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• 04 March 2024

What science says about hybrid working — and how to make it a success

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David Adam is a writer in Hertford, near London.

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A woman works from an outside table in New York City in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic prompted lasting changes to working habits. Credit: Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty

Certain aspects of scientific life do not lend themselves to working from home. Archaeologist Adrià Breu, who studies neolithic pottery at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain, can’t dig for artefacts in his kitchen, and Claudia Sala’s experiments in molecular microbiology at the Toscana Life Sciences Foundation in Siena, Italy, oblige her to commute to her laboratory most days. But both these researchers also get to work from home — when they write up papers, for example, or analyse data.

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Hybrid is the future of work

Key takeaways.

• Hybrid working arrangements balance the benefits of being in the office with the benefits of working from home.
• Before implementing hybrid policies, executives and managers need to think through the implications of how and when employees work remotely.
• Issues of equity and equal treatment need to be carefully considered in a hybrid work arrangement.

As businesses and everyday life slowly return to pre-pandemic activity, one point is becoming clear: The home office isn’t about to shut down. In my  research  and discussions with hundreds of managers across different industries, I’m finding that about 70 percent of firms — from tiny companies to massive multinationals  like Apple, Google, Citi and HSBC  — plan to implement some form of hybrid working arrangements so their employees can divide their time between collaborating with colleagues on site and working from home.

Hybrid arrangements balance the benefits of being in the office in person — greater ability to collaborate, innovate and build culture — with the benefits of quiet and the lack of commuting that come from working from home. Firms often suggest employees work two days a week at home, focusing on individual tasks or small meetings, and three days a week in the office, for larger meetings, training and social events.

That chimes with the recent evidence from my research with  Paul Mizen and Shivani Taneja  that small meetings can be as efficient by video call as in person. In-person meetings are typically easier for communicating by visual cues and gestures. But video calls save the travel time required to meet in person. And since video calls for two to four people mean everyone occupies a large box on a Zoom screen, it is easy to be seen.

In contrast, almost half of respondents to our research survey reported large meetings of 10 or more people were worse by video call. People are allocated to smaller boxes in these situations so it is hard to see the faces and gestures of participants. And attendees normally have to mute, leading to stilted conversations.

A matter of choice?

But another question is controversial: How much choice should workers have in the days they work from home?

On the one hand, many managers are passionate that their employees should determine their own schedule. In my research with Jose Barrero and Steve Davis we surveyed more than 35,000 Americans since May 2020 and our  research data  show that post-pandemic 32 percent of employees say they never want to return to working in the office.

Figure 1: Small meetings can work by video conference; large meetings are best in person.

Question:  "How do meetings compare by video call (Zoom, Teams, etc.) versus in person in terms of how efficient the meetings turn out to be?”

These are often employees with young kids who live in the suburbs and for whom the commute to work is painful. At the other extreme, 21 percent tell us they never want to spend another day working from home. These are often young, single employees or empty nesters in city-center apartments.

Figure 2: Employees are hugely varied in how many days per week they want to WFH.

Response to:  "In 2022+ (after COVID) how often would you like to have paid work-days at home?"

Given such radically different views, it seems natural to let them choose. One manager told me, “I treat my team like adults. They get to decide when and where they work, as long as they get their jobs done.”

But I have three concerns — concerns, which after talking to hundreds of firms over the last year, have led me to change my  advice  from supporting to being against employees’ choosing their own WFH days.

A management nightmare?

One concern is managing a hybrid team, where some people are at home and others are at the office. Many workers are expressing anxiety about this generating an office in-group and a home out-group. For example, employees at home can see glances or whispering in the office conference room but can’t tell exactly what is going on. Even when firms try to avoid this by requiring office employees to take video calls from their desks, home employees have told me that they can still feel excluded. They know after the meeting ends the folks in the office may chat in the corridor or go grab a coffee together.

The second concern is what every firm has been fearing: [1]  That given a choice, most employees will take Monday and Friday off. Indeed, only 36 percent of employees would choose to come in on Friday compared with 82 percent on Wednesday. This highlights the severe problems firms could face over effective use of office space if they let employees pick their days to work from home. Providing enough desks for every employee coming in on Wednesday would leave half of these desks empty on Monday and Friday.

Figure 3: Efficient use of office space will require central coordination.

Question:  "If you got to work from home for two days per week which two days would you choose?"

The third concern is the risk to diversity in the workplace. It turns out that who wants to work from home after the pandemic is not random. In our  research  we find, for example, that among college graduates with young children, women want to work from home full time almost 50 percent more than men.

Figure 4: College-educated women and men with younger children differ in the number of days they want to WFH post-pandemic.

Note: College educated employees with children under 12.

This is worrying given the evidence that working from home while your colleagues are in the office can be highly damaging to your career.

In a  2015 study  I conducted with a large multinational company based in China, my colleagues and I randomized 250 volunteers into a group that worked remotely for four days a week and another group that remained in the office full time. We found that WFH employees had a 50 percent lower rate of promotion after 21 months compared with their office colleagues. This huge WFH promotion penalty chimes with comments I’ve heard over the years from managers that home-based employees often get passed over on promotions.

Adding this up, you can see how allowing employees to choose their WFH schedules could exacerbate the lack of workplace diversity. Single young men could all choose to come into the office five days a week and rocket up the firm, while employees who live far from the office or have young children and choose to WFH most days are held back. This would be both a diversity loss and a legal time bomb for companies.

I changed my mind

Based on this evidence I changed my mind and started advising  firms  that managers should decide which days their team should WFH. For example, if the manager decides WFH days are going to be Wednesday and Friday, everyone should work from home on those days and everyone should come to the office on the other days. Importantly, this should apply to the CEO downwards. If the top managers start coming in on extra days, then the managers one level below start coming in on extra days to curry favor with their bosses, and then managers two levels down start coming in on extra days to curry favor with their bosses, and so on until the system will collapse.

The pandemic has started a revolution in how we work, and our  research  shows working from home can make firms more productive and employees happier. But like all revolutions, this is difficult to navigate. Firms need leadership from the top to ensure their work force remains diverse and truly inclusive.

1  “Empty offices on Monday and Friday spell trouble,”  Financial Times , May 15, 2021, Pilita Clark.

Barrero, Jose, Nicholas Bloom and Steve Davis. "Why working from home will stick," National Bureau of Economic Research working paper 28731, April 2021.

Bloom, Nicholas, Paul Mizen and Shivani Taneja. "Returning to the office will be hard," CEPR VOXEU, June 2021.

Bloom, Nicholas, James Liang, John Roberts and Zhichun Jenny Ying. "Does working from home work? Evidence from a Chinese experiment,"  Quarterly Journal of Economics , 2015.

