Employers Who Are Implementing Hybrid Working

Hybrid Working: two different types of work location arrangements (usually home and office) that combine to perform essentially the same function.

Of course, the true definition of hybrid working is still emerging, as employers experiment with what works and what doesn’t. The COVID pandemic has accelerated a trend towards more remote working by many years and it is largely being driven by employee preferences. With some employers reporting a 30% improvement in productivity during lockdown, it is no surprise that employees are being listened to.

For those of you considering going hybrid or grappling with the challenges, the table below gives you a list of organisations who have gone public with a permanent commitment to hybrid working, so that you can follow and learn from their pioneering efforts.

Please contact Andrew Thompson at andrew@paskpartnership.com if you want to:

1. Add your business to this list
2. Request a pdf version of the list
3. If you have any questions about hybrid working and where you can find help or advice on its implementation.

You can also check out our articles on hybrid working here.

Aviva

Aviva has announced the closure of offices across the UK alongside plans to allow staff to work from home, beyond Covid restrictions.

The investment company, which employs 16,000 people in the UK, said the plans would not lead to job cuts and offices would still be available for staff on a rotation basis. It said it expected most staff to spend one day a week in an office on average.

Source: BBC News | Aviva Podcast

BP

BP has told 25,000 office-based staff that they will be expected to work from home for two days a week as part of a post-pandemic shift to flexible working patterns.

The global oil company introduced the new hybrid model of working to staff last month and expects the 60-40 split between office and home working to take effect from this summer as Covid-19 restrictions begin to ease.

The hybrid working approach will extend across BP’s global network of offices and is expected to affect 6,000 staff in the UK, including more than 2,000 in central London.

Source: The Guardian

British Airways

“The global pandemic has shown us that many of our colleagues enjoy working remotely and want to continue, and this has accelerated our approach to offering more agile and flexible ways of working.”

“Our aim is to find a hybrid working model that suits our business, blending the best of office and remote working for our people. We’ve also re-structured our business to emerge from the crisis and are considering whether we still have the need for such a large headquarters building.”

Source: BBC News

BT

The company says that its 8,500 call centre staff who are currently working remotely will given the choice of whether or not they want to come back to the office. A staff survey revealed that 65% wished to work from home. HQ staff will be givenflexibility on how they divide their time between office and home but the office will remaina  core part of life at BT.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk | Evening Standard

Capita

“We have permanently closed 11% of our floor space in 2020, including our head office in London. We are now moving to a more flexible workspace model, allowing collaboration when needed but also recognising that our people want to spend more time working at home than before the pandemic. We plan to reduce office space by another 15% in 2021.”

The company has now told 64 per cent of employees – 35,000 out of a total of 55,000 – that they will be able to work from home for the majority of the time.

Source: Annual Results 2020 | The Independent

Centrica

Chris O’Shea, CEO of Centrica, tells the FT that they won;t be back 5 days a week in the office, adopting a flexible mix of working arrangements instead. He felt it was good for both staff and customers.

Source: FT.com

Dropbox

Dropbox announced it would become a Virtual First company. Remote work (outside an office) will be the primary experience for all employees and the day-to-day default for individual work.

Source: Dropbox blog

Ericsson

At Future of Work 2021, Priyanka Anand, Vice-President and Head of HR, Southeast Asia, Oceania and India at Ericsson, revealed some of Ericsson’s plans and philosophy around how it is reimagining the workplace to adopt hybrid working.

Source: YourStory.com

Facebook

About half of Facebook’s workforce will work remotely over the next decade, according to Mr. Zuckerberg. “We’re going to do this in a measured way,” he said. “I think we could get to about half of the company working remotely permanently,” in five to ten years, he concluded.

Source: Forbes

Gitlab

Before the pandemic, GitLab were the world’s largest all-remote company with over 1,300 team members working remotely across 65 countries. They have shared their excellent “Remote Manifesto” on their website.

Source: GitLab website

Hitachi

The tech conglomerate’s eventual goal is to have 70% of its workforce — about 23,000 people — work remotely for two or three days a week.

Source: CNN

HSBC

HSBC has announced that it is moving 1,200 call centre staff in the UK to permanent home working on a voluntary basis. This decision comes after an employee survey and HSBC have offered £300 a year to cover expenses such as high utility bills.

Source: Reuters

Infosys

33% of staff to work permanently from home – although a timetable for this has not been confirmed

Source: Yahoo News

KPMG

KPMG UK announced in February that it would be embracing hybrid working for its 16,000 colleagues. Staff will have the opportunity to tailor their working week to suit the type of work they are doing and their balance of work and home commitments.

“We see hybrid working as a once in a generation transformation, not only in the way people interact with their workplace but in the way they approach career opportunities and contribute to businesses – and for value to be recognised somewhat differently.

By being clear that working within KPMG will involve less commuting to offices and less travel to meetings, we want to attract a wider pool of talent than ever before, helping us to be a more diverse and stronger business as a result.”

