Almost three-quarters of US companies have either adopted a hybrid work model or plan to. This shows hybrid work is far past the hype point -- and that it is becoming the norm for most companies where remote work is possible.

If you want to implement hybrid work in your business, you also want to make sure it's done the right way. And measuring success is a key element in perfecting your hybrid work policies.

What specific hybrid work metrics to follow -- and how to not get lost in the data?

We took a closer look at this and here's how you can build a hybrid work metrics tracking system that allows you to see the bigger picture and make the small changes that will drive your success.

Read on to find out more.

What Makes a Successful Hybrid Workplace?

If you want to measure success, you first have to know what success looks like. SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely) goals are not just another buzzword; they are a solid framework to help you better understand your desired outcome goal.

Before you jump into assessing the different metrics you could measure for your hybrid workplace, sit for a bit and think: how do you and your employees define a successful hybrid workplace?

Is it a workplace that:

• Save you space and/ or money
• Keeps talent coming (and staying!)
• Keeps employees generally happy
• Enables your team to stay productive?
• Allows you to foster a culture of inclusion and collaboration?
• A combination of some (or all) of the above?

Once you have a clear idea of success, you can measure different metrics to help you understand your hybrid workplace in detail (so you can adjust it as needed).

Key Hybrid Work Metrics

Measuring hybrid work success is not an exact science -- largely because, in most cases, a huge element in the success of a hybrid work program is played by people. And measuring how people feel about something in a quantitative way can only go so far.

However, there are some data-driven metrics you can measure to help you better understand the effectiveness of your hybrid work program. Here are some of the benchmarks you can measure, for example:

Space Utilization Metrics

Hybrid work can help you do more with less, especially regarding how much office space your company needs. It makes sense, right? If you have 200 employees but won't all be in the office simultaneously, you don't need space for 200 people.

What's more, you don't need to have the same desk for everyone. Instead, you could adopt a more flexible approach and use desks that can be rearranged and even hot-desking so that everyone can pick their desk when they come into the office, depending on the day, their availability, and the specific tasks they need to do.

This was the case with Dr. Martens, for example. They wanted to make the most out of their space, so when they decided to adopt a hybrid work model, they chose Yarooms as their hybrid software. This allowed them to optimize their existing space to make it available for everyone, reduce friction between employees, and improve collaboration.

Some space utilization metrics you could use include:

• Total number of people that work in the office on any given day compared to the total number of employees
• Number of desks per employee (when applicable)
• The average occupancy rate of the office

Productivity Metrics

Asking people if they feel more productive could give you some measure of how productive they really are. You do need to ask your team how they feel (both in terms of productivity and overall satisfaction), but keeping track of the more objective team productivity metrics is a good way to back up what your employees are saying. Some of these benchmarks could include:

• Number of tasks completed per day or week
• Time spent on each task
• Number of emails sent and received over a given period
• Number of log-ins per day
• Number of small tasks completed
• Role-specific productivity metrics (for instance, in the case of a content writer, you could measure how many pieces of content they produce per month, and in the case of a sales rep, the number of follow-up emails sent and customer calls made)

These metrics (and the many others you could create to measure success in your hybrid workplace) can give you a better understanding of your team's productivity and satisfaction. By combining the qualitative data you get from surveys and interviews with employees (on their overall impressions).

Talent Metrics

When it comes to hybrid work, you need to think of more than just productivity and satisfaction. You also have to measure the talent metrics as they help you understand how people in your team grow and progress in their roles.

After all, this is not just a metric you measure to assess the level of involvement of each team member, but also a metric growth-oriented professionals will want to keep an eye on. The same number may also affect your employees' willingness to stay in your company (remember that only 29% of employees are satisfied with their current company's career growth opportunities!)

Some of the most important talent metrics you could track include:

• Employee engagement in hybrid work
• Number of employees hired and onboarded for remote roles
• The retention rate for remote roles
• The time it takes to onboarding remote employees
• Average time for remote employees to reach a good level of performance in their roles
• How many employees engage in continuous learning activities (courses, webinars, conferences, etc.)

These metrics can give you an insight into how your hybrid work strategy engages and retains talent. They may not be an exact measure of success, but they will help you improve your employee engagement strategy and ensure you achieve the desired outcome.

Inclusion Metrics

Hybrid work enables you to create a more inclusive and diverse work environment, which is becoming increasingly important in today's workplace. And this is about a lot more than just buzzwords. As shown in recent studies, inclusive teams increase revenue 15-fold, are 1.7 times more likely to be innovation leaders, and 70% more likely to capture new markets.