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Choosing a Hybrid Work Model and New Challenges

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The contribution examines the accumulated experience of remote work in order to identify development prospects for hybrid work models in various activity fields, opportunities and risks arising in this regard. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that although modern IT infrastructure, including in Russia, is often able to provide remote work, however, assessments of its advantages and problems, the impact on labor efficiency and employee motivation are ambiguous. The problems of switching to a hybrid model can be caused by both the risk of ensuring information security, and insufficient preparation of employees for self-organization, building a work and rest schedule and maintaining the effectiveness of communications and work, cramped conditions and distractions when working from home. As potential risks of hybrid work, the authors identified problems of socialization and increased emotional burnout, an increase in the gap between members of the hybrid team working in different formats (from the office/remotely), the threat of an increase in the gender gap. Recommendations on the organization of work and maintenance of virtual cooperation when implementing a hybrid model are proposed and justified.

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Konovalova, V.G., Petrenko, B.V., Aghgashyan, R.V. (2022). Choosing a Hybrid Work Model and New Challenges. In: Ashmarina, S.I., Mantulenko, V.V., Vochozka, M. (eds) Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference “Smart Nations: Global Trends In The Digital Economy”. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 397. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94873-3_69

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How hybrid work is redefining the office landscape.

Hybrid Office is transforming the future of work, a model fusing remote and in-office approaches for a more flexible, efficient workforce.

• Author: HRD Connect
• Date published: May 14, 2024
• Hybrid Work

The traditional office transformed in the 2020s, giving rise to the hybrid model. This blends remote work with in-office time, creating a flexible approach that’s now the norm for many.

Gartner predicted that by the end of last year, 39% of global knowledge workers will be hybrid, with only 9% fully remote. This model is a response to the evolving need for work-life balance and productivity.

Hybrid work lets you switch between the office and remote locations, getting the best of both worlds. It gives you autonomy while keeping the value of in-person interaction. As we navigate this new era, the hybrid office shows how modern workforces can be both flexible and strong.

The evolution of the office environment

Offices have come a long way, from static spaces to dynamic, tech-driven hubs. Traditionally, offices were rows of cubicles, with employees working set hours within those walls. Remote work technology challenged this, pushing for more flexible arrangements.

The hybrid model emerged from this, blending remote work with the traditional office. It redefines the office as a space for specific needs, not a daily must-do. This shift reflects changing priorities, emphasizing work-life balance and integrating personal responsibilities. As the office environment keeps adapting, it becomes a fluid concept, meeting the needs of a modern, digitally connected workforce.

Defining the hybrid office

A hybrid office is a modern workplace where you have the freedom to split your work time between the office and remote locations. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. It’s tailored to each organization and its employees. In practice, some employees might work fully remotely, while others come into the office more often.

The design of the office is important, with flexible workspaces and meeting rooms that allow for both in-person and remote collaboration. Think soundproof office pods or booths for focused work or virtual meetings. The hybrid office is designed for the flow of modern work, ensuring everyone, on-site or off-site, is seamlessly integrated into the daily workflow.

Benefits and challenges of a hybrid office

The hybrid office model offers a wealth of benefits, including better work-life balance, increased productivity, and higher job satisfaction. Employees enjoy the flexibility to work in a way that suits their lives, leading to more efficient use of office space and resources. Less commuting saves time and reduces work stress.

However, the hybrid model also comes with challenges. Ensuring smooth collaboration between remote and in-office employees requires strong technology and clear communication practices.

The possibility of underused or overused office space requires smart planning and tools like office analytics. Remote meeting participants can put a strain on existing facilities, making partnerships with videoconferencing companies like Logitech crucial. Balancing these benefits and challenges is key to a successful hybrid office.

Case studies and future outlook

The success of the hybrid office model is evident across industries. Tech giants like Google and Microsoft are leading the way, using advanced technology to keep things running smoothly. They show how flexible workspaces, combined with collaboration tools, can keep productivity and innovation high. Small businesses and startups are also benefiting from hybrid work, attracting talent by offering the flexibility that modern employees seek.

Looking ahead, the future of work seems to be tied to hybrid models. As organizations adapt, the purpose of the office is being redefined to prioritize flexibility, collaboration, and employee wellbeing. The hybrid office is reshaping how we think about the workplace. It’s a symbol of a more adaptable, employee-centric work environment that values both individual needs and overall efficiency.

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What is hybrid work and why do employees want it?

Hybrid work is a big departure from the traditional work model. But what exactly is hybrid work—and how has it changed over time? Hybrid, flexible, or distributed work—whatever you choose to call it—has transformed the way we think about work. It’s a flexible, modern way of working that’s been swarming around the working world for years. Yet, despite being popular with so many companies worldwide, hybrid work isn’t one-size-fits-all. Instead, it comes in different forms for different businesses and their employees. In this post, we’ll explore what a hybrid work model is, including how you can transition to one smoothly.

‍ Here’s what we’ll cover:

What is hybrid work?

The benefits of hybrid work (and the disadvantages), 4 types of hybrid work schedules, how hybrid work has evolved—and some key learnings, hybrid work best practices and how to adopt a hybrid work model, technology you need to make hybrid work.

Hybrid work is a flexible approach that combines working in an office environment and working from home. Hybrid work varies in flexibility and supports a variety of different work schedules. Organizations that use a hybrid work model can offer a better work-life balance to their employees. This in turn drives productivity and employee engagement at work, and helps businesses operate more efficiently as a result.

We know employees see the value in hybrid work. A 2023 Gallup survey found that more than half of employees with remote-capable jobs want a hybrid work arrangement. And employers also see the benefits of having people back onsite in some capacity. The same survey showed that spending two to three days in the office during a typical week tends to lead to the highest levels of employee engagement, and tends to reduce burnout and intentions to leave the organization. The result? 90% of companies say they’ll return to the office by the end of 2024 , according to CNBC.

Naturally, hybrid work comes with pros and cons. Let’s look at some of the perks (and non-perks) of hybrid work for employees and their companies.

Benefit #1: Employees can work when and how they’re most productive

In an office-first model, people are expected to be on the clock between 9am and 5pm every workday. In a hybrid work model, employees have more flexibility to get work done when, how, and where they’re most productive. This means flexible schedules and locations. For example, some people work best early in the morning while others do better in the evening. They can also choose to work with teammates onsite or do heads-down work from a remote location.

Benefit #2: Better work-life balance

Flexibility is what powers hybrid work, and finding balance is easier in a flexible work arrangement. When employees have more control of their work schedules, they can free up time to take care of the things that crop up in their personal lives—whether it’s running an errand, picking up kids from daycare, or being home for a delivery. According to our very own VP of Sales, Justin Bullock, hybrid work gave him the flexibility to attend his 10-year-old’s birthday party. “As a parent, hybrid work helps me integrate these kinds of activities into my routine. That means more time for the things that matter most, which makes me happier and more refreshed to do work.”

