Over 80% of businesses expect to keep a hybrid working environment

Around 1,500 business and IT decision makers took a survey which found that 83% believe that at least 25% of their workforce will remain hybrid in 2022, which is an increase of 30% compared to last year. A further 42% think that over 50% of their workforce will remain hybrid. 

In September 2021, The Riverbed | Aternity hybrid work global survey 2021 was conducted by Sapio Research, made up of 750 business decision makers and 738 IT decision makers across the UK, USA, France, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, UAE and the Netherlands. 

One of the more stand out figures was that 94% of those surveyed agreed that hybrid working helps with recruiting and retaining talent. Also, 84% believed that hybrid working will have a positive and lasting impact on both society and the world.

One of the more worrying pieces to come from the survey was that although all indicators signal hybrid working environments are the way forward, most businesses are unprepared to deliver a seamless experience for their employees in a hybrid environment. Just over 33% believe that they are fully prepared to seamlessly transition to hybrid working, and 88% are worried about the digital disparity between the in-office and remote employees. The positive is that 89% are planning to invest in technology to support their hybrid working environment in the next 6-12 months. 

We have listed below the top five human and technology related barriers to adopting a hybrid work model from the survey:

1. Employee motivation and wellbeing (35%)

2. Technology disruptions (32%)

3. Poor home/remote network performance (31%)

4. Collaboration and virtual relationship building (31%)

5. Expanded security risks (31%)

80% of business decision makers believe that they are negatively impacted by technology disruptions, their teams and employee job satisfaction. There were three areas they blamed mostly. These were:

1. Lack of acceleration technologies (35%)

2. Legacy IT infrastructure (33%)

3. Lack of end-to-end visibility (32%)

Those surveyed regarded performance as contribututing to:

• Saving time and money (38%)

• Greater ability to delivery critical services to employees and customers (35%)

• Enabling hybrid work models (32%)

• Preventing and reducing downtime (31%)

• Driving innovation (29%)

• Enhancing collaboration (28%)

What the survey has clearly indicated moving forward is there needs to be investment in technology to support hybrid working. Both business and IT decision makers agreed that underinvesting affects their employees experience, with many listing:

• Increasing stress or frustration (37%)

• Lack of work motivation (33%)

• Reduced employee productivity (33%)

• Reduced collaboration among colleagues (32%)

• Reduced work-life balance (30%)

“We’ve reached that critical point in time when a high-performing hybrid workplace is required for organisations to push to the next level of employee and customer satisfaction and sustainable financial success,” said Dan Smoot, president and CEO of Riverbed | Aternity.

“What’s very clear is that to gain the maximum benefits from hybrid work, organisations must invest in technologies to modernise their IT environments. Underinvesting can have severe consequences...[firms] can maximise their visibility and performance across networks, applications, devices and the end-user experience so they can fully capitalise on their digital and hybrid workplace investments.”  

Are you interested in seeing how Reef can help you conquer your employee experience moving into a hybrid working environment? Get in touch with us today to find out how.