Reimagining Employee Well-Being for a Hybrid Workforce

Only 12% of companies were prepared in 2020 to address employee well-being over the following 12-18 months, according to a Deloitte survey, despite 80% agreeing it was decisive for success.

If you are already prioritizing well-being in your organization, the question now is: how do you adapt your strategies for a hybrid workforce ? Given the new hybrid vs remote work models, it’s essential to rethink your well-being strategy.

What Is Workplace Well-Being?

Workplace well-being refers to daily responsibilities and encompasses how employees feel about their work, stress levels, expectations, relationships, and work environment. It covers all aspects of working life – essentially, how people feel at work.

For hybrid workforces, this approach should be holistic, addressing five layers in the hierarchy of employee needs:

• Psychological well-being: receiving salaries on time, working in clean environments
• Physical and psychological safety: feeling safe to be themselves
• Social well-being: feeling heard, recognized, having belonging
• Esteem: being appreciated
• Self-actualization: sense of purpose, professional fulfillment, mission alignment

Communication Is Key for Remote Employee Well-Being

Signs of poor employee well-being in hybrid settings include lack of focus, motivation, mood changes, and poor coworker interactions – particularly challenging when half the workforce works remotely.

Here are four practical steps for supporting hybrid workforce mental health:

Support Your Employees and Be Understanding

Employees have adapted to hybrid models and may still struggle with specific challenges: coordinating schedules with partners, childcare responsibilities, home office setup, and external distractions.

Show genuine empathy toward remote workers’ specific challenges and identify needs together through questions about current and ideal situations. Potential needs include:

• Additional training for role-specific tasks
• Modified work hours to accommodate non-work commitments

Leaders should use mindful language, avoiding hierarchical framing of office-based versus remote teams, and practice empathy, not sympathy – understanding challenges without pitying employees for facing them.

Show Your People That You Trust Them

A trusted hybrid workforce feels more valued, experiences greater purpose, and demonstrates higher engagement and productivity. Trust investments should extend equally to remote and onsite workers.

Facilitate Open and Honest Communications

Clarity must center all well-being strategy efforts. Organizations should ensure everyone understands the hybrid working definition through:

• Individual 1:1s clarifying which tasks employees perform onsite versus remotely
• Clear expectations on office days and IT equipment provisions

Beyond clarity, honest communication encouraging human connection supports remote well-being. Rather than constant task monitoring, leaders should:

• Keep employees updated on organizational changes
• Share positive things happening in the team
• Communicate best practices supporting efficiency
• Consistently convey that employees are valued
• Maintain regular communication both to and with employees, reducing anxiety and isolation

Listen to Workers

The 2021 Employee Experience Imperative Report found only 51% of employees felt their organizations took adequate steps helping them manage the stress linked to remote working .

Organizations must accept that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to hybrid workforces. Leaders should listen closely to employee needs regarding:

• Screen time reduction
• Flexible hours
• Break prioritization
• Team connection activities (weekly virtual coffees, for instance)

Recognizing different priorities, perks you offer your staff to support their well-being should differ, too.

Maintain Engagement

Making remote workers feel included is both the primary goal and major challenge in ensuring hybrid workforce well-being.

After building belonging through open communication and listening, organizations should foster togetherness where remote workers feel equally valued. This requires:

• Creating engaging opportunities for remote and office workers to share ideas
• Designing formal work events bringing together all employees
• Providing informal interaction contexts for social time
• Ensuring connectivity is essential but carefully designed so remote workers don’t feel out of sight, out of mind

Shaping Company Culture Around Remote Work

Employee well-being sits at the heart of overall employee experience, which closely relates to company culture. Rethinking well-being requires reshaping company culture around remote work.

However, constant communication risks causing the opposite effect – overwhelming remote workers with updates about procedures, workflows, vision, surveys, and perks, causing stress and information overload.

The solution involves HR leaders using AI as their main ally to collect needed data about remote workers’ unique needs, performances, and challenges without all the extra noise, enabling data-driven culture reshaping reflecting new remote priorities and values.

Rethinking Employee Well-Being in the Hybrid Remote Working Age

Encourage a Positive Work-Life Balance

Organizations should establish clear boundaries between work and personal time through:

• Encouraging teams to switch off laptops after work hours
• Promoting full annual leave usage
• Avoiding work communications after certain hours
• Communicating these practices consistently to both remote and onsite workers

Increase Your Focus on Well-Being Programs

With only 42% of employees rating their mental health positively, organizations should allocate resources to tailored well-being programs, particularly given ongoing hybrid workplace adjustment challenges.

Leaders should identify strategies supporting remote employee well-being and mental health at work , including:

• Personal development opportunities
• Mindfulness practice advocacy
• Weekly catch-ups
• Task prioritization and workload management support

Strike the Right Balance in the Hybrid Model

Balance here doesn’t mean an even 50/50 office/remote split but rather each organization’s sweet spot – the percentage of remote workers sustainable without impacting client engagement , team culture, or worker mental health (potentially 20% or 70%, depending on business needs).

This requires accepting that not all employees prefer onsite or remote work, listening to both sides’ concerns, and understanding individual life situations – making supporting their mental health a priority.

Adjusting Employee Benefits to the New Reality

Employee benefits and well-being interconnect. Organizations with office-centered benefits must rethink compensation and benefits for hybrid workforces by:

• Initiating staff conversations
• Identifying new employee priorities
• Overcoming proximity bias

Be a Role Model

Train Leaders to Manage the New Work Arrangements

45% of HR leaders report lack of ownership as the key blocker for not improving employee well-being, resulting in silos, poor transparency, and inconsistent practices affecting remote worker mental health and engagement, reducing productivity.

Solutions include training HR managers and benefits leaders to handle hybrid work arrangements by:

• Setting clear strategies for alignment
• Granting control and responsibility for well-being initiatives

Consider Upskilling Your Line Managers

Line managers often lack mental health training to identify poor mental health signs. Managing hybrid teams differs from face-to-face management.

Recommendations include:

• Offering mental health training
• Encouraging regular check-ins with team members
• Building a culture of connection through genuine 1:1s
• Showing real interest in remote workers’ mental states
• Having authentic conversations around specific challenges and common interests rather than checkbox management

Which of these recommendations are you already implementing, and what are you planning to add to your well-being strategy? Rethinking your well-being strategy won’t be easy and may require ongoing adjustments, but awareness and proactive positioning moves your organization toward its well-being goals.