Workarounds How Employers Are Navigating Remote and Hybrid Work

By Mak Millard

As far as watershed moments go, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have triggered the biggest shakeup in work culture since Henry Ford decided to give the five-day, 40hour workweek a try.

What started as a public health measure has since become a permanent feature of the employment landscape, with Axios noting that more than a third of Americans worked from home on an average day in 2022. That’s down from a peak of 40 percent in 2021, but it’s still well clear of the 22 percent figure from a decade ago. The trend is especially clear for workers with college degrees, of whom some 54 percent work from home on an average day.

According to the most recent survey by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Arkansas has more than 8,000 private-sector establishments where employees work remotely at least some of the time. While some businesses have rolled back their pandemic-era policies and returned to the office full time, others have embraced the hybrid or fully remote lifestyle. While approaches to policies, schedules and even the definition of “office” vary, a number of Arkansas companies have gained valuable insight into what works and what doesn’t in this new world of workfrom-anywhere.

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At Little Rock-based insurance company USAble Life, about 70 of the company’s 500 employees were remote prior to the pandemic, according to President and CEO Richard Macy. When the pandemic hit, it marked a permanent change of course.

“We moved all the remaining jobs to remote status, and we’ve been operating that way pretty much since,” said Macy. “Now we have people in 38 states. We give people a choice of whether they want to be fully remote, a hybrid schedule or work full-time in the office. Only a handful of people come in every day. A majority of people have chosen to be remote or largely hybrid.”

Macy admitted that prior to the shift, he leaned more on the side of in-office work. As time went on, however, he became convinced that the benefits of remote work outweighed his hesitations.

“I’ve realized, after doing new hire orientation [where] we have people in 10 different states on the call out of 14: these people have self-selected into this virtual environment,” he said. “More often than not, they’re saying ‘This is exactly what I signed up for, and you guys are doing it really well.’”

Macy also pointed to the advantages a remote work option gives to Arkansas employees who live farther away from USAble Life’s West Little Rock office.

“What a benefit for them that they don’t have to get dressed, shower, shave, perfume, whatever it is, sit in a car for 30, 45 minutes to come into the office and then repeat it on the way home,” he said. “And it’s usually the lower-paid people who have the longer commutes, and they [have] dual-income families, children, pets, dishes to wash, meals to cook. I think it’s just better, especially now that we have the tools that enable it.”

Those tools, such as Microsoft Teams, have played a crucial part in the company’s successful transition to a remote-first environment, whether for project tracking or building community.

“One of the bigger things that we did was make it mandatory that employees’ cameras are on,” Macy said. “We’ve received pushback from that, but we’ve insisted and stuck to it.”

The mandatory camera requirement helped improve engagement between employees and build trust with those on the other end of business calls, he explained. There’s also the mentality aspect to consider; at least one employee made a point to thank Macy for the “cameras on” policy, because it made them prepare for each day and feel less isolated.

Macy is transparent about the challenges remote work does pose, and he encourages his management team to be open about its own struggles. Some have taken quickly to the new working style, while others have needed more time to adjust. The company has provided more training and support to that end, and managers are expected to make some kind of connection every day with their teams, whether that’s small talk about breakfast in the Teams chat or coming together to dig into the details of an upcoming project.

“I did have an employee once say to me – I think this was before the pandemic – ‘When you think of the company, you think of cubes and the office and the address, things like that. Why aren’t we thinking about the people?’ So we’re trying to think about the people, and how they interact in the abstract, without the office,” Macy said.

Macy also noted another change that has stood out among the rest: by and large, almost every employee is happier.

“I think it does vary by industry,” he said. “But people like working from home. So if you can make it work, I think you’re stronger.” ******

Insurance industry colleague Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield has taken a similar approach, though with a few key differences made to suit the needs of their customers and employees. As the worst of the pandemic waned toward the end of 2021, the company made the decision to start bringing employees back to the office.

“Initially, there was some resistance to the prescribed office schedule,” said Max Greenwood, ABCBS vice president of government and media relations. “We held focus groups with employees and listened to their concerns, and that resulted in our decision to revise the scheduling to allow more flexibility for employees.”

Right now, 68 percent of the company’s employees are remote, with another 5 percent in the office full time. The remaining 27 percent follow a flex schedule, where they’re in the office two to three times a week. No matter their location, ABCBS employees have specific goals and deadlines to meet, and they have regular updates and discussions with leadership to keep track of their progress. The company has also created tools and offered training to support managers in strengthening their virtual leadership.

“When we first started remote work, it was obviously focused on keeping our employees healthy, but we have noticed some real benefits to this transition,” Greenwood said. “We have adapted to using online collaboration tools and have attracted employees from other states who are experts in their fields. We have been able to reduce our office space and redesign other spaces to be more collaborative. We have embraced virtual internal town halls and are more mindful of our time together.”

When it comes to learning curves in the new work environment, Greenwood cited familiar concerns over interactivity and building strong employee relationships. Open lines of communication between leaders and employees are imperative, she added, for tracking engagement and addressing issues as they arise.

“Building a relationship with an employee you only see remotely is harder, but it can be done. And sometimes, employees need and want to return to the office to work closer with their leaders and colleagues,” Greenwood said. “We have really focused on offering transparency, intentional team building and rewarding and recognizing employees when productive and model behaviors are demonstrated.”

For some companies, the pandemic presented a unique opportunity not just to lean into remote and hybrid work options, but to rethink what it means to work “in-office” entirely. For Little Rock marketing firm MHP/Team SI, those new insights were built on good foresight.

