5 Hybrid Work Success Stories From Real Companies [2023]

Have you ever asked yourself the question: How does hybrid work success look like?

This article delves into what is needed for hybrid work success and highlights five triumphant hybrid work success stories to provide inspiration.

We will take a closer look into:

• How these organizations approach hybrid work
• How using the right hybrid work software turned out to be crucial for eliminating workflow frictions and greatly improving operations
• What changes they’ve made to implement the hybrid model successfully

And more.

Let’s dive right in.

What Is Needed for Hybrid Work Success?

According to a popular Forbes article,” the “hybrid workspace is about enabling as much productivity as possible without costing our employees too much personal time, sacrifice, or ability to control their workday.”

Even with the tremendous flexibility offered by hybrid work models, we must remember there are best practices that should be in place for developing effective hybrid work models. Those best practices to achieve hybrid work success include the following:

1. Getting employees onboard early. This includes developing communication methods that are transparent, clear and used often. Empower management to answer any questions their teams may have.
2. Investing in appropriate tools, technology, and equipment. Using tools that promote productivity and communication, are mobile friendly, and work with multiple devices. Using hybrid work management software that integrates with your existing tech stack. Providing your employees with appropriate equipment to create a healthy working environment from home. That equipment can include larger computer monitors or supportive desk chairs. Designing your hybrid office smartly is also very important.
3. Maintaining a positive, engaged, and collaborative culture that focuses on the employee experience. Allowing employees to provide you with feedback and demonstrating listening behavior is beneficial to creating a positive employee experience.
4. Check-in with the entire team regularly. Schedule conference calls, video conferencing, or in-person progress meetings to give you and your team insight into how well the hybrid model works for you.
5. Provide continuing education opportunities for employees, team leaders, and managers. Ensure that everyone in the company is aware of upcoming learning opportunities. Meet diverse needs by offering various learning modalities.
6. Track goals and other performance metrics. Continually provide employee development opportunities, maintain an ongoing dialogue with all employees, and improve performance by creating plans and tracking progress toward them.

Examples of Hybrid Work Success Stories

Now that we’ve discussed what hybrid work is and some of the best practices for creating a successful hybrid work model, we should look at examples of hybrid work success in practice.

We’ve chosen five companies that have successfully implemented hybrid work to highlight so you can draw inspiration from them.

#1 Muller Group

• Industry: Food Service; manufacturing and distribution
• Number of employees: Approximately 31,700
• Location: 22 offices throughout Europe and the UK
• Hybrid mix: 100% hybrid; 3 days in the office

Muller is a family-owned company that operates internationally and has annual sales of 7.0 billion euros. The company manufactures many strong brands in the dairy, fish, deli, sauces, dressings, and services niche. Before Covid, Muller had a 100% in-office policy for their employees.

Muller Group board of directors. Source: mueller-group.com

Like many others, during Covid, the company went fully remote. It continued to grow and faced the need to house new staff as all employees returned to work. So, they decided to transform their workplace into a hybrid one. Currently, their hybrid work policy had corporate employees in the office three days per week.

Initially, the company attempted to coordinate the hybrid work schedule using an Excel sheet manually. Before long, it became clear that Muller needed a more sophisticated solution to manage their work schedule and continue to scale the business more effectively. They decided to give OfficeRnD Hybrid a shot.

After just a few months, it immensely helped Muller more effectively manage their hybrid work model and real estate holding. Addressing these elements allows them to scale in Europe and the US while saving money.

Employees can better manage return-to-office logistics and avoid confusion using the integrated OfficeRnD solution that helps them book desks from everywhere.

They can also book rooms for meetings or resources that are necessary with greater ease because the platform easily integrates with their existing Microsoft Teams and Outlook apps, thus promoting in-office collaboration.

In fact, now most of the meeting rooms are booked directly from Microsoft Teams or Microsoft Outlook, without the daring need for yet another app.

It’s very easy for employees to eliminate office and workflow friction. In addition, thanks to the advanced analytics feature, managers can take more informed decisions related to office resources optimization. That helped in reducing costs and increasing overall efficiency.

However, what makes their hybrid work model truly successful is effectively managing their growing share desk environment across 22 locations. You can read the whole story here.

#2 Tavistock Restaurant Collection

• Industry: Food Service; upscale restaurants
• Number of employees: 1575
• Location: United States
• Hybrid mix: 100% hybrid

Before Covid, Tavistock was 100% in the office. When the pandemic slowed fine dining during the pandemic, the company needed to save money by eliminating the unnecessary real estate they had for office space.

Their hybrid work policy requires employees to be in the office every Tuesday through Thursday.

Post-pandemic, Tavistock shared office space with their private equity parent company. Sharing space made reserving desks and rooms a cumbersome task.

The problem was causing the corporate office team to become distracted and have difficulty supporting the employees at the restaurant level. Managing corporate apartments as part of their business model created other complex issues too.

The solution?

Adopting the right software for hybrid work enablement turned out to be a game-changing decision. When the company decided to incorporate the OfficeRnD Hybrid platform, it helped them support their operations team way better.

