter for some engineering teams · Remote: Work primarily from home or at a customer site. Leaders decide how each team’s roles are classified.

The reversal was pointed. The decision is a pivot — in 2022, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said that return-to-office mandates were “never going to work.” The company also rolled out an internal dashboard tracking badge scans in its US offices.

Salesforce still calls itself a hybrid company, but the balance has shifted firmly toward the office for sales, engineering, and support roles. For operators, it’s a reminder that “hybrid” can mean very different things depending on the team.

5. Google

Google keeps a hybrid model, but with tighter enforcement than a few years ago. Google stated in 2021 that it was adopting a hybrid work policy, intending to have 60% of Googlers in the office three days a week, 20% in the office full-time, and 20% working completely remotely.

The three-day expectation is now the baseline for most staff. The WFA policy is distinct from Google’s regular hybrid schedule, which grants employees permission to work from home two days per week. The hybrid schedule, which was also established during the pandemic, won’t be altered.

Enforcement got sharper in 2025. In April, Google warned remote employees in certain divisions that their roles could be eliminated if they did not comply with hybrid schedules, specifically requiring attendance in the office three days a week. Some teams also offered voluntary buyouts to remote workers living within 50 miles of an office and unwilling to relocate to work in person. Google also tightened its separate “Work from Anywhere” allowance, so a single remote day now counts as a full week against the annual balance.

Google’s stance is telling: it kept hybrid, but paired it with badge tracking and consequences. Flexibility with teeth, rather than flexibility as a perk.

How OfficeRnD Workplace supports hybrid companies

Across these five companies, the common thread is coordination. Whoever sets the schedule, hybrid only works when people can plan around each other and the office earns the commute.

OfficeRnD Workplace is a workplace management platform that helps hybrid companies handle desk booking, room scheduling, and attendance data in one place.

That makes the office days count. Teams see who’s coming in, book the space they need, and leaders get the occupancy data to plan around real usage instead of guesses.

If you’re moving to a hybrid model or fixing one that isn’t clicking, get started for free with OfficeRnD Workplace or book a live demo with our workplace experts.

FAQ

What is a hybrid work model?

A hybrid work model is a work arrangement that supports remote and on-site employees at the same time and lets them move between the two. It covers both digital and physical workspaces, usually with employees spending part of the week in the office and part at home.

Is hybrid work here to stay?

Yes, for remote-capable roles. Despite a run of return-to-office headlines, Gallup finds work location trends have stayed stable since 2022, with about half of remote-capable US employees in a hybrid model. Gallup’s analysis finds that hybrid workers now spend 46% of their workweek in the office, or the equivalent of 2.3 days. That’s up from 42% in 2022. But all that increase happened in 2023. There has been no movement in the past year.

Which companies still offer full flexibility?

Some large employers have kept work-from-anywhere policies while peers reversed course. Spotify is the clearest case: it lets employees choose where they work and revisit that choice yearly, and its leadership has publicly rejected forcing people back. Nvidia and other tech firms have also stood by flexible schedules.

Is Google working remotely?

Google runs a hybrid model, not a remote one. The Google RTO policy for 2025 requires employees to shift to a 3-day hybrid model. Most staff are expected in the office three days a week, with two remote days. In April, Google warned remote employees in certain divisions that their roles could be eliminated if they did not comply with hybrid schedules, specifically requiring attendance in the office three days a week. Some teams also offered voluntary buyouts to remote workers living within 50 miles of an office and unwilling to relocate to work in person.

If you want to understand more about hybrid work management, this ebook is for you.

What is an example of a hybrid company?

Target is a good example. It runs a hybrid model where teams decide their office days, with a company-wide baseline of five mandated in-office weeks per year plus a three-day-a-week requirement rolling out across its largest division. Klarna is another: employees choose office, home, or international work for part of the year.

What does it mean to be a hybrid company?

Being a hybrid company means a business combines in-person and remote work for its employees. Workers get more choice over where and how they work, and the company can often use less office space and coordinate its real estate around actual attendance.

How many companies are working hybrid?

Most remote-capable roles still involve some hybrid or flexible arrangement. In September 2025, 88% of U.S. employers now offer at least some hybrid options, and nearly a quarter of new job postings include the word “hybrid.” You can find more detail in our hybrid work statistics roundup.