Benefit #3: Hire talent across the globe

Looking to broaden your talent pool? With a distributed workforce, your company can hire talent from all around the globe. Having access to a wider talent pool means you can hire people with specialized skills. This can give your organization a competitive edge, help you move into new markets, and ensure around-the-clock productivity.

Benefit #4: Save on real estate expenses

In a hybrid work model, fewer people can be onsite at any given time. For some companies, this may mean downsizing their real estate . At the very least, hybrid working will help you figure out how much office space you need to support your employees. Rethinking your workplace strategy can help you lower real estate costs or reinvest those cost savings in new satellite offices and smaller co-working spaces.

Disadvantage #1: Harder to collaborate with remote employees

Hybrid work will see people come into the workplace at different times of the week. It means that people will sometimes miss each other and the chance to collaborate on the fly. To get around this, investing in the right technology is crucial. Workplace management tools can enable your employees to get visibility into when coworkers will be onsite and coordinate accordingly.

Disadvantage #2: Requires oversight and maintenance to keep it working

Hybrid work needs a lot of care and attention to get right. If you want to allow freedom and flexibility for your employees at work, it often means balancing that with appropriate oversight and policies. For example, leaders might opt for a “structured hybrid” approach, with teams onsite on a certain day of the week to boost morale and collaboration. This might conflict with flexibility and autonomy, but it’s necessary to get folks together so they can enjoy other freedoms like working from home for the remainder of their week. Being adaptable is also key to maintaining hybrid work. Peoples’ needs change, so you might find that changing in-office days every now and again is necessary for the overall happiness of the team.

Disadvantage #3: Not suitable for all industries

Hybrid work models might not work for every industry. Some organizations have chosen to be fully remote, while others must be onsite in order to function, like healthcare, education, or manufacturing. Because of this, employees may choose different industries based on the levels of flexibility on offer.

Hybrid work is a flexible work model , which means there is more than one way of making it work for your business. For example, it might be important to you to offer your employees maximum autonomy so they can design their work week with zero restrictions or mandates. You might also decide that requiring your employees to be onsite for a certain number of days will help everyone be more productive and happy at work. Choosing the best hybrid work schedule for your business is important. With each schedule comes different benefits and challenges. Here’s a brief breakdown of the four types of work schedules out there.

• Hybrid at-will: Employees can choose which day(s) to come into the office
• "Structured hybrid" or hybrid split-week: Your company assigns specific days for onsite and remote work overall or by team/function
• Hybrid manager-scheduling: Managers choose which day(s) their team comes into the office
• Hybrid mix: A combo of all three options

Granted, hybrid work doesn’t feel new anymore. In fact, with over 70% of U.S. companies using a form of hybrid work in their businesses today, it feels pretty mainstream for many. But hybrid work has been around a lot longer than you might think. According to Gallup, approximately 32% of the U.S. workforce (around 60 million people) were working in some form of a hybrid work model in 2019 . Over time, there’s been a lot of trial and error for those using hybrid work—and that will continue as organizations figure out how it can serve them best. Here are some key learnings from hybrid work over the last few years.

• Hybrid work needs the right tools to be successful. Hybrid work isn’t just the way people work in your office and at home. It's also the way your office works for your people. Upgrade your office with the right tools. Examples might include hot-desking, room booking, or an easy check-in system for employees. For the right tools to make hybrid work, check out our blog post here .
• Hybrid work serves the renewed purpose of the workplace. If your people are traveling into the office from home, you want it to be for the right reasons. Hybrid work works best when your employees have a purpose in the workplace—whether that’s collaboration with coworkers, team meetings, or heads-down work. Ensure the office offers what they need to work in the best way for them.
• Hybrid work looks different for different companies. Hybrid work is a working model that changes depending on who’s using it and why. When you implement hybrid work, ensure it’s designed in a way that works for you. Some examples might be choosing the right schedule for your employees or offering smaller, co-working spaces alongside your main HQ. Remember that hybrid work isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach.
• The future of hybrid work is still fluid. There is no set destination for hybrid work. We know what it is, but the future of hybrid work will continue to look different as workplace dynamics change.

Now that you know what hybrid work is, the different types of hybrid work schedules, and the benefits and disadvantages, it’s time to implement hybrid work into your organization. To adopt a hybrid work model, you need the right people, processes, and technology. Below are some hybrid work best practices for you to follow.

• Communicate with your employees. Communication is key! When you roll out a new onsite work policy, your decisions will affect everyone in your workforce. It’s important to keep them in the loop and ask for their input when rolling out hybrid work or making changes to your hybrid policy.
• Work with HR and IT. Working cross-functionally is important when adopting hybrid work to ensure your workplace technology is seamless and able to support everyone—no matter where they work.
• Create the right work environment. No more rigid or boring offices. Hybrid work means the office must be a place where employees want to work, so creating a dynamic workplace is important.
• Delight and connect remote and onsite employees. Hybrid work will see some folks work from home while others work from the office. Finding ways to connect and delight everyone is an important part of keeping employee happiness and engagement high.

Following the above hybrid work best practices is important for its success in your organization. Let’s now dive into a few things you should consider when moving to a hybrid work model.

Survey your employees and leaders to find out what they need

To build a hybrid model that works for your company, start by speaking with your workforce to learn about their needs. Asking employees and executives will offer valuable and different perspectives. Be sure to ask questions about the working setup each group would thrive in most, as well as how they use the office currently. By asking a range of people, you can create a work model that gets folks ready to embrace change and keeps them motivated to do their best work. Here are some questions to include in your survey.

• Would you choose to work onsite primarily to focus on your own or collaborate with your team?
• How many days per week do you anticipate wanting to work onsite?
• If you had access to an office space closer to home, would you prefer to use that instead of commuting to the office?

Build the infrastructure that's best for your organization

At its best, hybrid work will bridge the remote and onsite environments so employees can work together with ease. Investing in technology in the workplace , such as remote communication tools and video conferencing equipment, will help enable this. Decide whether you need new tools or if you can leverage existing ones in new ways. Establish company-wide communication best practices and encourage team leads to set clear expectations with their employees. For example, you may adopt an asynchronous style of communication to accommodate employees working in different time zones. Create office schedules to manage workplace traffic and create a productive environment for your employees. There are a number of ways to approach this. For example, your hybrid work model may consist of a hybrid at-will policy where employees choose which day(s) they come into the office. Or, you might choose a hybrid manager-scheduling policy where managers control schedules and select which day(s) their folks come into the office.

Invest in company culture

Company culture is the heart of your organization. It can be a massive competitive advantage—and a major contributor to the success of your hybrid work model. Be intentional about defining your company culture to support a hybrid or distributed workforce. It’s also important to create experiences for the hybrid workplace around your company’s core values. For example, if your organization values teamwork, you might arrange an in-person or virtual team-building activity. At Envoy, we use the Donut Slack integration to encourage employees to meet people on other teams for a virtual coffee chat or peer learning exchange.

