HBR's 10 Must Reads on Talent (with bonus article "Building a Game-Changing Talent Strategy" by Douglas A. Ready, Linda A. Hill, and Robert J. Thomas)

How to Do Hybrid Right

by Lynda Gratton

BY LATE FEBRUARY 2020, as the implications of Covid-19 were becoming clear, Hiroki Hiramatsu, the head of global HR at Fujitsu, realized that the company was in for a shock.

For years, flexible work arrangements had been on the agenda at Fujitsu, but little had actually changed. Most managers in the Japan offices still prized face-to-face interaction and long office hours—and according to an internal survey conducted not long before, more than 74% of all employees considered the office to be the best place to work. But the pandemic, Hiramatsu foresaw, was about to turn everything upside down.

By the middle of March, the majority of Fujitsu’s Japan-based employees—some 80,000—were working from home. And ...