As we enter 2025, organisations continue to grapple with the realities of hybrid working. Despite new legislation and widespread adoption, many leaders still struggle to effectively implement flexible working policies. We spoke with David Blackburn, a HR consultant and passionate advocate for flexible working, about why organisations are still finding it challenging to get hybrid work right – and more importantly, how they can create a culture that truly embraces this new way of working.

What does hybrid work look like in 2025?

The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill means millions of UK workers now have more flexibility over where and when they work in 2025. In fact, data from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) highlights that 55% of UK employees have accessed their day one right to request flexible working and 62% of employers responded positively. In total about 40% of the UK workforce enjoys some form of flexibility (https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/whoarethehybridworkers/2024-11-11)

But flexible hybrid working is not new – as we all know the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the global workforce into an unprecedented experiment in working from home and that as a result we are living in the greatest global shift in the world of work for a century.

Why are we still struggling?

However, at the same time when Gartner surveyed more than 500 HR leaders across 40 countries to identify their priorities and challenges for 2025 their research highlighted the ongoing uncertainty amongst leaders and HR professionals about how to reshape culture for the hybrid workplace. 41% of HR leaders said employees’ connection to culture is compromised by hybrid work and 47% said that they simply do not know how to drive change to achieve the desired culture.

If we add to this mix the ‘…productivity paranoia…’ that Microsoft highlighted in their Work Trend Pulse Index report as far back as September 2022: the disconnect between how much people say they are working and how much leaders think they are working – we have a problem. Why after four years of practical experience are we still struggling to get it right?

I have been a passionate campaigner for flexible working for longer than I can remember, and I know that there is significant evidence gathered from multiple sectors, industries, and geographies of its many benefits: productivity, well-being, employee engagement and experience, much of it shared on LinkedIn or available through a simple Google search. 

Intent, trust, and transparency: the foundation of successful hybrid work

I know that I am not alone in identifying intent, transparency, and trust as central to making hybrid working work. As Gartner highlights: ‘…For culture to succeed in a hybrid world, leaders must work intentionally to align and connect employees to it. Alignment and connectedness operate like the left and right sides of your brain — rational and emotional…’

In 2013 I discovered the work of Stephen M. R. Covey on trust, and I return to it repeatedly when grappling with these sorts of questions and challenges. His extensive research identified the thirteen behaviours that help people, organisations and societies build high trust relationships. More than ever, we need to Talk Straight, Create Transparency, Right Wrongs, Confront Reality, Clarify Expectations, Practice Accountability and Keep Commitments. Only with open and honest communication can you build trust. We need to default to transparency and make everything open, visible, and public unless something absolutely must be kept private

The dictionary definition of intent is giving all your attention to something, to be determined to do or achieve something, to have a purpose. Your motive or motivation is the reason you act; it is the ‘why’ that drives the ‘what.’ Your personal agenda grows out of your motivation and your behaviour is typically a manifestation of both. To quote Stephen again: ‘…The motive that inspires the greatest trust is genuine caring…the agenda that generally inspires the greatest trust is seeking mutual benefit…the behaviour that best creates credibility and inspires trust is acting in the best interests of others…’

Consider that for a moment and reflect on your organisation’s approach to hybrid working and your organisational culture. Do your employees believe that you care about them? Do your employees believe that your flexible working environment is mutually beneficial? Do your employees feel that you are working collaboratively and inclusively for the benefit of everyone?

Remember that studies last year by Franklin Covey and energy provider Eon found that 50% of employees said that where and when they work was a major factor in deciding whether or not to change roles and 52% of employees say they would only consider working for a company that offered flexible working as standard.

If you are struggling with your responses to my questions above, I cannot recommend Lynda Gratton’s Redesigning Work enough – full of practical advice, a step-by-step model and inspirational case studies from around the world of organisations who are getting it right. I will highlight just one here: SAGE who have 13,000 employees and over two million customers.

They established four guiding principles to drive their hybrid model:

• Customer centric: the model of work has to maintain or increase customer centric performance.
• Fairness and trust: flexible working is not a reward but rooted in the trust of employees, and trade-offs require everyone to compromise and be accountable.
• Human connection: the redesign of work strengthens rather than depletes human connections. Intentional and purposeful communication patterns build a sense of inclusion.
• Experimentation: employees are encouraged to engage in courageous experimentation and to take risks so that the model is tailored to different parts of their business – one size does not fit all.

And for me that is the key point: one size does not fit all. Too often we are trying to apply binary solutions to a multi-faceted opportunity: home versus office, when in fact the best organisations connect their people to the culture wherever they work, establishing an emotional connection and equipping teams to create vibrant and healthy hybrid environments.