Creating level playing field critical to the success of hybrid work: Forrester exec

While 70 per cent of organizations will expand remote work or anywhere work practices significantly, the success of these models will depend on the experiences they offer to employees, Sharyn Leaver, Chief Research Officer at research firm Forrester said.

Talking at NASSCOM Technology and Leadership Forum 2022 (NTLF), Leaver said one-third of companies will fail at meeting 'anywhere work' goals unless they create truly connected systems that offer level-playing fields for all employees.

"They will fail because they say they are embracing a more flexible approach but they won't make the technology investments, the process changes, the new definitions of roles to make it sing, and make it feel like employees, no matter where they are, can work well together," she said. 

Forrester defines 'anywhere work' as a strategy for work where everything from investments in technology, redefining roles and processes is done to create a world where employees and their teams can participate in that work from wherever they are, and do so on a level playing field. 

"Remote employees can no longer be considered as second-class citizens," she added. 

According to a recent global survey by Forrester, 61% of employees preferred hybrid work for the long run. In the long term, 60 per cent of companies will work on hybrid model, 10% would fully embrace anywhere-first, and 30 per cent would return to office, the survey said. 

"Hybrid can create challenges like coming in to the office and spending the entire day on videoconferences with remote colleagues or people could revert to old habits, like writing on the analog office whiteboard that remote workers can't see or participate" Leaver said.

The solution to anywhere work is 'punctuated office creativity wedded to technology innovation' where employee experience, leadership excellence, and organizational culture are all intertwined with hybrid work and technology to drive creativity. 

"It is about using the office for what it is good at - driving collaboration and creativity - but also embracing and investing in technology that drives creative experience like rethinking the shape, structure and layout of the office to enable more collaboration," she said. 

Organizations need to make investments in technology like cameras, digital whiteboards, speakers, or devices that can do all these together, that allows in-office to merge with remote and to lower effective psychological distance.  

Forrester believes metaverse is going to be strong component in creating this immersive experience, but may not become critical in 2022. 

Forrester defines a virtual world as a persistent digital environment in which interactivity, space, and purpose converge to create a construct resembling a real-world place, experience either through abstraction or through graphical representation. 

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