Create a great workplace experience

Workplace experience is the number one ingredient to your hybrid work model actually working. While your employees may not come onsite every single day, it’s important to ensure that each day in the workplace is purposeful, productive, and seamless. The more people onsite, the better the experience is for those who are there to meet and collaborate in-person. Creating a great workplace experience requires a focus on three elements: space, technology, and people. Thinking about how each component works together will elevate your hybrid work model. For example, creating more purposeful spaces in your office will improve your workplace experience because employees have different areas to choose from. That might be quiet zones, meeting pods, collaboration rooms, or lounge areas. Supporting different types of people and work will help support your hybrid work model. If you need some tips on how to create a workplace people want to visit, check out our ultimate guide to improving the workplace experience.

Gather continuous feedback

As you continue to build a hybrid workplace that’s ideal for your company, remember to gather employee feedback. Be sure to provide more than one way for employees to share their thoughts. For example, you might have an “always-on” Slack channel dedicated to employee feedback. In addition to that, you might send out quarterly feedback surveys to your workforce. Collecting this feedback will help you iterate as you go and build a hybrid workplace that works for everyone. Check out our blog post for more ideas on how to get real, unfiltered employee feedback .

This ultimate guide has armed you with everything you need to know to implement hybrid work successfully in your organization. Now, it’s time to run over the hybrid work software that will power your work model and help transform your workplace. Here are four tools that will help uplevel your hybrid work game.

• Desk/room booking technology. Hot-desking and room-booking allows your employees to book spaces through their mobile app . Employees can book a desk for heads-down work or larger meeting spaces for collaborative work. 
• Workplace schedules. Sync your schedule with your coworkers and team to ensure you don’t miss each other in the office. With workplace schedules, you can easily see who’s coming in and when, as well as invite coworkers to join you for collaboration and onsite meetings.
• Office wayfinding. The literal map to hybrid work success! Office wayfinding uses a map of your office so your employees can search for coworkers, available desks, meeting rooms, and more. ‍
• Workplace analytics software . Get visibility on your foot traffic and space utilization, so you can continue to design a workplace that supports your employees’ best work.

The hybrid model is no longer an alternative style of work—it’s here to stay. But, like any work model, there are benefits and disadvantages. As workplace leaders, you must meet the needs of your workforce or risk losing your talent to employers that do. Use this guide to adopt hybrid working into your organization. Ready to dive deeper into maximizing your space in the era of hybrid work? Read our step-by-step guide to occupancy planning for your hybrid workforce. 

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Amy is a content creator and storyteller at Envoy, where she helps workplace leaders build a workplace their people will love. Outside of work, you can usually find Amy exploring new places, planning her next trip, or enjoying a coffee and croissant in her favorite cafe.

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Using Data to Design Your Hybrid Work Policies

• Heidi Grant,
• Ginnie Carlier,
• Frank Giampietro

Surprising insights from EY’s survey of its U.S. hybrid, full in-person, and fully remote employees.

We’ve seen how fully remote work can lead to a loss of connection and development opportunities, particularly those that require observational learning, or learning by watching someone else do it. However, people still want to work from home at least some of the time because of the greater work-life balance and personal productivity that they experience. But what is the right amount of time to be in person? How can corporate policymakers and team leaders get the best of both worlds? The authors discuss how Ernst & Young LLP (EY U.S.) has taken a data-driven approach to questions around hybrid work. Their data comparing the performance and well-being of hybrid employees with their fully in-person and remote counterparts has yielded (often surprising) insights from which other organizations may benefit.

Despite years of effort and copious amounts of thought leadership (some of it of questionable value), leaders across industries are still struggling to figure out how to create policies that balance their desire to see employees back in the office with employees’ undiminished desire for flexibility. Managers are also struggling to make these arrangements and policies work and keep their teams engaged in an era of unprecedented uncertainty and burnout .

• Heidi Grant is a social psychologist who researches, writes, and speaks about the science of motivation. Her most recent book is Reinforcements: How to Get People to Help You . She’s also the author of Nine Things Successful People Do Differently and No One Understands You and What to Do About It . She is EY US Director of Learning R&D.
• GC Ginnie Carlier is EY Americas Vice Chair of Talent.
• FG Frank Giampietro is EY Americas Chief Wellbeing Officer.

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Microsoft and LinkedIn release the 2024 Work Trend Index on the state of AI at work

May 8, 2024 | Jared Spataro - CVP, AI at Work

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One year ago, generative AI burst onto the scene and for the first time since the smartphone, people began to change the way they interact with technology. People are bringing AI to work at an unexpected scale — and now the big question is, how’s it going?

As AI becomes ubiquitous in the workplace, employees and businesses alike are under extreme pressure. The pace and intensity of work, which accelerated during the pandemic, has not eased, so employees are bringing their own AI to work. Leaders agree AI is a business imperative — and feel the pressure to show immediate ROI — but many lack a plan and vision to go from individual impact to applying AI to drive the bottom line.

At the same time, the labor market is set to shift and there’s a new AI economy. While some professionals worry AI will replace their job, the data tells a more nuanced story — of a hidden talent shortage, more employees eyeing a career change, and a massive opportunity for those willing to skill up.

“AI is democratizing expertise across the workforce,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft. “Our latest research highlights the opportunity for every organization to apply this technology to drive better decision-making, collaboration — and ultimately business outcomes.”

For our fourth annual Work Trend Index, out today, we partnered with LinkedIn for the first time on a joint report so we could provide a comprehensive view of how AI is not only reshaping work, but the labor market more broadly. We surveyed 31,000 people across 31 countries, identified labor and hiring trends from LinkedIn, analyzed trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals and conducted research with Fortune 500 customers. The data points to insights every leader and professional needs to know — and actions they can take — when it comes to AI’s implications for work.

1. Employees want AI at work — and won’t wait for companies to catch up.

Three in four knowledge workers (75%) now use AI at work. Employees, overwhelmed and under duress, say AI saves time, boosts creativity and allows them to focus on their most important work. While 79% of leaders agree AI adoption is critical to remain competitive, 59% worry about quantifying the productivity gains of AI and 60% worry their company lacks a vision and plan to implement it. While leaders feel the pressure to turn individual productivity gains into organizational impact, employees aren’t waiting to reap the benefits: 78% of AI users are bringing their own AI tools to work. The opportunity for every leader is to channel this momentum into ROI.

