How to measure the success of your hybrid work model for accounting leaders
By Dr. Gleb Tsipursky
June 19, 2023
With 74% of US companies
transitioning to a permanent hybrid work model, accounting firms are part of a broader trend, as shown by the 2022 Anytime, Anywhere Work (ATAWW)
survey by ConvergenceCoaching. The survey explored the uptake of adaptable work customs in 216 American accounting firms, revealing a surge in acceptance and a broadening of opportunities for remote and flexible working arrangements.
Out of the 216 accounting firms that participated in the 2022 ATAWW Survey, a staggering 97% gave their staff at least some latitude to decide their work location, while 94% championed flexibility in defining their working hours. The survey also underscores the growing trend of firms adopting outsourcing, offshoring, and part-time staffing solutions, emphasizing the critical need to master the art of working in sync across multiple time zones. Interestingly, the report shows that surveyed firms are harnessing the power of gig economy workers (30%), domestic outsourcing squads (30%) and overseas offshoring agencies (35%).
At this stage, accounting firm leaders are turning their attention to measuring the success of their hybrid work model. That’s because while there’s one traditional office-centric model of working from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, there are
many ways to do hybrid work. Moreover, what works well for one company’s culture and working style may not work well elsewhere — even within the same industry.
So, how should a leader evaluate whether the model they adopted is optimal for their company’s needs or whether it needs refinement?
The first step involves establishing clear success metrics. Unfortunately, relatively few companies measure important aspects of the hybrid work transition. For example, a
new report from Omdia reveals that 54% of organizations saw improved productivity from adopting a more hybrid working style, but only 22% of organizations established metrics to quantify productivity improvements from hybrid work.
A hybrid work model is a strategic decision
In transitioning to hybrid work, it’s important for the whole C-suite to be actively involved in formulating the metrics, and for the board to approve them. Too often, busy executives feel the natural inclination to throw the decision in HR’s lap, which is a mistake. A transition to a permanent hybrid work model is a strategic decision about the company’s long-term future. It requires an accordant degree of attention and care at the highest levels of an organization. Otherwise, the C-suite will not be coordinated, will fail to get on the same page about what counts as “success” in hybrid work and will likely find themselves in a mess six months after their hybrid work transition.
It’s best practice for the C-suite to determine the metrics at an offsite to distance themselves from the day-to-day bustle and make long-term strategic choices. Prior to the offsite, it’s valuable to evaluate initial metrics, including getting a baseline of quantitative and objective measures, as well as doing a thorough survey and some focus group interviews with employees and mid-level managers to assess subjective and qualitative ones. While there’s plenty of
external data on hybrid work preferences, each company has a unique culture, systems and processes, and talent.
Which success metrics matter for your hybrid work model?
Companies focus on a variety of success metrics. Each metric should be measured to develop a baseline before establishing a permanent hybrid work policy. The metrics then need to be evaluated every quarter, to evaluate the impact of refinements on the hybrid work policy.
Retention provides a hard success metric that is both quantitative and objective. A related metric, recruitment, is a softer metric — it’s harder to measure and more qualitative in nature. External benchmarks indicate offering more remote work facilitates both retention and recruitment. A
survey of 1,000 HR leaders finds that 95% of respondents believe offering hybrid work to be important for recruitment, and 60% perceive hybrid work to boost retention. And in a
report by Owl Labs that surveyed 2,300 full-time U.S. workers, 52% indicated they would be willing to take a pay cut of 5% or more to be able to choose where they could work.
Another key metric, performance, may be harder or easier to measure depending on the nature of the work. For instance, a
study published in the National Bureau of Economic Research reported on a randomized control trial comparing the performance of software engineers assigned to a hybrid schedule vs. an office-centric schedule. Engineers who worked in a hybrid model wrote 8% more code over a six-month period. Writing code is a standardized and objective measure of productivity, providing strong evidence of higher productivity with at least some remote work. If there is no option to have such clear performance measurement, use
regular weekly assessments of performance from supervisors. But avoid software tracking programs, because the Owl Labs
report finds that it causes 45% of employees to feel stress.
Collaboration and innovation are also critical metrics for effective team performance but measuring them isn’t easy. Evaluating them requires relying on more qualitative assessments from team leaders and team members. Moreover, by training teams in effective hybrid
innovation and
collaboration techniques, you can improve these metrics.
Several hard-to-measure metrics are important for an organization’s culture and talent management: morale, engagement, well-being, happiness, burnout, intent to leave, and quiet quitting. For instance, the Owl Labs report
indicates that 46% of employees would quiet quit if forced back to the office full-time, meaning they would do the bare minimum needed to avoid getting fired. Getting at these metrics requires the use of more qualitative and subjective approaches, such as customized surveys
specifically adapted to hybrid and remote work policies. As part the survey, it’s helpful to ask respondents to opt into participating in focus groups around these issues. Then, in the focus groups, you can dig deeper into the survey questions and get at people’s underlying feelings and motivations.
One way to get at wellbeing and burnout involves a hard metric: employees taking sick days. By measuring how that metric changes over time — seasonally adjusted — you can evaluate the impact of your policies on employee mental and physical health.
Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) represents an often overlooked but critically important metric impacted by hybrid work. We know that underrepresented groups
strongly prefer more remote work. Thus, my clients who chose to have a mostly office-centric schedule had to invest substantial resources into boosting their DEI to compensate for the inevitable loss of underrepresented talent.
Measuring DEI is quite easy and objective: look at the retention of underrepresented rank-and-file staff and leaders as the hybrid work strategy gets implemented. Also, make sure that your surveys allow staff to self-identify relevant demographic categories so that you can measure DEI as it relates to engagement, morale, and so on.
Last, but far from least, is to also consider professional and leadership development, as well as onboarding and integration of junior team members. A Conference Board survey
finds 58% of employees would leave without adequate professional development, and that applies even more so to underrepresented groups. Leadership and professional development is therefore critical to the long-term continuity of any company. Yet most companies struggle with figuring out how to do this well in a hybrid setting.
Measuring professional development over time is best done through more subjective tools, such as surveys and focus groups. You can also assess how much staff improve in the areas where they received professional development and compare in-person vs. remote modalities of delivering learning. Evaluating leadership development is easier and more quantitative and objective. Assess how well your newly promoted leaders succeed based on performance evaluations and 360-degree reviews.
Next steps for developing a hybrid work model
Once you have the baseline data from these diverse metrics, at the offsite the C-suite needs to determine which metrics matter most to your organization. Choose the top three to five metrics and weigh their importance relative to each other. Using these metrics, the C-suite can then decide on a course of action on hybrid work that would be best for their desired outcomes. Next, determine a plan of action to implement this new policy, including using appropriate metrics to measure success. As you implement the policy, revisions can be made if you find the metrics aren’t as good as you’d like, then take note of how that revision impacts metrics. Likewise, consider running experiments to compare alternative versions of the hybrid policy. For instance, you can have one day a week in the office in one location and two days in another and assess how each impacts your metrics. Reassess and revise your approach once a month for the first three months, and then once a quarter going forward. By adopting this approach, my clients found they can most effectively reach the metrics they set out for their permanent hybrid model.
Dr. Gleb Tsipursky helps leaders use hybrid work to improve retention and productivity while cutting costs. He serves as the CEO of the boutique future-of-work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts. His expertise comes from more than 20 years of consulting, coaching, speaking, and teaching for Fortune 500 companies from Aflac to Xerox. He also has experience with more than 15 years in academia as a behavioral scientist at UNC-Chapel Hill and Ohio State. A proud Ukrainian American, Dr. Gleb lives in Columbus, Ohio.
