The hybrid vs. remote battle wages on

By Jessica Salerno-Shumaker, OSCPA senior content manager  

Hybrid work offers an in-office experience with the flexibility of remote work, but some business leaders are still skeptical.  

“We see very clearly that the future is going to be hybrid,” said Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, CEO of Disaster Avoidance Experts. “We have a lot of workers who never intend to go back to the office, and they have the talent and the capacity to not go back into the office.” 

Tsipursky recently published a book titled “Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams: A Manual on Benchmarking to Best Practices for Competitive Advantage,” covering best practices for adopting a hybrid-first mode. He cited research stating that the top 10 cities across the United States have an office occupancy of 49% and doesn’t anticipate that number growing to be more than 60% any time soon.  

“We know that right now when we look at surveys, more than 85% of people say that they would like at least some remote work,” he said.   

This can be a polarizing topic among business leaders, Tsipursky said, as some staff moved back into the office as soon as they could, and others are embracing a hybrid or fully remote workforce.  

Recent studies have shown companies that offer remote work have higher retention, he said. In a Stanford University randomized trial, the people who were able to work some of the time from home had a 35% better retention rate than those who had to come into the office full time.  

When putting the hybrid model into practice, Tsipursky said it’s crucial for the rollout to be embraced by the entire team and thoughtfully considered ahead of time.  

“It's very important to decentralize decision-making,” he said.  “Let team leads make the decisions while giving them some broad guidelines. Think about the goals you want to achieve and the business objectives, and within these broad guidelines, figure out what works best for your team.”  

Tsipursky predicted that firms that continue to offer hybrid options will be more successful long term, especially as younger generations who enjoy the hybrid option come into the workplace.  

“When you look at people who are in the office full time, versus people who are able to work a substantial amount of their time remotely, there's much higher engagement and morale for the latter group,” he said. “It's not surprising. They also have much better well-being indicators, less burnout and better work-life balance.”