Why Hybrid Teams Learn Better With Flexible Workspaces

How Flexible Spaces Support Hybrid Team Learning

In recent years, the way we work has changed significantly. For many professionals, the biggest shift has been the sizable growth of remote and hybrid work, with as many as between 26% and 52% of U.S. workers with remote-capable jobs now working within each of these models respectively.

Studies have consistently shown that more flexibility at work can bring about impactful benefits for employees and employers. For example, greater job flexibility has been shown to decrease odds of serious psychological distress in workers [1], while companies that run fully flexible work models have been shown to experience revenue growth 1.7x faster than mandate-driven rivals [2].

For many employers, providing greater flexibility is no longer a point of contention, the question now concerns what resources employees require to unlock their full potential. As leaders search for answers, data is increasingly suggesting that hybrid teams learn better in flexible workspaces.

What Are Flexible Workspaces?

As many businesses continue to move away from traditional office-based work models, leaders have had to adopt new terminology to describe nontraditional workflows and work spaces. To avoid confusion when discussing the benefits of flexible work and the spaces from which that work is performed, it’s wise to define and discern the terms flexible work and flexible workspace.

Flexible work
A work model that provides employees freedom to choose when their work day starts and ends and whether work is done in-office or remotely on certain days.
Flexible workspaces
Physical offices designed to support flexible work by providing workers access to a space with office amenities they can work from on their own terms.

These concepts are often combined by employers and hybrid workers to balance the benefits of in-office and remote work. The model provides employees the freedom to perform work at times that suit their needs, while the space offers access to professional resources on a flexible basis.

What Drives Hybrid Work Success?

At its core, hybrid work drives business success by offering employees the freedom to work in a structure that meets their unique needs. For the model to work, meaningful trust must be built between workers and employers; both parties must view business success as the ultimate goal.

Employers must understand that, to a driven employee, flexible work is attractive as it enables them to work from spaces that maximize their engagement. Research supports this, with historic data finding employees who are provided the freedom to personalize their workspaces are 32% more productive [3] and those who work from spaces they enjoy to be in are 33% more engaged [4]. For modern hybrid work models to succeed, four core pillars of flexible work must be addressed:

Space
Employees must be provided, and provide themselves with, appropriate spaces from which to work; the resources required to complete a task must always be available.
Productivity
The shared goal of employees and employers must be to achieve optimal engagement; this also accounts for time between tasks to recalibrate and avoid burnout.
Focus
Employers must understand that, by providing employees the freedom to choose where they work, they enable them to apply their optimal level of focus to different tasks.
Cost
The benefits of hybrid work should not be weighed down by the cost of operating an office under capacity; flexible workspaces can provide benefits to employers and staff.

How Flexible Workspaces Help Hybrid Teams Learn Better

For employers managing hybrid teams, opting to run in-office operations entirely from a flexible workspace can offer significant benefits. Aside from removing the cost of operating commercial real estate below capacity, flexible office space can help hybrid teams to learn and upskill better.

55% of office-based businesses now use flexible spaces and 17% are planning to increase their use [5]. This popularity is driven by not only their ability to help employers and employees address the four pillars of flexible work, but also to achieve wider benefits. Research shows [6] that flexible workspaces benefit employee performance by improving collaboration, well-being and autonomy [7].

Collaboration

One of the major downsides to remote work is the loss of natural connections; when people do all their work alone, they miss out on opportunities for informal learning. Hybrid teams get around this issue by balancing remote and in-office workdays, but in a traditional office, employees are limited to connecting with people who work for the same company and often share similar skills.

In a flexible workspace, hybrid teams are enabled to network with a much wider range of people who possess new skills and who may view their work from a fresh perspective. Data suggests that flexible workspaces help 82% of members to expand their professional networks [8], as well as facilitate collaboration between hybrid workers which can help to accelerate talent development [9].

When employees regularly spend time with people outside their normal circle and observe the benefits of new skills and how they’re performed, they can become more perceptive to learning opportunities and more driven to seek out upskilling initiatives both inside and outside of work.

Well-Being

In recent years, many reports have suggested significant links between flexibility in work and employee well-being. According to the World Happiness Foundation, independent and flexible workers report higher levels of happiness than traditional salaried workers [10], with wider research finding that working in a flexible workspace improves well-being relative to working from home [11].

The happier people are at work, the more capable and eager they are to learn. Employees with lower levels of well-being are 48% more likely to suffer daily stress and 66% more likely to worry about work; feelings that can cloud the mind and impact learning [12]. Comparatively, research shows that high well-being can enhance workers‘ eagerness to seek professional growth opportunities [11].

Happy, fulfilled and engaged employees are more likely to seek progression within their roles at their current organization. By providing employees flexibility at work and access to a workspace that positively affects their well-being, employers drive employees to actively engage in learning.

Autonomy

Flexible work models provide employees more autonomy to choose how they approach different tasks, ranging from the physical space they choose to work from to the times of day they choose to get work done. From an employee perspective, flexibility and autonomy are known to improve happiness, placing staff in an ideal frame of mind to pursue learning and upskilling opportunities [10].

By providing employees the ability to make decisions for themselves and perform their roles with minimal supervision, leaders enable hybrid teams to naturally identify areas for improvement. In a flexible workspace, if an employee faces a roadblock in their work, they’re offered the freedom and autonomy to fix the issue independently and expand their professional skillset in the process.

As workers become more used to the autonomy of the flexible workspace, the drive to address problems and knowledge gaps independently becomes second nature. In turn, this can help workers to better engage in professional development initiatives and naturally retain information.

Final thoughts

As flexible work models continue to grow in popularity, employers and employees are identifying new personal and professional benefits. Provided trust is at the center of flexible arrangements, and that all parties view shared success as the ultimate goal, remote and hybrid work models can help employees to perform at their best and employers to outperform mandate-driven rivals.

To further support hybrid teams and help employees reach their full potential, research suggests running in-office operations from a flexible workspace can be beneficial. Flexible spaces have been shown to provide measurable collaboration, well-being and autonomy benefits to workers, helping hybrid teams feel more engaged in their work and eager to explore learning opportunities.