They’ve included smart scheduling for collaboration, encouraging employees to return to the office.

The seamless integration of the platform with Microsoft Teams allowed employees to sync their calendars and reserve spaces hassle-free. Adaptability has made it easier to manage their offices and apartment space.

Tavistock needed a solution that would integrate fully with their existing MS Teams app. The company required easy adoption of any new system so HR could continue focusing on restaurant operations.

OfficeRnD Hybrid offered them just that – flawless integration with Microsoft Teams, allowing employees not only to book desks and rooms without leaving the app but to view other members’ in-office schedules, thereby promoting face-to-face collaboration and boosting business revenue.

Thanks to choosing the right software, Tavistock tackled an important challenge – managing multiple locations and office neighborhoods within a single system.

The result?

Adopting a hybrid work model successfully thanks to the deployment of the right hybrid work software allowed Tavistock to significantly boost in-person collaboration and decrease real estate costs.

And that’s not all. Read the full story here.

#3 Plentymarkets

• Industry: Technology; e-commerce
• Number of employees: 250
• Location: Germany and Romania
• Hybrid mix: 100% hybrid with a 16% desk-to-employee ratio

Here’s another story that once again proves that choosing the right hybrid work software is paramount when making the leap to a hybrid workplace.

Based in Germany, plentymarkets revolutionize how products are sold while connecting all online and offline trade processes.

They use a multi-channel approach to help manage sales more quickly and efficiently while servicing more than 50,000 users daily. Their system is cloud-based, ensuring online and offline processes seamlessly work together.

During Covid, the company moved from a traditional Monday -Friday work model to a 100% remote one. Now they have a 100% hybrid work model and employees have discretion regarding when to work from the office.

The company has 250 employees and only 40 office seats, so returning to work became a logistical nightmare for employees and employers alike.

Besides, managers struggled to bring employees back to the office for collaboration and productivity. They quickly realized they needed a technical solution that would help them manage the crisis.

Enter OfficeRnD Hybrid!

The software helped Plentymarkets optimize their office footprint which at the time was at a 16% employee-to-desk ratio. It means that for every 4 office employees, they only had one desk available.

Moreover, the platform integrates with their existing tech stack, making it easier for workers to book desks and rooms without leaving their favorite apps.

The in-app survey tool of OfficeRnD Hybrid allowed the company to maintain compliance with German health regulations, which are quite rigid. The management also uses the in-app employee surveys to track employee NPS, which is an important hybrid work metric.

According to Lucas Worhl, director of operations at plentymarkets, OfficeRnD Hybrid allowed them to track the expected and actual hybrid usage across the entire organization. It impacted strategic decision-making that led to managing office resources more efficiently.

In addition, since the implementation of the OfficeRnD Hybrid employees have been able to return to the office to socialize and collaborate, which boosted employee engagement and productivity.

Creating flexible workplace policies that meet future work requirements has also become easier. Office maps and schedules within the app help to guarantee seamless calendar syncing that significantly improved collaborative work across the entire organization.

Click here to read the full story.

#4 IES

• Industry: Technology; sustainable building solutions
• Number of employees: 272
• Location: Glasgow and Dublin
• Hybrid mix: 40/60 remote to office

Integrated Environmental Solutions (IES) has built a 25-year reputation as a leader in global innovation in integrated performance-based analysis.

They’ve become home to the largest physics analytics team worldwide. IES has unique software and technology that an expert consultancy supports. Their dedicated R&D department ensures the company’s industry knowledge and analytical tools remain innovative and pioneering.

Before Covid, IES was 100% in the office. During the pandemic, they had no choice but to go 100% remote.

No one expected it would be difficult to get employees back to the office following the pandemic, but two years of being remote changes many things.

Resources needed managing, budgets needed revising, and systems had to be devised that effectively enabled employees to collaborate while in the office.

The management had three primary challenges:

1. Attract the workforce back to the office for collaboration and at the same time give them the needed flexibility.
2. Track hybrid work performance and have visibility over office usage resources for future planning and expansion
3. Make their back-to-office policy work across multiple offices across several countries and cities

Those difficulties caused IES to look for ways to manage the various challenges, and they too turned to the OfficeRnD Hybrid platform. It gave IES a way to manage and allocate real estate resources effectively thanks to the buult-in analytics feature.

The smart scheduling system encouraged employees to return to the office by showing them the value of the time they invest there.

The fast adoption rate, the easiness of use of the software, and the personalized onboarding process of the customer success team allowed the leadership to bring the employees back to the office for face-to-face collaboration faster than expected.

The company uses in-app announcements and events to promote community among employees. All teams can use the platform to share ideas and progress.

Desk and room booking simplicity promotes collaboration by providing schedule transparency through synced calendars, within their existing MS tech stack.

What’s more, IES needed to keep logins and workflows as simple as possible for employees. They accomplished that goal using OfficeRnD Hybrid integrations and SSO.

