hybrid and agile working?

What’s the difference between flexible, hybrid and agile working?

Even before COVID-19, HR thought leaders were recommending ‘New Ways of Working’ (NWoW) to try to add flexibility into workplaces for boosting productivity and staff retention. But the concept initially struggled to become mainstream, with some companies doing their best to discourage employees from working from home. At least, that was until the pandemic hit. Remote working gave businesses a lifeline and allowed them to stay afloat when offices were unavailable. It is now common practice to offer different types of flexible work, reflecting the growing need to accommodate a better work-life balance.

As a result, NWoW is more clearly defined as flexible, hybrid and agile working – in this article we’ve outlined the differences between the three practices.

Flexible Working The NWoW initiative wanted to offer a better work-life balance and flexible working is a way to suit employees’ needs. In a way, experiencing multiple lockdowns over two years, we have participated in a worldwide flexible working experiment that forced employees to adopt NWoW. Since we’re returned to the workplace, we’ve seen changes in how we understand flexible working. Flexible working doesn’t have a rulebook on how work is done but opens possibilities of different types of arrangements such as hybrid working and agile working. Hybrid Working Hybrid working is a type of flexible working that splits the time between the workplace and working remotely. Most commonly, remote working is done at home, meaning that employees rotate between their homes and office. Hybrid working has been widely introduced during the later stages of the global pandemic. Most businesses that implemented hybrid working strategies had reacted to the need for a better work-life balance. Working from home has proven to be a sustainable option, breaking common myths that people at home cannot produce their best work. These claims have now been discredited, making hybrid working a benefit that most companies offer. Agile Working It’s difficult to define agile working as it’s purposely not prescriptive. It emphasises flexibility within the business but also on the individual, focusing on performance and outcomes rather than location, providing tools to support companies and their employees to effectively work from anywhere.

This type of work fosters productivity and a better worklife balance. Recent changes in the working environment and undeniable benefits are accelerating the adoption of agile working. Flexibility around time and location makes agile working a more multi-dimensional approach to work. It also makes agile working more attractive to working professionals, reconstructing the traditional working environments.

Flexible working encompasses both hybrid and agile working. It is used as an umbrella term for different types of working that negotiate the elements of ‘who’, ‘where’ and ‘when’ the work is done.

Comparing agile working to a more widely adopted hybrid working model that operates between two locations – home and office, agile working offers a nondescriptive working environment – from office to home, coffee shops, beach huts and everything in between. Sometimes agile working is referred to as ‘location independent working’. A simplified definition of agile working can be ‘work is an activity, not a place’.

Creating a long-term, sustainable, flexible working environment is key to the success of a post-pandemic business. Working professionals are re-evaluating their priorities and, driven by a successful remote working experience, are seeking to establish a better work-life balance. While there are multiple flexible working strategies, hybrid working is taking the lead in our current climate. Agile working is in the spotlight to become a new big thing in the future, allowing fluidity around the time and location of work.

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