2. For employees, AI raises the bar and breaks the career ceiling .

We also see AI beginning to impact the job market. While AI and job loss are top of mind for some, our data shows more people are eyeing a career change, there are jobs available, and employees with AI skills will get first pick. The majority of leaders (55%) say they’re worried about having enough talent to fill open roles this year, with leaders in cybersecurity, engineering, and creative design feeling the pinch most.

And professionals are looking. Forty-six percent across the globe are considering quitting in the year ahead — an all-time high since the Great Reshuffle of 2021 — a separate LinkedIn study found U.S. numbers to be even higher with 85% eyeing career moves. While two-thirds of leaders wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills, only 39% of users have received AI training from their company. So, professionals are skilling up on their own. As of late last year, we’ve seen a 142x increase in LinkedIn members adding AI skills like Copilot and ChatGPT to their profiles and a 160% increase in non-technical professionals using LinkedIn Learning courses to build their AI aptitude.

In a world where AI mentions in LinkedIn job posts drive a 17% bump in application growth, it’s a two-way street: Organizations that empower employees with AI tools and training will attract the best talent, and professionals who skill up will have the edge.

3. The rise of the AI power user — and what they reveal about the future.

In the research, four types of AI users emerged on a spectrum — from skeptics who rarely use AI to power users who use it extensively. Compared to skeptics, AI power users have reoriented their workdays in fundamental ways, reimagining business processes and saving over 30 minutes per day. Over 90% of power users say AI makes their overwhelming workload more manageable and their work more enjoyable, but they aren’t doing it on their own.

Power users work for a different kind of company. They are 61% more likely to have heard from their CEO on the importance of using generative AI at work, 53% more likely to receive encouragement from leadership to consider how AI can transform their function and 35% more likely to receive tailored AI training for their specific role or function.

“AI is redefining work and it’s clear we need new playbooks,” said Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn. “It’s the leaders who build for agility instead of stability and invest in skill building internally that will give their organizations a competitive advantage and create more efficient, engaged and equitable teams.”

The prompt box is the new blank page

We hear one consistent piece of feedback from our customers: talking to AI is harder than it seems. We’ve all learned how to use a search engine, identifying the right few words to get the best results. AI requires more context — just like when you delegate work to a direct report or colleague. But for many, staring down that empty prompt box feels like facing a blank page: Where should I even start?

Today, we’re announcing Copilot for Microsoft 365 innovations to help our customers answer that question.

YouTube Video

• Catch Up, a new chat interface that surfaces personal insights based on your recent activity, provides responsive recommendations , like “You have a meeting with the sales VP on Thursday. Let’s get you prepared — click here to get detailed notes.”

These features will be available in the coming months, and in the future, we’ll take it a step further, with Copilot asking you questions to get to your best work yet.

LinkedIn has also made free over 50 learning courses to empower professionals at all levels to advance their AI aptitude.

Head to WorkLab for the full Work Trend Index Report , and head to LinkedIn to hear more from LinkedIn’s Chief Economist, Karin Kimbrough, on how AI is reshaping the labor market.

And for all the blogs, videos and assets related to today’s announcements, please visit our  microsite .

Tags: AI , LinkedIn , Microsoft Copilot , Work Trend Index

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Clinical Research Coordinator 2 (Hybrid)

🔍 school of medicine, stanford, california, united states.

The Department of Neurology at Stanford University is seeking a Clinical Research Coordinator 2 to conduct clinical research and work independently on progressively more complex projects/assignments. Independently manage significant and key aspects of a large study or all aspects of one or more small research studies.

Duties include*:

• Oversee subject recruitment and study enrollment goals. Determine effective strategies for promoting/recruiting research participants and retaining participants in long-term clinical trials.
• Oversee data management for research projects. Develop and manage systems to organize, collect, report, and monitor data collection. Extract, analyze, and interpret data.
• Develop project schedules, targets, measurements, and accountabilities, as assigned. Lead team meetings and prepare/approve minutes.
• Formally supervise, train, and/or mentor new staff or students, as assigned, potentially including hiring, preparing or assisting with the preparation of performance evaluations, and performing related duties, in addition to instruction on project work. 
• Audit operations, including laboratory procedures, to ensure compliance with applicable regulations; provide leadership in identifying and implementing corrective actions/processes. Monitor Institutional Review Board submissions, and respond to requests and questions.
• Collaborate with principal investigators and study sponsors, monitor and report serious adverse events, and resolve study queries.
• Provide leadership in determining, recommending, and implementing improvements to policies/processes; define best practices.
• Develop study budget with staff and principal investigator, identifying standard of care versus study procedures. Track patient and study specific milestones, and invoice sponsors according to study contract.
• Ensure regulatory compliance. Regularly inspect study document to ensure ongoing regulatory compliance.
• Work with principal investigator to ensure Investigational New Drug applications are submitted to the FDA when applicable. Ensure Institutional Review Board renewals are completed.

*- Other duties may also be assigned.

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE (REQUIRED):

Bachelor's degree in a related field and two years of experience in clinical research, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES (REQUIRED):

• Strong interpersonal skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and database applications.
• Experience with research protocols and regulatory or governing bodies, which include HIPAA and FDA regulations, Institutional Review Board requirements, and Good Clinical Practices.
• Knowledge of medical terminology.

CERTIFICATIONS & LICENSES:

Society of Clinical Research Associates or Association of Clinical Research Professionals certification is preferred. May require a valid California Driver’s License.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS*:

• Frequently stand, walk, twist, bend, stoop, squat and use fine light/fine grasping. 
• Occasionally sit, reach above shoulders, perform desk based computer tasks, use a telephone and write by hand, lift, carry, push, and pull objects that weigh up to 40 pounds.
• Rarely kneel, crawl, climb ladders, grasp forcefully, sort and file paperwork or parts, rarely lift, carry, push, and pull objects that weigh 40 pounds or more.

*- Consistent with its obligations under the law, the University will provide reasonable accommodation to any employee with a disability who requires accommodation to perform the essential functions of his or her job.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

• Position may at times require the employee to work with or be in areas where hazardous materials and/or exposure to chemicals, blood, body fluid or tissues and risk of exposure to contagious diseases and infections.
• May require extended or unusual work hours based on research requirements and business needs.

WORK STANDARDS:

• Interpersonal Skills: Demonstrates the ability to work well with Stanford colleagues and clients and with external organizations.
• Promote Culture of Safety: Demonstrates commitment to personal responsibility and value for safety; communicates safety concerns; uses and promotes safe behaviors based on training and lessons learned.
• Subject to and expected to comply with all applicable University policies and procedures, including but not limited to the personnel policies and other policies found in the University's Administrative Guide, http://adminguide.stanford.edu .

The expected pay range for this position is $69,100 to $92,000 per annum.

Stanford University provides pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of what the university reasonably expects to pay for a position. The pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal equity, geographic location and external market pay for comparable jobs.

