80% IBM Employees Will Work Only 3-Days/Week In Office! Hybrid Work Model On Full Force

Once the pandemic is over, the IT major, International Business Machines Corp.(IBM) expecting 80% of its employees to work in a hybrid model.

IBM Hybrid Working Model

Here hybrid model is basically a setup that offers flexibility but also appears to be challenging  for community-building and upward mobility for staff in a virtual workspace.

As part of this model, the majority of workers “will spend at least three days a week, maybe not all eight to 10 hours, but at least some fraction of those three days, in the office,” according to the Chief Executive Officer Arvind Krishna.

Now, companies are trying to chart a path forward with the administration of vaccines across the U.S. and pandemic restrictions loosen. 

Companies Favoring Flexible Remote Working Model

Interestingly, around 65% of surveyed U.S. companies said they were considering a “flexible remote working model,” as per a recent report by Zoom Video Communications Inc.

Further talking about  the working model, Krishna mentioned that there could be 10%-20% of employees staying entirely remote.

So, he is concerned about how that would impact building company culture. 

Concerns Building Company Culture

 Moreover,raising the concern, Krishna said, “When people are remote I worry about what their career trajectory is going to be,”.

Further said, “If they want to become a people manager, if they want to get increasing responsibilities or if they want to build a culture within their teams, how are we going to do that remotely?”.

 He also mentioned that the parents will be allowed to work entirely remotely until schools reopen. 

Space Utilization

With these implementations, some of IBM’s 70 million square feet of office space will likely be closed.

Although, the company will probably keep more than half of its current capacity according to  Krishna.

The company plans to utilize the remaining space for reconfiguring to facilitate collaboration, as solitary work will likely be done from home.

So far, over 10% of IBM employees in the U.S. have returned to the office. 

Which is better then in Western Europe, where “almost nobody’s in the office,”.

But it is much lower than in Australia or China where many employees have returned.