We're experienced hybrid working consultants

We’ve successfully introduced hybrid working at businesses around the world.

See how we can help you.

What we do as hybrid working consultants

We work with you to provide a scientifically-backed hybrid working strategy that is aligned with your business challenges, including:

  • How many days per week should staff come into the office?
  • Should staff be encouraged or mandated to return?
  • What is the purpose of the workplace in a hybrid culture?
  • How can company culture be maintained in a hybrid workplace?
  • How do we achieve a seamless experience regardless of location?
  • How do we implement remote working without impacting productivity?

We engage with employees across your organization to ensure our approach is inclusive and holistic. We’ll support you every step of the way to make certain your hybrid working policies stand the test of time.

How we successfully implement hybrid working

Develop the future workplace vision

Working closely with your leadership team, we learn where they envision the organization to be in the next two years. We understand that some leaders have concerns about hybrid working and we dedicate time to reassuring individuals about the steps we’ll take together to avoid potential challenges.

 

Understand what’s happening

The next step is to discover how your company operates. This involves analyzing the current state of employee sentiment and concerns. We establish a baseline set of facts through interactive workshops, interviews, staff surveys and desk utilization studies. This helps us build a comprehensive picture of how work happens in your organization, employee attitudes, and a clear understanding of occupancy and utilization.

 

Train your leaders to become hybrid working leaders

We provide manager training for implementation of hybrid working. Our research with the Center for Evidence Based Management, identified that a transformational style of leadership is likely to be most successful in leading teams and that a psychologically safe culture will support teams and individuals to perform at their best.

We work with leaders at all levels of the organization so they understand the nuances and practices for leading hybrid teams and equip them with the techniques to confidently facilitate team engagements to create Working Together Agreements. Working Together Agreements can cover a range of topics including:

As part of this process, teams share ideas for how they can enhance their performance in the context of the Six Factors, which we have identified as the critical elements of high performing teams. These conversations help employees to feel engaged and, in the process, embed behavioral changes over the long-term.

 

Enable adoption

We develop a scalable framework and produce company-specific playbooks to enable results to be replicated across your organization globally. We understand that implementing change requires skill and patience. We can work with you to deliver customized change management programs designed specifically for your organization.

Why not get started today by checking out our hybrid working policy example?

Why adopt hybrid working?

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The number of extra days employers get from hybrid workers

Analysis of the latest academic research and our own studies has shown that on average hybrid working employees deliver nearly two extra weeks of work annually for their employer.

The results show employees often work harder and better in a hybrid environment. What’s more, businesses that embrace hybrid working stand to achieve considerable savings. By using their offices more efficiently, many are able to reduce their real estate portfolio and shrink their carbon footprint. When the benefits to staff wellbeing are also taken into account, the question becomes why would you not adopt hybrid working?

What makes us the leading hybrid working consultancy?

At AWA, we’ve been helping organizations navigate a path to agile models of working for more than 30 years.

Our research and in-depth knowledge of science and neuroscience has revealed the six most important factors behind high-performing teams.

This framework is an integral part of how we assess the effectiveness of a workforce. We also run one of the world’s biggest hybrid working indexes which tracks the development of hybrid working strategies and office rate attendance.

The pandemic forced businesses to rapidly adopt hybrid working. Many firms are still discovering the complexities of this approach. For example, in a hybrid workplace, attendance patterns can be variable and unpredictable. Traditional methods for modelling and managing space occupancy are limited and don’t address the challenges of hybrid space utilization. Our sophisticated planning tools are designed to model space requirements in flexible environments and enable active management of the hybrid workplace.

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Our industry-leading Hybrid Working Index shows the majority of offices have introduced some form of hybrid working

Here are some more reasons why we’re uniquely well-placed to assist your company:

  • We understand the challenges your business faces, but don’t have pre-packaged solutions.
  • We tailor our approach to align with the needs of your organization.
  • Our agile and global team are experts in the field with decades of experience.
  • We’re independent and evidence-based.
  • We are global yet local with associates and offices around the world. We deliver industry-leading services tailored to local sensitivities.
  • We transform the world of work for global organizations. Learn how we have successfully introduced hybrid working policies for large organizations by reading the case studies below.
Case studies
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Client Testimonial

“We have worked with AWA for more than five years and value the collaborative partnership we have with them. They have supported the ongoing evolution of our workplace, providing deep insights and extensive expertise. With their help, we’ve been able to create a transformational space which supports our hybrid working approach and transforms our culture and ways of working to become more agile and innovative. This helps us recruit and retain the best talent, which supports our core purpose of funding research to save lives. None of this would have been possible without the help of AWA.”

Kerry Smith Chief People Officer, British Heart Foundation

“AWA have been supporting Bupa for around five years as we have transitioned our business firstly from office based to flexible working, and now into hybrid working. I have found their approach to both us as a business and the challenges we face, to be pragmatic and solution focused; always willing to engage us in constructive debate and take time to understand our people and practices.”

Neil Jones BGUK Director of Property, Bupa

“Mintel has worked successfully with AWA for over a decade on several major projects. We chose them for their expertise and experience at the cutting edge of understanding workplaces. They lead the industry with well-crafted research to understand the dynamic workplace landscape and help solve the real-world issues of operating successfully in a changing world. Along with data and insights they bring practical processes that involve everyone from grass root team members to the most senior executives, developing effective change to meet all parties’ goals. They have become trusted advisers around not only workplace matters but in behavioral change.”

Peter Haigh Chairman, Mintel

“Leading a major change management project in complex international organization is challenging undertaking. I knew it would involve multiple stakeholders, take wide-ranging collaboration and that we would need some expert, confident experience to help steer and deliver it. AWA has provided that, not by steaming in and dictating how things should be based on their ideals, but by listening to us, learning, understanding and advising. I have enjoyed working closely with them on this project. I have felt supported, they have always been available to discuss challenges and options and have always responded promptly, constructively and positively with solutions and alternative ideas for consideration.”

Tom Crame Head of Global Workplace, Amnesty International

“We were really keen to understand how the learnings and behaviors of Covid enforced home working would affect the post-pandemic return of staff and in particular to our Sheffield campus as we have plans to restack and refurbish the office space. AWA’s detailed and in-depth engagement process allowed us to reach out to all levels of occupants and really understand staff perception on what will be needed to create a new working environment that would align with business requirements and where changes in behavior, management style and space might be appropriate. Their insights also allowed us to create a blueprint of alternative space types that we’ve used to inform the repurposing of space across our nationwide estate.”

Steve Chapman Interim Head of Estates ICF Security, Estates and Information Directorate, Home Office

“AWA has been a great resource of global data and research for us regarding agile, hybrid and the world of working. They are responsive, willing to question assumptions, and work as a partner to help us make good decisions.”

Neil Austin VP Real Estate Portfolio Management and Transaction Services, Omnicom Group