At Stanford University, base pay represents only one aspect of the comprehensive rewards package. The Cardinal at Work website ( https://cardinalatwork.stanford.edu/benefits-rewards ) provides detailed information on Stanford’s extensive range of benefits and rewards offered to employees. Specifics about the rewards package for this position may be discussed during the hiring process.

Consistent with its obligations under the law, the University will provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants requiring a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should contact Stanford University Human Resources by submitting a contact form .

Stanford is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

The job duties listed are typical examples of work performed by positions in this job classification and are not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, tasks, and responsibilities. Specific duties and responsibilities may vary depending on department or program needs without changing the general nature and scope of the job or level of responsibility. Employees may also perform other duties as assigned.

• Schedule: Full-time
• Job Code: 4923
• Employee Status: Regular
• Requisition ID: 103193
• Work Arrangement : Hybrid Eligible

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The future of real estate in a hybrid world

Hybrid work has roiled the real estate market—and it’s here to stay, according to new research from the McKinsey Global Institute . On this episode of The McKinsey Podcast , McKinsey senior partners Aditya Sanghvi and Jonathan Woetzel chat with global editorial director Lucia Rahilly about how the persistence of the pivot to working from home has transformed the places we work, live, shop, and socialize—and about the unique opportunity hybrid presents to rethink real estate for our changing future.

Also on this edition, demographer Jennifer Sciubba talks about our misconceptions around migration and population trends, from our Author Talks series.

This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

The McKinsey Podcast is hosted by Roberta Fusaro and Lucia Rahilly.

Hybrid is here to stay

Lucia Rahilly: Let’s start with some context. The COVID-19 pandemic upended lives in myriad ways. And perhaps one of the most lasting has been hybrid work. Will hybrid persist?

Aditya Sanghvi: What’s clear to us is that hybrid is here to stay. There are three reasons for that confidence.  First, the attendance rate we’ve seen has really stabilized, and it has stabilized for over a year now. Second, actual attendance aligns quite closely with what workers want and expect from their employers. Third, there’s a substantial number of knowledge workers who would rather resign or accept a pay cut than come in more often, and many of those folks are the executives in charge of making those decisions.

Lucia Rahilly: So practically speaking, what does protracted work from home mean for downtown districts or other areas with a high density of office buildings? Has hybrid work had ripple effects on those neighborhoods?

Jonathan Woetzel: Yes, it definitely has. If we look at neighborhoods which were very office-dominated, the first main impact is simply fewer people in those offices. That, in turn, means fewer people on those streets, fewer people in the shops or just anywhere in the neighborhood. That, combined with the rise of online commerce, is creating a big challenge for those downtown retail spaces and public spaces in those office-intensive areas.

The other obvious impact is on residential usage. As people are closer to home, we’re seeing demand for those homes rise. And then around those homes there’s a minor resurgence of retail. So we see the shopping and commerce patterns shifting as the people shift.

Lucia Rahilly: What does the data say on the flight to the suburbs that was so visible during the early stages of the pandemic? Has that persisted as well?

Aditya Sanghvi: Yes, during the pandemic there was an out-migration from urban cores. And in the nine cities we studied, some lost up to 7 percent of their people , which is really significant. Those people have not come back. And while the rate of out-migration in those urban cores has been lower, it has continued to be negative. This means that people are moving more to the suburbs than the urban core. Basically, people left during the pandemic, they’re not coming back, and the urban cores continue to see relative out-migration versus the suburbs around them.

Where’s worst hit—and why

Lucia Rahilly: Is this a global phenomenon? Which cities have been hardest hit by protracted hybrid work?

Jonathan Woetzel: Of the cities we studied, San Francisco is clearly the hardest-hit city. First of all, it has a relatively densely built urban core. Second, it’s office-oriented to a much greater degree than many other urban cores. Third, the access to public transport relative to some cities is not as strong.

Aditya Sanghvi: San Francisco actually had a double whammy because in terms of business mix, it has a higher share of technology jobs, and it has talent that had the power to assert what they would accept. In an urban structure, San Francisco is office-dense, with 30 percent of space dedicated to offices. Home prices are five times the national average. And they have a very high share of inbound commuters relative to other cities. So on both of those impacts they were worse off, and that’s why you saw the drop-off that San Francisco did see.

Jonathan Woetzel: On the other hand, Tokyo has pretty much the opposite of all of that. It has suffered relatively less impact because of the great public transport and mixed-use areas.

Lucia Rahilly: Tell us more about the constellation of factors that allow hybrid trends to affect one city more than another.

Aditya Sanghvi: In our research we simplified it down to two things. One is business mix: What is the industry mix of the city? What share of workers in the city are employed at large firms? Employees at those large firms tend to come into the office a little bit less than those at smaller firms. There are also differences in the cultural acceptance of remote work.

The second focus was urban structure. One of the most important factors concerns how often people commute to work by coming into the city, versus actually living in the city itself. Another factor is whether the urban center is office-dense or has a lot of green space and residential housing. And also whether housing is expensive. So those two factors, business mix and urban structure, are really what seem to drive the differences.

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Diminishing demand.

Lucia Rahilly: You modeled a range of future scenarios as part of this research. What do we expect demand for office space to look like in the years to come, based on the nine cities you studied?

Aditya Sanghvi: In a moderate scenario, we found that office demand in 2030 could be 13 percent lower in the median city that we studied. What’s fascinating is that values could be 26 percent lower in our moderate scenario and up to 42 percent lower in our severe scenario. In just these nine cities, that’s $800 billion of potential office real estate value disappearing.

Lucia Rahilly: Remarkable. If demand for office space is falling, does quality become a higher priority?

Aditya Sanghvi: Yes, in many ways, quality becomes everything . For many people, the offices that they experienced prepandemic weren’t more compelling or interesting than working from home. And once childcare was restored and kids could go back to school, people could take care of the elderly. So flexibility remained, even though some of the restrictions of the pandemic went away.

People ask themselves, “Is the office experience I’m going to have today worth the commute that I need to take?” For large portions of our knowledge-worker population, the answer has been “no.” The commute is not worth it, and that’s why people are not coming in to the office.

So, quality becomes everything, but the definition of quality is now more focused on the employee, not the employer. That is a significant change in office real estate, because it’s about, can I get people to want to spend time in the office? That’s what employers care about as well. That’s what drives quality.

Jonathan Woetzel: This shift from supply-centric to demand-centric is going to reshape the environment. Every meeting that you used to have would be either a phone meeting or in person. Now, every meeting has a video conference option. It creates choice for everybody. And that’s going to be reflected in everything, from choices of location to the design of the buildings themselves. It introduces a lot more flexibility, and for the supplier, employer, or developer, it is imperative to use that flexibility.

