The real test of a hybrid strategy is how well it supports people when their routines change.
Also see: 5 Ways to level up your career in a hybrid workplace
School holidays are a good example. With childcare arrangements and family routines changing, having more choice over where and when to work can make it easier for parents to stay productive.
For HR leaders, this raises an important question: does your hybrid strategy give people genuine choice when they need it most?
Flexibility matters most when routines change
The newest research, Vocal About Local: Parents Say Local, Flexible Working Offers Essential Support, explores how working parents manage the pressures of the summer school holidays and the role local flexible working can play.
The findings show just how much workplace arrangements can affect the employee experience. 75% of parents surveyed say school breaks affect the way they work, while 26% say they find it harder to focus when managing work and home life at the same time.
Many are adapting their working day to compensate. 21% say they start work earlier, while 22% either schedule fewer calls and meetings or work later into the evening. Meanwhile, 28% say they use annual leave for childcare, with almost one in five using their entire holiday entitlement.
These are individual adjustments, but collectively they reveal something important for employers: when workplace policies leave little room to adapt, employees often absorb the pressure themselves.
The employee experience extends beyond the office
For HR teams, employee experience is often discussed in terms of culture, benefits, development and well-being. Where people can work is part of that experience too.
A long commute can add time, cost, and stress to an already demanding day. Working from home can be ideal for some employees, but not always for others, particularly when family routines change. Local flexible workspaces can provide another option.
Our research found that 78% of parents believe access to local flexible workspaces would help alleviate the pressure of summer childcare, while 83% say they would be likely to use a professional flexible workspace closer to home if their employer provided one. This is not about giving employees another benefit for the sake of it. It is about creating practical choice within a hybrid model.
An employee might work from home when that suits them, travel to a central office when collaboration is important, or use a professional location closer to home when family responsibilities make the usual options harder to manage. That choice can help people maintain both productivity and balance.
Also see: Thriving in a hybrid world: Tips to succeed and achieve more
Flexibility can strengthen the employee proposition
The case for flexibility also extends beyond individual well-being.
Other research conducted in collaboration with Arup found that companies enabling employees to use local flexible workspaces could boost productivity by up to 12% over the next five years. For HR leaders, the connection is significant. The way people experience their working lives can influence how effectively they work and whether they choose to stay.
A workplace strategy that gives employees greater control over where they work can therefore support more than day-to-day convenience. It can contribute to engagement, productivity, and retention.
Local flexibility can also widen access to talent
Another implication for organisations thinking about their workforce strategy. When employees are expected to regularly travel to a central location, geography can become a constraint. A more distributed approach can make it easier to support people who live further from corporate offices, while giving organisations greater access to talent across different locations.
This can be particularly relevant for enterprises managing geographically dispersed or hybrid teams. A network of professional locations closer to where employees live can complement existing offices without requiring every team member to work from the same place.
The result is a workplace model designed around how people actually live and work, rather than asking employees to organise their lives around a single workplace.
The strongest hybrid strategies leave room for real life. School holidays are temporary, but the lesson is not.
Employees will always experience periods when their normal routines change. Caring responsibilities, commuting challenges, personal commitments, and unexpected circumstances can all affect where and how someone works. The role of HR is not to remove every source of friction from working life. It’s to create an environment where people have the support and autonomy to navigate those moments without compromising their ability to perform.
That is where flexible workspace can become part of a broader workforce strategy.
The strongest hybrid models do more than define where employees can work. They give people meaningful choices that help them work well when life changes. For HR leaders, that can mean a better employee experience, stronger workforce resilience, and a workplace proposition that reflects what people increasingly expect from work.
Featured image: iStock/LuckyDuck
Also see: Hybrid working: Enhancing your health and lifestyle balance
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