Source: KPMG UK blog

Lloyds Banking Group

77% of Lloyds’ 68,000 employees said they want to work from home for three or more days per week. As a result, the company is to reduce it’s office space by 20% over the next two years as it adopts hybrid working as a permanent lifestyle change.

Source: The Guardian

Microsoft

Microsoft published an update to their hybrid working model in March 2021, describing a nuanced approach underpinned by experiments with new technologies and work space design. They recognise the need to create space for inclusive conversations and “to support individual work styles, balance business needs and ensure we live our culture”. It goes on to say, “we view working from home part of the time (less than 50%) as standard for most roles – assuming manager and team alignment. Now and in the future, we have an opportunity to reexamine traditional notions of aligning particular jobs to particular settings.”

Source: Microsoft blog

Nationwide (the UK building society)

13,000 office staff can choose where they work; whether that be from home, a local High Street branch or the office.

Joe Garner, chief executive of Nationwide, said: “The last year has taught many of us that ‘how’ we do our jobs is much more important than ‘where’ we do them from. We are putting our employees in control of where they work from, inviting them to ‘locate for their day’ depending on what they need to achieve.”

Source: BBC News | Nationwide website

Nationwide Insurance

Downsizing from 20 offices to just 4 and the majority of staff will be working from home.

Source: BBC News | Nationwide website

PWC

Source: BBC News | PWC website

Revolut

Revolut, one of Europe’s most-valuable startups, will allow its more than 2,000 employees to work overseas for as long as 60 calendar days over a rolling 12 months. This follows an announcement in February regarding plans to move the majority of its 2000-strong workforce to a permanent remote working model.

Source: Finextra | Revolut website

Salesforce

“Going forward, Salesforce employees will have the choice of three working models; flex, fully remote and office-based.

When it’s safe to return to the office, most of our employees around the globe will work flex. This means they’ll be in the office 1-3 days per week for team collaboration, customer meetings, and presentations.”

Source: Salesforce blog

Santander

5,000 staff will be asked to work from home more often or travel into one of its six offices, amidst the closure of 452 branches and 4 offices across the UK.

Source: BBC News

Siemens

140,000 of its 385,000 employees may work from wherever they want for 2-3 days per week.

Source: Forbes | Siemens website

Slack

“One thing that we know: Slack is going to become a much more distributed company. That means that most employees will have the option to work remotely on a permanent basis if they choose, and we will begin to increasingly hire employees who are permanently remote.”

Source: Slack website

Spotify

“Starting this Summer we’ll be offering more flexibility to employees by introducing My Work Mode as well as flexibility when it comes to work location.”

1. My Work Mode – our employees will be able to work full time from home, from the office, or a combination of the two.
2. Location choices –more flexibility when it comes to what country and city each employee works from ….if someone chooses a location that is not near a Spotify office, we will support them with a co-working space membership if they want to work from an office.

Source: Spotify HR blog

Square

Announced at the same time as Twitter that employees would be allowed to work from home permanently.

“We want employees to be able to work where they feel most creative and productive,” a Square spokesperson told CNBC. “Over the past several weeks, we’ve learned a lot about what it takes for people to effectively perform roles outside of an office, and we will continue to learn as we go.”

Source: CNBC

Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered Bank have announced their intention to implement a hybrid approach to work, with greater flexibility in working patterns and locations; whether that be Standard Chartered premises, a near-office premises, or from home. Additionally, the Bank is partnering with a third party (IWG) to provide additional ‘near-home’ workspace. It is anticipated most employees will fall into a hybrid pattern but the plans are being phased in, with phase one covering 54% of their 86,000 employees across nine markets in 2021.

Source: SC website

Tata Consultancy Services

By 2025, only 25% of employees will need to be in office at any one time in order to be just as, if not more, productive.

Source: Tata website

The Very Group

The Very Group, operator of Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com, has transformed its Liverpool-based campus into the ideal setting for collaboration, innovation, learning and socialising, as the £2bn-revenue retailer sets its sights on a new, permanent hybrid working model. Sarah Willett, Chief People Officer, said, “…our plans aren’t just about productivity. They’re about how we can offer our colleagues true value and get value back in return. By offering better balance, increased flexibility, interesting work, and an amazing place to come together, we can attract even more outstanding people – and retain the ones we already have.”

Source: The Very Group website

Twitter

In May 2020, Twitter announced it’s decision to allow it’s 5,200 employees to decide where they want to work.

“We’ve already been on this path, and the crisis just catapulted us into a future state,” said Twitter human resources chief Jennifer Christie, who said she believes flexibility for workers is the “fourth industrial revolution” because it will fundamentally change the way people work. “The future of work is offering employees more optionality.”

Source: The Washington Post

Zillow

Effective immediately (July 2020), we will offer about 90% of our (5,400) employees the flexibility to work from home as an ongoing option, at least part-time, allowing them the ability to work where they are most productive, whether that is in the office, their home, or a combination of both.

Source: Zillow website