Retail as a bellwether

Lucia Rahilly: If the demand for office space remains lower than historic norms, how does that affect the future of the retail ecosystem? As you said, retail was arguably faltering prepandemic. How will retail fare in the years to come, according to your scenarios?

Jonathan Woetzel: Retail will become a lot more experiential, which includes community experiences as well as mixed-use. That means a lot of healthcare and a lot of education. If you go look at shopping malls these days, a good 20 percent, 25 percent of it is in those formats, because those are things you really want to do in person. Whereas commodity buys are going to go online. You’re also going to see a lot of interesting developments, particularly around areas which have both residential and retail, around thinking about retail as delivery points.

Aditya Sanghvi: I would add that retail is a really interesting analogy for what might happen in offices. Ten to 15 years ago, shopping happened largely in person. You had to go to a store to get what you wanted. What e-commerce did is create an option to do that from home. What you then saw was a huge separation in quality between the shopping mall centers that attracted people, where families wanted to go on the weekend to spend time with one another, versus the other ones that just allowed people to buy. People stopped going to the places they didn’t need to go to anymore. They bought online, and continued to go to the high-quality places that were actually a great experience.

That’s exactly what’s happening in office spaces now. Now, if I have a low-quality office, I can do the same version of my work at home. I want to go to the places I want to be in. That’s why we think the quality office will continue to do really well, and the low-quality office will do poorly, just like low-quality shopping malls did poorly over the past ten years.

Ripple effects on residential neighborhoods

Lucia Rahilly: Selfishly, I’m interested in what the research yielded on what might happen in the residential markets in these urban cores. As Jonathan knows, I live in New York City, where the cost of real estate is one of three topics on regular rotation at every dinner table. What did the scenarios show?

Jonathan Woetzel: You’re fine if you are a property owner. If you’re a renter, not so much. The demand for residences will increase in every city except for maybe a few of the hardest hit. It’s based somewhat on population growth. In a lot of these megacities or more advanced economies, we are just so far behind in terms of meeting the demand for residential space, including in the urban core, and we’re not going to catch up.

But we do see an ongoing longer-term trend toward rising residential prices. There are changes in the mix. For example, larger homes in the suburbs, and the prices for two- to four-bedroom homes rising a lot more quickly than prices for one-bedroom homes.

That reflects that move outward to say, “OK, I’m going to spend more time at home. I want a bigger home.” But at the same time, we don’t see this as having a dramatic impact on the values of residential housing in any place that we’re talking about. This is largely because of the broader picture around residential: we simply are way behind on building places for people to live.

Aditya Sanghvi: Adding on to what Jonathan said, there’s a huge dispersion across different cities, due in large part to urban structure. A lot of urban cores are downtowns that mostly have office buildings. The value proposition of those downtowns is very challenged right now. Conversely, places that have a great combination of retail experiences, restaurants, residential living, and offices are actually seeing demand potentially go up, because people want to be there.

Lucia Rahilly: I live in a primarily residential neighborhood, and at the beginning of the pandemic we were all terrified that our favorite mom-and-pop stores would go under. But in fact, many of them seemed not just to survive but in some cases thrive, in part because so many of us were working from home and patronizing these neighborhood shops more frequently. Is that what you are talking about?

Jonathan Woetzel: Yes, absolutely. The residential mixed-use neighborhood is alive and thriving. Taking back the sidewalks for outdoor dining, for example, was a response there. And cities supported that. People have, by and large, kept innovations from the pandemic that proved successful. That’s a tribute to what people want: this notion of a walkable, livable environment.

Now, not every place is like that. I would caution that if you were living in South Los Angeles, this was not a good thing for you, because you don’t have those amenities in your neighborhood. And it is a food desert.

So, if anything, the pandemic has accentuated the differences at a neighborhood level, and the work-from-home paradigm is going to do the same. We’ll have some people clustered in very nice neighborhoods, and then they will periodically commute to their offices. Service personnel will cluster around the “estates” in these farther-off communities. That’s a caricature of what this looks like, but it does show what people want: they want this mixed-use, livable environment.

Aditya Sanghvi: The neighborhoods that are performing better are the ones that are pedestrian-friendly, that have great green spaces, and have a mix of office, retail, and experiences. They’re sort of an ecosystem of everything that one might want in their life all sort of in one place.

Jonathan Woetzel: I would just add that transit connection is an important aspect of where you will see the possibility for demand. Great transit connections create great flexibility.

Rethinking the office

Lucia Rahilly: It sounds like there’s some risk that these megacities or superstar cities may lose a little bit of their luster. Is that correct in certain neighborhoods? Is that a real risk?

Jonathan Woetzel: Definitely. Let’s not beat around the bush. There’s clearly going to be a reconsideration of the development model. There’ll be a real slowdown in transactions, coupled, of course, with the interest rate environment. We’ve seen a pause, particularly in commercial real estate activity, as people try to rethink what actually is going to be the market rate environment going forward, and how should they reimagine the purpose of these buildings. So you have it at the market level, a district or neighborhood level, and at the building level. Finally, within the building, in an environment where you have to appeal to the employee, there are some spaces that are simply not fit for purpose.

Aditya Sanghvi: Just to add on to the fit-for-purpose part: if the office wants to thrive, there’s a world where it absolutely can. It just has to be completely reimagined. I mean, the office that we have is really designed around the concept of being a place where I have to be. Many offices are cube farms that are just not enjoyable.

These products could also be better designed for employers. Most office leases—and it depends on each country—can be between five and ten years. Most companies have no idea how much space they need in two years, let alone ten years. Why do they need to sign a lease for ten years? That’s really just about how the real estate industry works and how valuations are done, and that has to change.

Jonathan Woetzel: Just to give one example: I’m looking at a bunch of recently built office buildings. It’s questionable what you do with them because of the downgrading of office demand. As a use case, we’ve asked ourselves whether we can convert them to residential. If you look at a recently built office building, it’s got a huge floor plate. If you did residential in this thing, everything inside the first three meters is going to be darkness. So, it’s very difficult and expensive to convert these big blocks.

So you start thinking about what else could you do with that interior space, if not a cube farm. There are some options. First of all: gyms. But then you have to reckon with whether you can have a 28-story interior gym. That’s quite a lot of gym space. Maybe healthcare is an option, because it requires privacy. Those interior spaces could accommodate private experiences. Maybe education, or musical experiences. So there are lots of interesting innovations to be thought of for these buildings, which are built for 50-year life spans. That’s also where I think those long-term leases came from. But now they have to be repurposed for a different customer set and different use.

Aditya Sanghvi: Even in the office buildings themselves, we have to reimagine the product that we’re giving to the tenant . Imagine that I went to go buy a car, and basically what they sold me was the shell of the car, but the car didn’t drive. That’s basically what office space is today. People will say, “Here’s a canvas of space that you can use however you want,” but the problem is that most companies and organizations don’t know how to use the space in a hybrid work environment.