Thanks to employee feedback and market research, the company had begun implementing new technologies for streamlining remote work even before the pandemic. As a result, MHP was among the first businesses to go fully remote at the cusp of the pandemic, and the smooth transition helped the firm hit the ground running when it came to serving clients through the uncertain lockdown period.

Once employees were able to return to the office, MHP leadership began to pull lessons from the experience, taking a closer look at how much work could still be done effectively from home. That resulted in a hybrid setup that would retain the positives from both in-person and remote work.

“I began to really kind of embrace the idea myself,” said David Rainwater, principal at MHP/Team SI. “I think there are certain things that, in the remote work environment, are just as effective. But then there are certain things that are not. I think there’s a real need to be around other people to be able to collaborate on things. I’ve kind of grown to love the hybrid schedule.”

Not content with a hybrid schedule alone, however, the team soon began mulling over an even more ambitious project. Con- versations between leadership, employees and clients made it clear that a new, more creative space was in order, one uniquely suited to the aspects of the job that could not be done from home.

“The business that we’re in is the idea business. Ideas don’t often come from real structured, Zoom-type meetings,” Rainwater said. “We know that there are still certain times where you really just need to be able to sit across the desk from somebody and have a conversation.”

MHP set out to build a workspace that reflected this culture: out went the cubicles, and in came the coworking space. One business model in particular provided some inspiration for the new design.

“One of our favorite spaces happened to be the Onyx Coffee Lab in Rogers,” Rainwater said. “We began to sort of explore and examine what that space did in terms of how it facilitated communication, how it facilitated people working together, and we developed our office concept in alignment with what Onyx had already done.”

MHP went entirely remote in December of 2022 while the Little Rock renovation took place. When employees returned, the standard office fare had been replaced with couches and living room-style chairs, varying sizes of team tables and new meeting spaces – even an overhauled front desk area with a full coffee bar to drive the point home.

“It was a completely different environment. They had to go find their spot,” he said. “Where was their group going to be? How were they going to interact? Within a day or two, everybody was at home. It was great.”

For employees who prefer the structure of a fully in-office schedule, there are a few workspaces assigned to those willing to come in four days a week. But the company hasn’t had problems convincing people to show up in any case, even when they don’t have to. The reimagined space has inspired more face-to-face interactions as employees frequently stop by for a few hours of work and a cup of coffee with teammates.

The office revamp has been surprising in other ways as well. Rainwater expected to see a strong pattern of older employees preferring the in-office style they were used to, while younger employees would leap at the chance to work from home. Instead, there’s been a more balanced split: a good number of the younger team members have opted for more time in-office, and some of the veterans have relished the distraction-free home environment.

While the new setup has been a huge success, Rainwater and the rest of the team at MHP will continue listening to feedback when it comes to the best ways to work and work together.

“I made a presentation to our staff back in November about the change that was going to come to the office space, and it was all predicated on this idea that our corporate slogan is ‘Innovation lives here.’ This is a physical manifestation of that,” Rainwater said. “Anything that we can do to help facilitate an environment where people can create, where they have big ideas, where they can innovate, that’s what we should do. We should always be looking for more ways to do that.” ******

Of course, not every company or industry is suited to a remote or even mostly remote work environment. In those situations, guidelines tailored to the specific demands of the workforce can go a long way. Travis Guidry, senior manager of HR program management and work location flexibility policy SME at Entergy, explained how the utility company is threading that needle.

“As a regulated utility, there are many plant and field roles that simply cannot work remotely due to the onsite nature of their work, “Guidry said. “For all other positions, we decided to adopt a balanced approach to post-pandemic telecommuting.”

Because of the company’s broad operational footprint, many employees were used to being spread out across multiple locations. Still, working and managing others from home during the pandemic was a new experience, and there were initial concerns about whether teams would be able to maintain optimal performance.

“Although employees had to adjust to finding an ideal space to work within their homes, we soon began receiving feedback across the company that employees were taking on more and outperforming expectations,” Guidry said. “This led to a call from employees to shift to a more flexible schedule on a more permanent basis.”

The company is avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach, instead letting the needs of the team dictate whether a given position is onsite, hybrid or remote. Currently, that shakes out to about 70 percent of Entergy employees working onsite, with 25 percent having a hybrid schedule and less than 5 percent working fully remotely.

Even for a position that is fully remote, teams are expected to come together for specific meetings or special projects as needed. Certain teams have also made it a requirement that new employees start work in person before transitioning to the hybrid setup, especially for roles where apprenticeship and mentoring are key to learning the ropes.

“It is expected that deadlines are met and wins are being put on the board for every position, regardless of onsite, hybrid or remote,” Guidry added. “We did, however, provide leaders with tools to set norms at the business and department level when the policy was launched to ensure that expectations are clear and employees are accountable.”

There is a necessary level of trust that comes with the territory, he added, and many managers have had to transition away from the mindset of needing to physically see their employees at work to believe they’re getting the job done. And on a structural level, the fundamentals of the work have stayed the same. The tenets of a good leader, as well as what is expected of that leader, remain consistent whether managing onsite, hybrid or remote employees, Guidry said.

All things considered, Entergy’s approach has allowed it to stay at the forefront of a competitive labor market, and having diverse perspectives across multiple locations ultimately helps the company better serve its customers. It also provides benefits not just to employees, but to communities and owners as well, in everything from reduced carbon emissions caused by commuting to lower real estate expenses.

“Don’t set out trying to ‘boil the ocean’ and solve every potential exception or problem,” Guidry said. “Aim to do what is best for the company mission and the majority of employees. Put clear guardrails in place and consult with leadership early on and frequently throughout the process.”