CMOs and CCOs Say Hybrid Work Mostly Works for Their Teams

Some companies have recently introduced stricter office presence policies, which has triggered a call for data on how hybrid and remote work affect performance. In response to the interest voiced by Members of the Marketing & Communications Center, we surveyed CMOs and CCOs on how hybrid work is going for their teams.

Trusted Insights for What’s Ahead^®

• Overall, the experience with hybrid work has been mostly positive in marketing and communications; the question is about the right mix of remote versus in-person work. CMOs and their teams are already spending more time at the office than their communications peers, and almost a quarter plan to spend even more. This might be driven by marketing teams’ type of work. Overall, 18% of marketing and communications teams plan tweaks to their current in-office policies—all to increase in-person presence.
• In a hybrid work world, CMOs and CCOs are most satisfied with communication, productivity, and collaboration, and least satisfied with innovation and learning & development. CCOs also highlight that the hybrid model performs well regarding team culture. The weaker areas of hybrid work, namely innovation and learning, challenge team leaders to figure out how to enhance these areas using distributed teams if more in-person work isn’t an option. Addressing this challenge is important for leadership development and teamwork, as well as for helping employees to advance their career.
• CMOs and CCOs tend to see the best results from their teams with in-office mandates of three to four days per week and with at-will hybrid work (i.e., full autonomy regarding office presence). In-office mandates of one to two days per week yield the weakest performance, especially regarding innovation, learning & development, and productivity. CMOs/CCOs may have to figure out how to enhance performance with once or twice weekly time at the office—by improving work with the current policy or increasing in-office work, which almost 40% with this work model plan to do.