Hybrid work - a mixture of onsite and remote work - will become the standard operating model across industries by 2024. However, a vast majority of businesses lack a detailed hybrid work strategy, finds a study.

Participants of the study identified insufficient oversight, lack of workplace innovation, and cultural shifts as the three barriers to hybrid work's success. However, they believed that these obstacles could be overcome.

72% lack a detailed strategy and 76% don't have the right key performance indicators (KPIs) to support hybrid working models, finds the study conducted by AT&T and Dubber Corporation Limited.

81% believe hybrid work will be the foremost working model by 2024, with 56% of work done offsite. 86% believe their employees prefer a hybrid work model but 64% believe their organization prefers an on-premise work model.

100% of respondents believe a hybrid work model will help attract young talent.

Mass adoption of new work models has shown to be partially effective with 79% of firms believing that employees have been productive - although not without resulting challenges, with only 45% confident in employee innovation throughout the period, finds the study.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) were identified as the top transformative technologies in the survey, with their intrinsic value identified specifically in the areas of employee training, intelligent enterprise search and learning, and conversational help.

The research shows that while employee productivity is maturing, with high analytics adoption, other areas like revenue leakage and employee retention require further investment. A need for deeper analytics and insights-driven by AI - into both the customer and employee can be accomplished by mining and transforming data from remote conversations and interactions - to build new models of operation in targeted business functions.

“It's clear that a successful talent program now requires a hybrid work policy, but that policy needs to be supported by a strategic tech-first cultural reset, to ensure business growth and competition,” says Alicia Dietsch, Senior Vice President, AT&T Business Marketing.

“Firms need to ask themselves if they have the in-house expertise to achieve this, or whether it's now time to go beyond a partner in remote infrastructure rollout to a partner in tech-first remote business strategy." 

The State of the Industry: Future of Work survey, conducted by  AT&T and Dubber Corporation Limited, comprised 303 US-based respondents, 87% above Director level, across five key industries, with over 1M employees represented, and 34% with companies over $1B in revenue.