Access PeopleXD Evo
Hybrid working has become the dominant workplace model, yet 71% of HR leaders are more concerned about employee collaboration now than they were previously. (Gartner research via ClearPeople).
Flexible working arrangements are only part of the picture. Managing distributed teams also requires changes to how performance is measured, how culture is maintained, and how managers are supported.
The challenge intensifies for large organisations managing complex hierarchies, multiple locations, and diverse workforce needs. 45% of employers are struggling with remote/hybrid working expectations (Ciphr research, 2024), while new legal requirements mean employees can now request flexible working from day one (Employment Relations Flexible Working Act 2023).
Senior HR leaders managing hybrid teams typically face six recurring challenges: measuring performance fairly, supporting collaboration, sustaining culture, handling flexible working requests, selecting the right technology, and developing managers.
Organisations with structured approaches to hybrid working tend to report stronger talent acquisition, retention and productivity outcomes, according to SHRM Labs research.
Integrated HR platforms can help by giving managers visibility of performance data, supporting communication across locations, and centralising flexible working processes.
Companies implementing structured hybrid strategies report up to 55% increases in productivity (SHRM Labs).
26% of UK workers are now in hybrid arrangements requiring more onboarding planning, yet most management practices remain designed for co-located teams. This mismatch can lead to inconsistent performance outcomes, weaker team cohesion, and increased pressure on managers.
Harvard Business Review studies show knowledge workers are more productive working from home (Harvard Business Review, 2020), yet 71% of HR leaders worry about collaboration (Gartner research via ClearPeople). This paradox highlights the core challenge: individual productivity may increase while team effectiveness suffers without proper management frameworks.
From April 2024, the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 allows employees to request flexible
working from their first day of employment (previously 26 weeks).
Employees can now make two requests per year, and employers must respond within two months.
Yet 70% of the British workforce are completely unaware of these changes (YouGov survey for Acas), creating compliance risks and expectation management challenges.
• Reduced innovation from limited spontaneous interactions
• Cultural erosion affecting employee engagement and retention
• Manager burnout from increased coordination complexity
• Performance visibility gaps creating evaluation and development challenges
• Career progression concerns for remote workers feeling “out of sight, out of mind”
Traditional performance management often depends on in-person observation and informal feedback. In hybrid environments, fairness gaps tend to widen. Office-based employees are more visible to managers, and feedback is often less consistent for remote workers. Gartner notes a growing shift toward AI-supported performance management to reduce bias and improve perceived fairness.
A striking 95% of managers report dissatisfaction with current performance review systems (6 Seconds.org), particularly in hybrid settings where challenges include:
Managers can also use a structured Performance Review Template to ensure reviews remain consistent, objective and focused on employee development regardless of where employees work.
Effective implementation requires:
Hybrid work can fragment team dynamics, making realtime collaboration more challenging.
Physical separation reduces the informal exchanges that can generate new ideas. At the same time, relying too heavily on digital tools can increase fatigue and reduce the quality of team interaction.
39% of employees receive inadequate support during remote collaboration (Think Learning 2024), leading to:
To overcome these barriers, organisations are adopting intentional collaboration design, including:
Success depends on the right tools:
To discover the tools to help a growing business manage their hybrid teams, read our blog on how to choose the hybrid tech that supports communication, collaboration and employee wellbeing.
Company culture traditionally relies on physical proximity, shared experiences, and informal interactions.
Without deliberate effort, distributed teams can lose the shared norms and informal connections that underpin a consistent workplace culture.
Employee engagement scores can decline 15-25% in poorly managed hybrid environments, manifesting as:
Intentional Culture Design
To preserve and strengthen culture across locations, organisations are adopting:
Leadership Visibility and Inclusion
Culture is reinforced through visible, accessible leadership:
New legislation under the Employment Relations (Flexible Working Act 2023) effective from 6 April 2024, has introduced more accessible and time-sensitive rights for employees.
Organisations must now manage flexible working requests with greater consistency, transparency, and speed - often without the systems in place to do so effectively
Employees now have the right to:
Without a structured approach, employers face:
Integrated Platform Strategy
To address these challenges, organisationsare consolidating tools and workflows to support:
Modern workforce platforms are evolving to meet these needs.
