Biggest challenges facing the future of hybrid work revealed

A recent series of roundtable events in London, New York City and San Francisco identified six of the greatest challenges facing the future of hybrid work around the world.

The events, hosted by HubStar, a leader in dynamic workplace management technology, brought together top UK and US workplace leaders in technology, insurance, banking, the law, and management consulting for in-depth discussions on the future of hybrid work.

The attendees in each city brought perspectives from Corporate Real Estate (CRE), Workplace Experience, IT, HR, and more. While topics had a different flavour in each city, it became clear that workplace leaders around the world share similar struggles when it comes to today’s hybrid work environment.

The six greatest challenges consistent across the three events were found to be:

1. How to use intentionality to create better workplace experiences – figuring out what people want to achieve in the office and then designing the workplace around those objectives.
2. The real impact of return-to-office mandates – often financially driven, linked to performance measured from in-person attendance rather than outcomes, or tied to attendance-based incentives.
3. The difficulty of combining HR and CRE strategies – and breaking down team silos.
4. Improving collaboration and productivity through better hybrid work schedule coordination.
5. The future role of AI in the workplace – automating more transactional tasks and playing a greater role in space planning.
6.  The need for effective workplace technology – including new pathways for advanced tech to improve everyone’s workplace experience.

Joe Harris, Director of Business Development at HubStar, who facilitated the discussions at each event said: “We had some really fascinating discussions around the challenges workplace leaders are facing, how they’re responding to new ways of working, and what the future of hybrid work is. It was truly a privilege to be able to host these roundtables.”

For full details of the discussions at all three events, a free copy of the Workplace Connect Report can be downloaded here.