Measuring inclusion metrics can give you insight into how well your hybrid workplace policies are helping foster belonging and acceptance. Examples of inclusion metrics you could measure include:

• The number of people from underrepresented backgrounds that have been hired and retained
• The percentage of employees who feel accepted in the workplace
• The number of collaborative activities taking place
• The percentage of employees participating in inter-departmental or cross-team activities
• Inclusion survey results

Cost Reduction Metrics

It's easy to see how hybrid work could drive cost reduction in a company. Although not the only advantage of hybrid work, cost reduction is one of the biggest (and often, most measurable) benefits. According to some studies, employers could reduce costs by as much as $11,000 per employee by adopting a hybrid work model -- and although the numbers may vary (wildly!) from one business to another, they can still be a good motivator (and indicator) of how successful your hybrid approach is.

Cost reduction metrics you could measure include:

• The cost of electricity and energy bills for the office
• How much money is saved by using cloud-based tools
• Cost of office furniture and supplies
• Rental costs (if you are renting your office space.)

Want to know how others have managed to save money with hybrid work? Check out this case study on how ASEE used Yarooms to save €200,000 in one year.

Want to know how much you could save? Here's our hybrid workplace ROI calculator you can use for free, to get an idea of how much money your organization could save by switching to a measurable hybrid work model.

Who Is Involved in Collecting Hybrid Work Metrics?

Suppose you are keen on measuring hybrid work efficiency. In that case, you must be aware that this is a collective effort. Sure, you may be the one reporting on the success of your hybrid work approach, but multiple stakeholders have to be involved in the process if you want to make sure your data is accurate.

More specifically, the following roles should be involved in collecting hybrid work metrics:

Facility Manager

The facility manager is responsible for keeping track of the office layout, occupancy rate, and other space utilization metrics. This data will help you assess cost reduction, space-saving, and overall employee satisfaction-related metrics.

Human Resources Manager

The HR manager's job is much more complex now than it was a decade ago. Aside from measuring employee satisfaction, they can also help you keep track of talent metrics, such as how many employees are part of your hybrid work strategy and how well they are being onboarded. Furthermore, HR-owned surveys can help you measure engagement, happiness, and inclusion metrics, giving insight into how accepted people feel in the workplace -- and how actively they collaborate on projects.

IT Manager

Your IT manager has a crucial role in monitoring your hybrid work metrics. They ensure that the technological infrastructure is secure and reliable — which often includes monitoring the usage of cloud-based tools, collaboration platforms, and in-office equipment.

Keep in mind that, depending on how your organization is structured, you may need to involve other roles or teams in the hybrid work metrics collection process. For example, you may have to involve middle management, customer service personnel, and sales teams if you want to measure how successful your hybrid work model is in terms of customer satisfaction or sales figures.

Once you have identified the key stakeholders involved in measuring hybrid work metrics, it's time to plan the process and create a timeline. Doing so will help you stay on track and ensure everyone is playing their part in collecting (and analyzing) the data.

Best Practices for Tracking Hybrid Work Metrics

There's no set recipe in terms of tracking hybrid work metrics. However, you should keep a few best practices in mind to ensure you get the most out of your data.

Be Clear About Your Goals and Objectives

Before collecting metrics, ensure everyone involved in the process is aware of your goals and objectives. This will help you keep everyone on the same page and ensure all data points are correctly collected.

Be Consistent

Once you start collecting hybrid work metrics, make sure to remain consistent in your approach. This will help you create a baseline of data points and make it easier to track changes and improvements over time.

Set Actionable Metrics

There's no use collecting data for the sake of collecting data -- you need to have benchmarks to compare it to if you want to use it effectively. That's why it's important to set actionable metrics that you can use to inform decisions and strategies.

Analyze & Act on Your Results

Finally, it's important that you not just collect data, but analyze the metrics and act on them. This is the only way to ensure that your hybrid work strategy is having a positive impact on the business.

The Bottom Line

You can't measure how good someone really feels at work.

Or how happy their kids are because they can spend two weekdays working at home, close to them.

But you can always measure costs, space, surveyed satisfaction, productivity, and other similar metrics to get an idea of how good your hybrid work model is. It's not an exact science, for sure -- it's more of an art you must learn, practice, and perfect over time.

But measuring your hybrid work metrics is your best bet in assessing if you're on the right path (or what could be improved.) So, make sure to give it a try, and don't be scared of collecting (and using) the data.