Solutions that offer:
Businesses adopting integrated platforms are better positioned to support hybrid teams - enhancing productivity, trust, and long-term engagement.
Fragmented technology ecosystems can hinder rather than help hybrid working.
Employees lose time switching between platforms, while managers struggle to maintain visibility and cohesion across dispersed teams.
Research shows:
This leads to:
Integrated Workforce Platforms
More employers are consolidating HR tools into integrated platforms to reduce the friction caused by switching between systems and to give managers a clearer view of workforce data.
Core Capabilities Driving Impact
By consolidating systems into a cohesive digital ecosystem, organisations can deliver a seamless experience that supports both employee wellbeing and business performance.
Managing distributed teams requires skills that most managers have not been formally trained in, including remote performance coaching, digital communication, and flexible working coordination. Without this training, employee experiences and performance outcomes can vary significantly across teams.
Skills Gap
Managers are the most influential factor in team engagement levels (Gallup), yet most managers have not been trained in:
Developing Effective Managers
To lead effectively in today’s hybrid and fast-paced environments, many employers are investing in programmes that build core leadership capabilities. These initiatives focus on:
To embed these skills and support continuous development, forward-thinking workplaces are adopting platforms that offer:
Hybrid working is now a permanent feature of how most large UK organisations operate, and it requires a structured management approach to work effectively.
Organisations that invest in hybrid working infrastructure and manager development are better placed to attract and retain talent, and to sustain performance across distributed teams.
Assess your hybrid working maturity against the six challenges outlined in this briefing
Evaluate manager capability gaps and development needs for hybrid leadership
Review legal compliance with new flexible working legislation requirements
Audit technology infrastructure against integrated platform requirements
Establish outcome-based performance measures: Focus on results rather than time spent online.
Create clear collaboration guidelines: Define when teams should work remotely and when face-to-face interaction is most valuable.
Invest in manager training: Equip leaders with skills for coaching and performance management in hybrid environments.
Use integrated workforce technology: Reduce friction and improve visibility through connected systems.
Regularly measure employee engagement: Monitor wellbeing, productivity and culture through ongoing feedback.
The 70% of workforce unaware of new flexible working rights creates both risk and opportunity. Employers that proactively address hybrid working challenges while competitors struggle will gain sustainable advantage in talent attraction, retention, and performance.
Organisations that address these challenges proactively are likely to see stronger outcomes in retention, performance, and compliance than those that do not.
Hybrid working is a flexible arrangement where employees split their time between working from home and attending a workplace. It combines the focus of remote work with the collaboration of in-person time, and comes in several forms: fixed hybrid (where the employer sets required office days), flexible hybrid (where the employee chooses), office-first, and remote-first. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 28% of working adults in Great Britain hybrid worked between January and March 2025.
Two days in the office is now the most common arrangement in the UK, accounting for 56% of hybrid roles in 2025, with two and three days together making up 81% of all hybrid positions, according to data from Indeed Hiring Lab UK.
The main challenges for UK organisations include maintaining team cohesion, managing performance fairly, and ensuring equal access to opportunities. Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) research identifies difficulties including increased work intensity, longer working hours, decreased social interactions, and less promotion and learning opportunities as key challenges for workers. Remote employees can feel excluded from in-person conversations, and without clear protocols, those who attend the office more regularly can gain an informal advantage in terms of visibility and career progression, a pattern known as proximity bias.
The ONS (ONS, June 2025) also highlights that access to hybrid working is not equal across the UK workforce. Workers with a degree are around ten times more likely to work hybrid than those with no qualifications, and 45% of people earning over £50,000 work hybrid compared with just 8% of those earning under £20,000. Disabled workers (24%) are also less likely to hybrid work than non-disabled workers (29%). These gaps raise important questions of fairness that employers and policymakers are increasingly expected to address.
