A Chinese-American study, published in the journal Nature, examined the effects of hybrid working on 1,612 employees of Trip.com, an online travel agency based in China, between 2021 and 2022
"Hybrid work is a win-win-win for employee productivity, performance, and retention," says Nicholas Bloom, researcher from Stanford University. Image for Hybrid: Shutterstock
As one of the most visible effects of the pandemic, hybrid working -- combining remote and in-person working -- has now become the norm in many companies around the world. But it remains the subject of much criticism, given the extent to which it disrupts traditional managerial habits.
A Chinese-American study, published in the journal Nature, was conducted by a trio of researchers comprising Nicholas Bloom from Stanford University, Ruobing Han from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and James Liang from Peking University. They studied the effects of hybrid working on 1,612 employees of Trip.com, an online travel agency based in China, between 2021 and 2022.
This company began implementing hybrid working from 2021, through a six-month trial. It involved 395 managers and 1,217 non-managerial staff. Employees whose birthday fell on an even-numbered day were required to come into the office five days a week, while the others worked from home for two days.
Most of the study participants were men in their 30s. Half had dependent children. Few women volunteered to test hybrid working, certainly for fear of being frowned upon by their management. Indeed, at the time, managers were unconvinced by this type of organization. In particular, they feared that it would be detrimental to their teams' productivity.