Businesses around the globe are facing a dilemma. The quarterly performance of the business is strong, but employee engagement is low. Furthermore, workers are largely disconnected from their colleagues — a trend attributed to the broad adoption of hybrid and remote work.
Although 74% of hybrid employees feel more productive in their current working environment, many managers struggle to lead hybrid workforces. Companies have viewed this as a logistics challenge for too long, solved by scheduling video calls and distributing laptops. But this fails to account for the challenge of leading teams that are more dispersed than ever before, with teams working across time zones, coming from different cultures and speaking other languages.
Business leaders must realise that technology is just one piece of the puzzle to lead a hybrid workforce. They also must also prioritise creating thoughtfully designed workplaces that foster connection and implement solutions that resonate with employees.
When Digital Transformation Becomes Digital Chaos
Imagine starting the workday by logging onto six different platforms before beginning the actual work. This is the reality for millions of employees navigating the patchwork of tools hastily assembled during the pandemic. As a result, employees now spend 288% more time in meetings than before the pandemic, and 32 days per year are lost just toggling between workplace apps to find necessary information.
This way of working has created a new form of friction that is frustrating workers and straining productivity, leading to high rates of burnout and turnover. However, the issue is not with the technology itself.
When deployed strategically, digital tools can be powerful allies. But too often, companies treat digital transformation like a one-size-fits-all upgrade – deploy the platforms, and productivity will follow. This approach undermines what makes technology effective in today’s workplace.
To put it simply, workers don’t need more tools. They need thoughtfully integrated solutions designed to remove friction from their day-to-day roles.
Working in a Distracted World
The battle for human attention has grown exponentially in an era of constant digital noise. Microsoft’s 2025 Work Trend Index found that employees are interrupted by a meeting, email or ping every two minutes, and 80% of workers lack the time or energy to do their job.
To combat this, companies are realising that they are not just competing for talent, they are competing for their employees’ attention. To win this fight, leaders must design digital environments that balance collaboration with uninterrupted time for deep work. Some are already succeeding by implementing communication protocols, focus-time blocks and intelligent scheduling tools. Through these approaches, leaders can protect employees from unnecessary distractions and ensure that technology achieves what it is intended to do, instead of becoming another distraction for workers.
When Flexibility Creates Inequality
While hybrid work environments have successfully granted employees more flexibility, they have unintentionally created inequality for some. Consider two colleagues working on one team. One works on-site, regularly engages with leadership, can ask questions and receive answers quickly, and gathers important context through one-off conversations. Alternatively, a fully remote or hybrid worker only receives direction through scheduled meetings and engages with team leaders through video. Over time, this creates disparities among the two team members, who otherwise may be offered the same opportunities at a different company.
This type of system creates a two-tier workforce where location determines opportunity. With 51% of employees working from home at least some of the time, this can quickly become an obstacle to professional development and promotions.
But equity in hybrid work isn’t just about fairness. Equity is about unlocking the full potential of globally diverse teams. Businesses that value equity across their digital experiences and ensure their remote and hybrid workers have equal access to tools, information and opportunities are better able to attract and retain top talent who value both flexibility and growth.
Building Workplaces That People Want
The most effective companies do not treat hybrid work as accommodation. Instead, they use it as a competitive advantage to attract the right people. But to do so successfully, they must blend the right technologies with thoughtful office designs to create environments that foster connection, creativity and well-being, regardless of location.
Leaders should focus on creating in-office and remote spaces that remove friction from office life. This goes beyond video conferencing software and focuses on designing inviting in-office spaces that make daily tasks like commuting easier for everyone.
Over the coming years, Korn Ferry predicts that more than 85 million jobs could go unfilled, making it ever-more important to address employees’ needs to remain competitive. Companies that successfully attract talent will be those that build workplace experiences that go beyond what employees need to fulfil their jobs and look at what they want, including the incorporation of hybrid work environments.
As hybrid work becomes the norm, the organisations that thrive aren’t just those with the best technology — they’re the ones who create environments with their people in mind. By prioritising equity, focus and connection, companies can build sustainable, engaging environments that empower employees and drive long-term success.
Companies need to shift from reactively adopting digital solutions to implementing proactive workplace designs. In a world where talent has options and attention is precious, the companies that succeed in the coming years will be those that make hybrid work not just possible but genuinely better than what came before.
