Ms Joanne Mangan:

Absolutely. Obviously we are advocates for remote working but we are not necessarily advocates for remote only. We recognise that not every company is fit to be set up as a fully-remote organisation. A practical example is where there are staff who have to be in the office or on the premises because of the nature of their role. Fairly strong evidence has come out in the past year or two through the CSO survey and the Western Development Commission and NUIG Whitaker Institute survey around what employees want to show that probably the majority of workers are looking for a hybrid model.

We advocate for remote but there is not necessarily anything wrong with the hybrid model if it is done in a remote-first way. What I mean by that is an employer saying that every employee needs to be in the office every Monday and Friday but can work remotely the other days of the week is not an ideal situation, because the employer is not giving flexibility to employees to live where they choose. I cannot live in the west of Ireland if I have to be in Dublin two days per week or I have a bit of a nightmare commute ahead of me. The flexibility needs to be there for the employee for him or her to make the choice of whatever suits him or her within the confines of the role.

Ideally, remote first means the employee can decide when to go to the office and when to work from home. All processes and policies are designed around the fact that there are remote workers. Where hybrid goes wrong is when it still ticks the office as the default and the remote workers are the forgotten employees. They are not seen in the office anymore and are invisible. They may miss out on promotional opportunities. They may miss out on FaceTime with the boss or the water cooler moments.

Companies that adopt the hybrid model very much need to think about these things and be intentional and plan around the fact that they now have a remote workforce. Otherwise, they run the risk of having a two-tiered workforce where the remote workers are at a disadvantage. An important point to make around that is there is evidence to show that more often, but not always, people who look for remote work are women with caring responsibilities or other people who may, for whatever reason in their lives, not thrive as much in the office nine-to-five environment. They could have hidden illnesses or doctors appointments to which they need to go. There is a real risk of further marginalising people who may already be marginalised in the first place. I encourage any company that adopts a hybrid model to take a remote-first approach and design all processes and policies around both office workers and home workers.

Having said that, doing so is very complicated. Any company we work with that is doing hybrid at present is wrestling with many of these questions. How does it manage fairness when some people are at home? Some people are in the office and they can go to the canteen. What about the home workers? There is considerable complexity to that. We need to support employers with these questions because it is what employees want. However, it is not as simple as letting it happen organically. Considerable work, thought, intentionality and planning needs to go into it.