Interested in learning the entire story? Do it here.

#5 Slack

• Industry: Technology, software, and services
• Number of employees: 2,597
• Location: San Francisco, California, USA
• Hybrid mix: Hybrid

The last of our hybrid work success stories comes from a company that needs no introduction but here it is.

Slack is a software company that develops real-time collaboration applications. Their apps provide messaging, integrated file sharing, video or voice calls, and other services to organizations worldwide.

It’s not a secret that their messaging platform is one of the propellers of successful remote work lifestyle.

Before the pandemic, Slack was an in-office workplace providing its services to other companies. In June 2020, the company announced that it would offer a permanent work-from-home option while still keeping its offices open.

Slack also decided to offer many of its upcoming new roles to remote candidates. Moreover, they’ve chosen to encourage employees to work hours that suit their lifestyle, thus promoting a better work-life balance.

Instead of rigidly enforcing work schedules, the people managers at Slack use the concept of “core hours” – usually up to four hours on a given day when workers are available for collaborative teamwork. They way, they know they have time for deep focused work that’s free of meetings.

Furthermore, they have a “no-meetings Fridays” policy that allows employees to allocate dedicated time for creative work. The leadership also proactively avoids proximity bias at all costs, which is one of the pitfalls of hybrid work.

Derek Laney, Slack’s technology evangelist, says:

It’s the greatest time ever to be an HR person.

Naturally, he credits their own tools as being a portion of the reason for that. Cal Henderson, Slack CTO, and co-founder, believes that:

We will be mainly using offices for collaborative work and social interaction.

He went on to say that he thinks most employees will go into the office several times a year to socialize or collaborate rather than going to the office daily.

Nowadays, Slack employees report that they feel engaged no matter where they work. Their outcomes are measured by results rather than time spent behind their desk.

Here’s a very interesting video of Slack’s CEO Stewart Butterfield talking about the future of work and how Slack helps in shaping it thanks to their product and its features.

FAQ

Is hybrid working successful?

The president of Prodoscore, David Powell, says their data shows employees that were productive in the office would also be productive at home. Prodoscore evaluated data from 30,000 US-based users and discovered a 5% increase in productivity when workers were working remotely during the pandemic.

Increased productivity when working remotely indicates that remote or hybrid work models enjoy measurable success. Reported increases in employee satisfaction also indicate that hybrid work models are successful.

What does successful hybrid working look like?

Successful companies with hybrid workplaces boast with:

• Increased productivity and employee engagement
• Improved collaboration
• Reduced real estate costs
• Better work-life balance for both employers and employees alike

How do you succeed in a hybrid workplace?

Succeeding in a hybrid workplace requires consistency, people-first approach, and transparent communication. It’s also helpful to create a schedule and stick to it. Build a team comprised of members that trust each other. A successful hybrid workplace is intentional regarding collaborative efforts and establishing clear hybrid work policies. Those policies should address communication methods, time spent in the office and time spent remotely, collaborative expectations, and how those expectations are measured.

Why is hybrid work the best?

Hybrid work environments have several advantages. Among them are improved work-life balance, control over work hours and location, more efficient use of time, higher productivity, and mitigation of burnout. Hybrid work environments provide flexibility for employees in the workplace.

Is hybrid working the future?

According to a report from McKinsey, 20-25% of the workforce in advanced economies could successfully work from home from three to five days a week. A hybrid workplace model isn’t a temporary solution; it’s the future of work among successful workplaces.  Those who work in an industry with computer-based assignments can easily adapt to a hybrid work schedule. As technologically integrated enterprises grow, so will the need for those who can easily adapt to the hybrid work model, making it the future of work.

What sets apart successful hybrid work models?

Hybrid work success has multiple characteristics. Among them are:

• Trust for employees.
• Listening to employees.
• Empowerment of employees.
• Equity between on-site and off-site employees.
• Clear intentions with their employees.

Those who achieve success through hybrid work exhibit clear, effective communication between employer and employees. Expectations are clear, as are the tools for measuring those expectations. Employees are empowered to take control of their day within clearly set parameters. Employers provide the tools necessary for employee success, including, but not limited to, software or other technological tools.

Do people prefer hybrid or remote work?

According to Forbes, 59% of workers choose hybrid, 32% of workers want to remain fully remote, and only 9% of employees want to return to work in the office. Hybrid work is a balance between working on-site and from home.

How long will hybrid work last?

According to one study, approximately 66% of business executives consider restructuring their workspace to be more conducive to a hybrid work model. Hybrid work seems to be here to stay. Workplaces must adapt to new models of work to replace inefficient procedures with more user-friendly work environments that cater to new collaborative work styles.

Are hybrid workers happier?

An Owl Labs study found that hybrid and remote workers are happier than those who are part of the traditional on-site work model. In fact, the study says remote, or hybrid workers are 22% happier than their on-site counterparts. These workers remained in their job longer, had less stress and more focus, and were more productive than when working on-site at the company. Working from home was beneficial for mental and physical health and led to improved work/life balance.