So, one of the really interesting changes that needs to happen is that real estate companies need to become experts and provide solutions for the tenants . They need to give them a “car” that works really well, where they know from experience with other tenants that they’ll want that product. That’s a radical shift in the industry that could allow a lot of the current office space to still be used as office space.

The science of successful space

Lucia Rahilly: What’s the thinking around what should happen at that floor level to make a really hospitable, attractive office space for employees?

Aditya Sanghvi: These office products need to have hospitality. There need to be people on the floors who are well trained in providing delightful food and beverage experiences, helping people find things, and making it more joyful and more convenient for the people who come in.

And then, probably most disruptive, we have to take the office and make it not just art, but bring a science to it. There have been so many designs over time in ways that people run their office space, and no one really has any idea if that’s leading to better outcomes for employees or for employers.

One of the ways that we’re working with clients these days is to actually measure and say, “Here is the productivity, the engagement, of all the employees, and here are their work patterns.” And then you can start to say things like, “The people who join in this type of role and with this type of frequency actually are getting better engagement and better productivity than people who are not.” It’s far better to actually make it a science, and then to continue to get better and better productivity and employee experience from the space over time.

Jonathan Woetzel: Most business cases for developing hospitality and retail spaces in buildings have not accounted for people’s needs. I don’t think anybody in most hospitality industries actually knows where the customer is coming from, for one thing. Nor do they know what is the customer’s relative need for community, sustainability, or what kinds of things boost their productivity.

There’s a need to turn on the lights and understand what influences people. Not on the factory floor but in a communal work environment. When do they need privacy? When do they need sharing? What kinds of information do they exchange? What kinds of information do they not want to exchange? These are things that we are now basically live-testing in buildings. I think that providers and operators that use those data can be much more efficient. That’ll give them a cost advantage, because they will avoid providing the things that nobody cares about.

Lucia Rahilly: Jonathan, you mentioned the challenge of converting some of these buildings. Can you give an example of successful mixed-use development that might be in play?

Jonathan Woetzel: In LA we’ve seen quite a lot of redevelopment in areas that were historically less vibrant. Koreatown comes to mind, and large mixed-use developments like The Grove or even Marina del Rey. Pieces of the city have shown this kind of revitalization.

The challenge is to do it at scale. That’s always a challenge in a place like Los Angeles, which is quite spread out and fragmented. But it is about taking a block-by-block-level view, and then coming up with a model that allows us to efficiently and effectively transfer a whole area, which requires finance but also, more importantly, requires permitting and zoning. This is a moment of renewal where hopefully people see that this is possible and necessary.

An opportunity for renewal

Lucia Rahilly: What about the importance of affordable housing in cities? We’ve talked about neighborhood by neighborhood. Some neighborhoods will remain expensive. There will be neighborhoods on the periphery that may be less expensive. What role does affordable housing play in this discussion?

Aditya Sanghvi: A shortage of affordable housing has long been one of the biggest challenges that many cities have faced. Postpandemic, policy makers can think very differently, because one of the issues they had is that there was often a lack of space that they could think about using for affordable housing. But now there’s space available in many parts of the urban core. Getting the zoning and incentives right would unlock affordable housing and benefit so many across the globe. Jonathan, as one of the world’s foremost thinkers on affordable housing, what would you add to that?

Jonathan Woetzel: This is the crisis of our times. For the vast majority of people in a city, rent is the single biggest piece of their household expenditure. That’s because rent is pretty high.

As Aditya was saying, this is because we’ve had a slowdown in adding to the supply, relative to the demand for this space. This is basic economics 101. So just converting the office to affordable housing is probably not going to make much of a difference, based on the numbers we’ve looked at. But neighborhood reinvention, neighborhood reimagination, and the idea that work can move allows us to think, why isn’t Compton an office center? Why aren’t there employers in Pacoima? What’s holding them back?

That’s the opportunity. Work from home doesn’t create the opportunity by itself. But it does create the moment where you can reconsider the neighborhood. By reconsidering the neighborhood, we can bring a lot more affordability to it, which would be unquestionably a huge source of dynamism for our economies, and, needless to say, for our societies.

Lucia Rahilly: Aditya, Jonathan, thanks so much for joining us today.

Aditya Sanghvi: Thank you.

Jonathan Woetzel: My pleasure.

Roberta Fusaro: Next, from our Author Talks series, demographer Jennifer Sciubba talks about confronting migration and population trends.

Jennifer Sciubba: My book 8 Billion and Counting: How Sex, Death, and Migration Shape Our World is an overview of global demographic trends. A lot of what’s written about population is alarmist in tone, and it really politicizes population issues, which is a real problem because it can prevent us from meaningful reform on important issues. One example of that would be migration to the US. The fear around migration has really infected politics to the point where it’s impossible for Congress to do any reforms to migration that are really needed.

Population trends sound like this really large-scale thing, but at the end of the day, it’s about individual people, just aggregated. What I try to do in the book is take that alarmism out and really give a well-informed social-science view on population trends to hopefully help us move past that.

A lot of people will be surprised to learn how rare migration is these days. The pop quiz that I give when I’m speaking to different audiences is, “What proportion of the world’s population do you think lives outside the country in which they were born?” And answers always overestimate it. Even among expert audiences, they’ll say 50 percent or 20 percent.

But the right answer is just 2 to 4 percent for the past 50 or 60 years. Migrating is rare, and most people stay where they’re born. Recognizing that is really important for several reasons: the message out there that waves of migrants are coming in the future can lead to inaction in the present, because people think, if this is a certainty and there’ll be lots of migrants coming, we don’t have to do a lot.

Here’s an example of that: business leaders who might be hoping to rely on immigrants to fill their workforce in countries where populations are aging and workforces are shrinking might be really surprised and disappointed to see that those waves of migrants aren’t coming. That means that they need to take some action now to shape the workforce that they want in the future. That’s an overestimation of migration, which can be really dangerous.

We know that there are all kinds of forces—climate change would be an example of this—that push people out of rural areas in countries that are not yet highly urbanized. But in the past, urbanization often took place because people were pulled into urban areas because of jobs. Those are two very different things, because when hundreds of thousands or even millions of young men in particular are pushed out of rural areas and into urban areas and they don’t find jobs, a lot of times what that leads to is instability.

One of the coolest things about demography is that any snapshot of a population today tells us a little bit about the future. Trends do change, of course, and I describe a lot of the ways that they change in the book, but they generally follow predictable patterns. Demographics can be really useful for long-term business planning, and also underscore the idea that we have to invest today to shape the future that we want tomorrow.

Roberta Fusaro is an editorial director in the Waltham, Massachusetts, office; and Lucia Rahilly is the global editorial director and deputy publisher of McKinsey Global Publishing and is based in the New York office.

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