Work Practices Haven’t Adapted to Keep Pace with Hybrid Work Adoption
East Lansing, MI – March 19, 2024 – TechSmith Corporation, an industry leader in visual communication tools for the workplace, in partnership with workplace research-based consulting firm Global Workplace Analytics and Caryatid Workplace Consultancy, today released The 2024 Workplace Flexibility Trends Report, which examines the state of where, when and how people work and collaborate. Based on a survey of 900 U.S. leaders in HR, real estate, IT, and product roles, the report reveals most employers have not adapted their practices to support their shift to flexible work. It also explores the importance of different wants and needs across generations, company size, and workplace experience.
Just five years ago, less than 5% of employees had the option to work remotely on a regular basis. Today, the report finds 58% now have that option at least some of the time. But while a majority of employers have embraced a change in “where” people work, many have not adopted the new practices they need to do it well. Nearly 3 out of 4 respondents indicated their employer has not trained its managers to lead a distributed team, established team or meeting norms, or adopted best practices to support working across distances.
“The pandemic forced the majority of organizations into hybrid work practically overnight, with no time to consider how to support new practices,” said Wendy Hamilton, CEO of TechSmith. “Unfortunately, some businesses are reverting back to in-office because they haven’t committed to meeting the needs of a flexible workforce. Instead, organizations need to redesign meeting protocols, tech stacks, and collaboration approaches. Returning to office full-time instead of investing in flexibility will hurt productivity, recruiting and employee engagement.”
“Rather than fretting over whether their people should work in an office, remotely, or some combination of the two, organizations should be asking themselves, ‘How can we empower our people to do their best work wherever they do it?’” said Kate Lister, president of Global Workplace Analytics.
Other key takeaways from the report related to work and collaboration include:
- Real-time communication outpaces asynchronous collaboration 55% to 45%—but the majority want more asynchronous alternatives: Despite real-time communication slightly edging out asynchronous communication, nearly 70% of employees believe email could replace over a quarter of their meetings. Many respondents also believe video and images could enhance asynchronous communication with nearly seven in 10 respondents using video messaging sometimes or often in workplace communication and another 22% interested in trying it. Emails containing images or videos are favored nearly 50% over plain text.
- In-office workers face more interruptions than their hybrid counterparts with reduced productivity: Compared to hybrid employees, in-office workers are nearly twice as likely to be interrupted more than 25 times a day (83% higher), and more than three times more likely than full-remote workers. Nearly half of respondents (46%) indicated that unwanted interruptions more than six times a day reduced their productivity or increased their stress.
- Respondents consider ad hoc and unplanned meetings to be the lowest value meeting by far at 7%: In comparison, decision-making meetings were considered the highest value of any meeting type by only 24% of respondents. Meetings related to project feedback (18%), training (18%) brainstorming sessions (17%), and status updates (16%) followed closely behind.
- Generation and level in the organization greatly influence flexibility: Managers (44%) are more tethered to an office than senior leaders or individual contributors (less than 27%). Baby Boomers have far more flexibility than Gen Z in “where” (74% compared to 63%) and “when” (49% compared to 30%) they work.
- Fully-remote is increasingly becoming a small business luxury: The smallest companies, between one and nine employees, are far more likely to allow full remote (23%) compared to mid-sized (4%) and large companies (9%).
- In-office employees experience significantly less flexibility around working hours than hybrid workers: Hybrid workers have nearly four times more access to flexibility around core working hours (71% compared to 18%), greater than three times more access to flexibility in the days they work (70% compared to 21%), and over 70% more access to full-choice in when they work when compared to completely in-office employees.
To learn more about TechSmith’s findings, the complete The 2024 Workplace Flexibility Trends Report can be downloaded here.
About TechSmith
TechSmith is the market leader in screen capture software and productivity solutions for daily in-person, remote or hybrid workplace communication and customer-facing image and video content. The company’s award-winning flagship products, Snagit, Camtasia, and Audiate, empower anyone to create remarkable videos, images and audio that share knowledge for better training, tutorials, and everyday communication. TechSmith creates easy-to-use software and provides expert training resources and unmatched support — making TechSmith the global leader for easily creating effective images and videos. To date, billions of images and videos have been created with TechSmith’s products by more than 73 million people across more than 190 countries. TechSmith is ranked as a top 10 company in G2’s Fall 2023 report and winner of a 2023 Training Magazine Network Choice Award. Connect with TechSmith on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and Facebook. For more information, visit www.techsmith.com.
About Global Workplace Analytics
Global Workplace Analytics, is a research-based consulting firm that has been helping organizations optimize flexible and distributed work for nearly two decades. They are a trusted source of insights about the future of work for news outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and dozens of others. Kate Lister, president of Global Workplace Analytics, is a recognized thought leader. She was one of only three witnesses invited to testify before a U.S. Senate committee regarding the potential for hybrid work in government.
About Caryatid
Caryatid is boutique consultancy specializing in guiding organizations through the complexities of distributed and remote work transitions. With a focus on innovative strategies and tailored solutions, the company helps organizations enhance efficiency, collaboration, and employee engagement in a digital-first world. Whether it’s navigating distributed work, implementing hybrid/remote models, or harnessing the power of sync and async collaboration, Caryatid can help you drive meaningful workplace transformation.
Media Contact:
Ross Blume
Fusion Public Relations
techsmith@fusionpr.com