What Executives Are Saying About the Future of Hybrid Work

There used to be a time when going to work meant driving to the office from Monday to Friday. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020.

Suddenly, in-office employees began working from home — and many loved it.

Years later, the debate over where work happens hasn’t gone away. Some large employers have pushed for a full return to the office, but most companies have settled somewhere in between with hybrid work.

Whether they like it or not, most executives now treat hybrid as a permanent part of how their companies operate. According to findings from Stanford and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Survey of Business Uncertainty, many companies are standing firm on their hybrid or fully remote work policies, and they don’t intend to change their stance for the next 12 months.

Here’s what executives are saying about the future of hybrid work, and what the latest data shows.

Quick Summary

• Hybrid work has stabilized as the dominant model for remote-capable jobs, and executives expect it to stay
• Leaders see flexibility as a retention lever: removing it pushes people toward the door
• Companies keep redesigning their spaces, policies, and management practices around hybrid work, and are investing in the tools to run it

What is hybrid work?

Hybrid work is a model where employees split their time between a workplace and a remote location, usually their home, instead of being in the office five days a week.

It’s now the default for people who can work remotely. Among US employees in remote-capable jobs, 52% work hybrid, 26% work fully remote, and 22% work on-site, according to Gallup.

That pattern has held for a while. The share of paid working days performed from home is stable at about 20 percent of paid workdays, and other sources also show stability in WFH rates since early 2023.

What are executives saying about the future of hybrid work?

Executives who run hybrid or remote teams mostly plan to keep them. When Stanford and the Atlanta Fed surveyed more than a thousand business leaders, the answer was clear. Just 12 percent of the executives that currently have hybrid or remote workers report plans for an RTO mandate in the year ahead. And even those aren’t usually full recalls. More than a quarter of the planned RTOs will require onsite work only 1 to 4 days a week.

Executives cite concrete reasons for holding the line. Many employers like remote work because it reduces floorspace needs, raises productivity, and lowers quits. The Stanford researchers put it plainly: “Whatever happens in the U.S. economy over the next year, we think working from home is here to stay.”

Leaders aren’t uniform on this, though. There’s a generational split in how executives view the office. Forty-eight percent of Gen Z employers believe remote work is most productive, while only 28% of Boomer employers agree. As younger leaders move into more senior roles, that gap will shape company policy.

Here’s what Google CEO Sundar Pichai said when Google set its hybrid approach:

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google

“We’ll move to a hybrid work week where most Googlers spend approximately three days in the office and two days wherever they work best. Since in-office time will be focused on collaboration, your product areas and functions will help decide which days teams will come together in the office. There will also be roles that may need to be on-site more than three days a week due to the nature of the work.”

Why do executives believe flexibility helps retain talent?

Employees want flexibility, and executives who ignore that risk losing people.

The retention evidence is strong. A Stanford study published in Nature ran a randomized trial with more than 1,600 employees and found that resignations dropped 33% when staff moved from full-time office work to two remote days a week, with women, non-managers, and people with long commutes the least likely to quit.

The threat of quitting isn’t hypothetical either. 46% of people with home-capable jobs say they would be unlikely to stay if they could no longer work from home, according to Pew Research Center. Among high performers, the number is higher still. In Cisco’s survey, 78% of high performers would consider leaving a company if the work policies were not flexible enough.

At the same time, most leaders and employees still see real value in office time. Nine out of 10 employees rank collaboration and community as very important aspects of office culture, the highest of any attribute, and developing a sense of belonging and collaborating with team members are the top drivers for wanting to spend more time in the office. That’s the balance executives keep trying to strike: flexibility for focus and life, office time for the work that’s better done together.

Here’s what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has said about the future of work:

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

“Employee expectations are changing, and we will need to define productivity much more broadly — inclusive of collaboration, learning, and wellbeing to drive career advancement for every worker, including frontline and knowledge workers, as well as for new graduates and those who are in the workforce today. All this needs to be done with flexibility in when, where, and how people work.”

How are companies reinventing their work processes?

As companies settle into hybrid work, executives keep redesigning their practices to fit it. That covers real estate, hiring, and how managers run teams.

Office space is one place the change shows up. Many leaders have trimmed footprints and rebuilt what’s left around collaboration. By lessening the call for everyday office presence, leaders can counter the need for larger office spaces and their high rents and use smart-workplace tech to make better use of the space they have.

Hiring practices have shifted too, since flexible roles now draw a wider candidate pool. Robert Half’s benefits and perks survey of over 500 HR managers in the United States found that 88% of employers provide some hybrid work options, although this varies by seniority level and individual circumstances.

Here’s what Chief Learning Officer of Udemy, Melissa Daimler, has said about the culture side of this shift:

Melissa Daimler, Chief Learning Officer of Udemy

“It’s important to clarify how to work together. We are codifying our values through a “re-culturing” process — identifying specific behaviors we expect and want to see for each value and then embedding those into our processes of hiring, onboarding, and talent managing. Doing so provides a clear playbook for everyone, making it easier and psychologically safer for everyone to do their job well. We can no longer hide behind free food and ping-pong tables when defining culture.”