Research consistently shows hybrid working benefits both employees and employers in the UK. POST analysis finds that benefits for staff include increased wellbeing, self-reported productivity, work satisfaction and reduced work-life conflict. The ONS found that workers who worked from home on a given day spent an average of 24 minutes more on sleep and rest and 15 minutes more on exercise and wellbeing compared with those who worked away from home.
For employers, the case is also strong. POST research identifies reduced overhead costs, productivity gains and reduced sickness absence as organisational benefits.
Effective hybrid management requires a shift from monitoring presence to measuring outcomes. Concerns about reduced collaboration can be addressed by coordinating anchor days, where colleagues who need to collaborate are organised to be in the office on the same day. Managers should set clear goals, use shared dashboards for visibility, and hold regular one-to-ones to ensure remote and in-office employees have equal access to feedback and development.
Organisations should ensure their office design and hybrid working policies are complementary, and that managers are trained in good hybrid practice. Proximity bias remains a practical risk: managers should evaluate performance on measurable outputs, distribute recognition consistently, and build in deliberate in-person time.
The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act came into force on 6 April 2024, significantly strengthening employee rights. Since then, all employees have had the right to request flexible working from day one of employment, can make two requests in any 12-month period, and are no longer required to explain the business impact of their request. Employers must respond within two months and must consult with the employee before refusing any request. As DavidsonMorris notes, the legal risk now lies primarily in how decisions are reached and documented, rather than in the outcome alone.
Further changes are coming under the Employment Rights Act 2025, which received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. From 2027, employers will only be able to refuse a flexible working request where it is reasonable to do so, and must set out in writing the specific grounds for refusal and explain why refusal on those grounds is reasonable. The Commons Library notes that the Lords inquiry welcomed the government's intention to collaborate with Acas on developing statutory guidance to define when rejecting a flexible work request is "reasonable". Employers should review their flexible working policies now, train managers on evidence-based decision-making, and ensure refusals are clearly documented.
The core technology stack for hybrid working covers four areas: communication and collaboration tools (Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet and Slack); project management platforms (Asana, Monday.com and Jira) for shared visibility of tasks and progress; workspace management software for desk booking and space utilisation; and cybersecurity controls.
Cybersecurity is a particular concern for hybrid employers. The UK Government's Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025 found that 43% of UK businesses identified a cyber breach or attack in the previous 12 months. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) recommends that organisations treat VPNs as a core security control, enforce multi-factor authentication on all remote connections, and follow the Cyber Essentials framework as a baseline. Technology alone is not sufficient: the NCSC advises that secure remote working requires clear policies, staff awareness training and regular audits alongside the right tools.
Whether you're evaluating your current approach to hybrid working or looking for a platform to support your people, explore the resources below to help you build a more connected, productive and engaged workforce.
Discover how Access HR Suite brings HR, payroll, workforce management, recruitment, learning and employee engagement together in one integrated solution.
Speak with one of our experts and see how Access PeopleXD Evo can help you improve employee engagement, performance management and workforce visibility.
See how Access HR Suite helps organisations streamline HR processes, support flexible working and create better employee experiences at scale.
1. 6 Seconds.org: “95% of managers are dissatisfied with their performance review systems.”
2. BetaNews Research: “68% of companies report inadequate communication and collaboration tools.”
3. Ciphr Research (2024): “45% of employers are struggling with remote/hybrid working expectations.”
4. Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023: New legal requirements effective April 2024.
5. Gallup: “Managers are the highest factor in team engagement levels.”
6. Gartner (2025): 9 Future of Work Trends for 2025.
7. Gartner via ClearPeople: “71% of HR leaders are more concerned about employee collaboration now than they were before the pandemic.”
8. Harvard Business Review: Studies showing knowledge workers are more productive working from home.
9. Microsoft Work Trend Index: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-indexmsockid=3da8e0462df462f32d57f60a2c4f635c
10. SHRM Labs: “Companies with well-implemented hybrid models saw productivity jump by up to 55%.”
11. Think Learning (2024): “39% of employees receive inadequate support during remote collaboration.”
12. YouGov Survey for Acas: “70% of the British workforce are completely unaware of these changes.”
AU & NZ
SG
MY
US
IE
