Employees experience that their company feels more innovative when they are in the office, but most are most satisfied when they can work wherever they want.

A new study states that it is a good idea to bring employees into the office after the corona lockdown, but hybrid work is still crucial.

Fortunately, it has been a long time since society in Denmark shut down due to corona, but the discussion about whether it is a good idea for employees to work more at home or primarily to be in the office is still rife in many places.

A new study from VMware finds that employees feel that the company is more innovative when employees are in the office. And this is paradoxical.

Employees feel most satisfied with hybrid work

The study “The Distributed Work Dilemma: When Innovation and Job Satisfaction Compete” shows that they are ideally most satisfied if they can work wherever they want.

Almost three quarters (72 percent) of respondents in the Nordics believe that their organization is more innovative if employees work from the office.

Conversely, 79 percent of respondents in the Nordic region state that they experience the greatest satisfaction when they have the opportunity to work wherever they want.

What’s more, more than half of EMEA respondents (56 percent) working in a hybrid workplace feel their morale is boosted, their creativity is increased (52 percent), and collaboration (53 percent) in their teams has improved compared to before the pandemic.

Companies need the right tools

Almost all organizations with hybrid workplaces in EMEA (97 percent) have methods and tools to measure the power of innovation and its impact on both the company and employees. In comparison, this is only the case for 82 percent of organizations with permanent workplaces.

“Research shows that a hybrid workplace creates happier and more engaged teams in companies, which can lead to a natural increase in innovation and improved efficiency. Employees generally find they can perform better when offered to work in a hybrid workplace with tools customized for it,” explains Shankar Iyer, senior vice president and general manager, End-User Computing at VMware.

About the study

The investigation was conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of VMware. It includes global data from 5,300 HR, IT and business decision makers, as well as from employees in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK, among others, between July and August 2022.