Despite embracing new remote and hybrid work, employees fear being left behind in career advancement if they are not working onsite. A third of employees (32%) prefer the hybrid environment but nearly half (43%) believe in-person work is best for their career advancement. That’s according to a new survey of 912 full-time U.S. workers, “The New Hybrid Workplace, Built on Resilience, Transparency, and Trust,” co-authored by Jan Bruce (meQuilibrium) and Jeanne Meister (Executive Networks).
“It is no longer true that being physically present in the office results in more opportunities for career advancement, as the past two years of remote and hybrid work have shown,” said Jeanne Meister, Executive Vice President, Executive Networks. “For those employees working hybrid or remotely, the avenues for increasing their visibility within the organization are not always clear-cut.”
HR policies have largely focused on supporting on-site workers, because they traditionally have comprised the majority of the workforce. In fact, before the pandemic, only 6% of those employed worked primarily remotely and about three quarters of workers had never worked remotely, according to NCCI. But as more employees experience the value and flexibility of hybrid work, leaders must re-imagine the business landscape and communicate these changes to every employee.
