While it’s still not entirely clear what long-term impact the forced remote working among knowledge workers during the pandemic will have on longer-term ways of working, it does seem inevitable that a more hybrid approach will become the norm.

A recent article from the University of Oxford explores how managers can best approach this new world of hybrid work. At the heart is a robust understanding of what tasks can best be performed remotely and what tasks are best performed when physically together.

“A more nuanced approach looks at hybrid work through the lens of types of tasks, differentiating between those that should and should not be performed remotely,” the authors explain. “Such a model explicitly links social and creative tasks with work performed best in the physical office environment.”

Hybrid tasks

The article is based on research conducted across 20 global companies and they break tasks down into one of four categories:

• Individual procedural tasks, which include things such as processing claims or entering data. These tasks can be easily done without interactions with others, so remote work would be an option, although the authors believe supervision may be harder.
• Focused creative tasks, which involve things such as writing code or designing a brochure. These tasks don’t require much teamwork, with technology playing a key supporting role. These kinds of tasks are often done remotely already and can continue to be so.
• Coordinated group tasks, which include review meetings, routine project work, and town halls. These tasks are often largely standardized but still need some kind of human interaction. They are therefore harder to perform remotely, but can be done so with the right communication technology.
• Collaborative creative tasks, which are tasks, such as creative problem-solving and strategic planning, which have a strong social element to them. These tasks are often those that are crucial when we try and innovate.

“For managers in our study, it was experiences with collaborative creative tasks in hybrid environments that exposed the potential negative consequences for culture and innovation,” the researchers explain. “The inherently collaborative nature of such tasks is the core challenge that drives the debate over hybrid work.”

The research found that while technology was able to facilitate some interactions, it was not very good at producing high-quality interactions, with this particularly so among those that didn’t already know each other well. So, if your tasks require a good relationship between team members, hybrid work was only effective if strong bonds already existed.

As managers look for some guidance on the best way to approach work in the post-pandemic world, a focus on the tasks employees are required to perform may be as good a way as any to examine things.