How are executives adapting to hybrid work?

The clearest signal of where executives stand is what they do, not what they say. Most are building policies and spaces that assume hybrid is permanent.

They’re doing it even against economic pressure. Eighty-five percent of the executives say WFH policies at their firms won’t change if unemployment doubles. That’s a strong sign leaders view flexibility as a business decision, not a perk they’ll drop at the first downturn.

Technology carries a lot of the weight in a hybrid workplace. Facilitating communication between teams, running meetings with on-site and off-site people, and creating room for collaboration are still central to workplace productivity. Yet many companies underinvest here. A full 90% of employees see value in collaboration tools, but only 32% of employers are investing in the high-grade collaboration technology that supports flexible, hybrid work models.

Here’s what the cofounder and CEO of The Escape Game, Mark Flint, says about staying adaptable:

Mark Flint, Cofounder and CEO of The Escape Game

“With the job market as tight and volatile as it has been, there is very little margin for error, and being adaptable and creative is essential. The ‘rules of the game’ are different and still changing; if our team is going to win, we know we have to change as well. For our WFH policies, we tried many different versions for various periods of time. We were intentional and transparent in our communication with our teams and honest about the fact that we would experiment with different models.”

How are executives leading differently in the hybrid workplace?

Managing people you don’t see every day takes different habits than managing a room. Leaders who invest in that skill get better results.

The productivity case now runs in hybrid’s favor. 69% of managers believe that working hybrid or remotely has made their team more productive. That undercuts the old assumption that presence equals output.

As hybrid work stays the norm, companies that design and develop spaces to keep people connected will likely see stronger results in productivity, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and diversity and inclusion.

Here’s what CEO of Qualcomm, Cristiano Amon, has said about balancing culture and flexibility:

Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm

“I’m a firm believer in the importance of in-person collaboration. Yes, we have the ability to work remotely, but we also want to preserve our culture. The reality is, if you don’t create as a community, it’s very difficult to maintain a strong culture. It’s all about striking the right balance between flexibility and providing people with an environment to work together effectively. We had a phased approach in bringing our employees back to the office, and we’re now embracing a hybrid schedule. We allow flexibility but are leaning into opportunities for people to spend time together and continue to build our incredible culture.”

What tools are executives investing in for hybrid work?

Running hybrid well means giving teams a shared system for where people sit, when they’re in, and how they book space. AI is now part of that conversation. 80% of employees say they’re using AI in the workplace, up from 72% in 2024. Cisco found leaders are behind on it, with only 44% of employers investing in AI.

OfficeRnD Workplace is workplace management software that helps teams book desks and meeting rooms, coordinate office days, and see who’s in. Tools like OfficeRnD Workplace make coordination between in-office and remote teammates easier.

You can read more quotes from executives on the future of hybrid work.

How OfficeRnD Workplace helps you run hybrid work

Hybrid work is here to stay. What executives are saying, and doing, shows that running it well takes flexibility, clear policies, and the right tools.

OfficeRnD Workplace is an easy-to-use, embeddable workplace management platform that keeps employees organized and connected, whether they’re at home or in the office.

If your hybrid policy needs structure, OfficeRnD Workplace can help there too. Alongside a desk booking system and team scheduling, it can set your work policy so employees know which days they’re expected on-site.

Start for free with OfficeRnD Workplace today.

FAQ

What is the future of hybrid work?

Hybrid has stabilized as the main model for remote-capable jobs, and executives expect it to continue. Stanford and the Atlanta Fed’s Survey of Business Uncertainty found many companies are standing firm on their hybrid or fully remote policies and don’t intend to change for the next 12 months. Just 12 percent of executives with hybrid or remote workers report plans for an RTO mandate in the year ahead.

Do employees prefer hybrid work?

Most do. Six out of 10 employees in jobs where remote work is possible prefer a hybrid environment, a third prefer fully remote, and under 10% prefer fully onsite, according to Gallup. Flexibility now ranks near pay and career growth among the factors people weigh when choosing a job.

What are the biggest challenges of hybrid work?

The common ones are communication, coordination, connection, keeping culture consistent, and giving remote and in-office staff equal visibility. A generational split adds to the difficulty. 83% of both employers and employees believe managers from older generations are more likely to want to mandate working from the office, while younger generations are more likely to want to work remotely.

What are the most common hybrid work models?

The most common are split-week (fixed days in the office), week-by-week rotations, and flexible schedules where employees choose their days. Many companies now set a minimum number of office days, often two or three, with Tuesday through Thursday the most common in-office days.

Does hybrid work hurt productivity?

The evidence points the other way. Resignations fell 33% when employees moved from full-time office work to a two-day-a-week hybrid schedule, with no loss of productivity or promotion rates, in a Stanford study published in Nature. 69% of managers believe that working hybrid or remotely has made their team more productive.