Handling hybrid: what design steps can heal a fractured culture?
The new year is seeing some familiar plotlines about return to office and the tension between technology and community. Insights from a new Stantec report shine a light on key challenges
Will large companies continue to struggle to adapt their offices to the demands of hybrid working in 2026? On the evidence of the annual blitz of new reports, articles and forecasts for the year ahead, you can bet they will. Nobody is suggesting that transforming the workplace will be a smooth ride. The only real discussion is how badly the bumps in the road will disrupt the journey.
January 2026 is already seeing some familiar plotlines. Big tech players are doubling down on office mandates. TikTok, for instance, has ordered US employees in its advertising sales, marketing and product divisions to return to the office five days a week starting September 2026.
Amazon meanwhile has introduced a new ‘manager dashboard’ that tracks how much time employees spend in the office in a bid to crack down on those who flout the strict full-time office mandate, according to Business Insider.
Struggle over strategy
The forever war about where we work – and its resulting impact on company coordination and culture – still occupies the airwaves. But should we really be so surprised? As technology pulls organisations in one direction towards more flexible and remote work, and HR departments look the other way to bring people back to the office to build community and collaboration, it is little wonder that business leaders are finding a design strategy for hybrid work so hard to get right.
The current situation is summed up clearly in a new report, The State of Workplace, compiled by Stantec, a global engineering, architecture and environmental consulting firm. Stantec’s ‘Now and Next’ survey suggests that ‘technology has made hybrid work a strategic priority – but it’s also quietly fracturing culture.’
‘Technology has made hybrid work a priority – but it’s also quietly fracturing culture’
The survey highlights that employees today are more engaged in their work than they are in workplace culture – and this disconnect damages belonging. Whatever happened to those Monday morning watercooler moments? laments the report.
As an antidote to a fractured culture, the Stantec report advises that improved performance can be achieved by unlocking cognitive diversity through the building of neuro-inclusive systems and spaces – and by aligning sustainability goals in the workplace more closely with employee expectations.
It also indicates that there is an accelerating shift from ‘me’ space to ‘we’ space for collaboration and connection that company leaders should get behind – especially so given the expectations of Generation Alpha who will enter the workplace over the next decade.
Unlocking potential
Stantec’s report concludes with a checklist of quick wins, strategic enhancements and transformational investments that can build a better workplace by design. Its insights strike a chord with many of the trends described in WORKTECH Academy’s report, The World of Work in 2026: this highlights how biophilic design can unlock the human potential of a neurodiverse workforce, and how the next generation of ‘we spaces’ will include AI studios – collaborative learning spaces in which teams can engage with AI.
We won’t stop debating about where we work this year – and what design strategy will work best for the future. But there’s plenty of advice out there for companies to adapt their workplaces for the demands of hybrid work without resorting to the blunt instrument of the draconian office mandate.
Access Stantec’s report, The State of Workplace: Now and Next, here.
Access WORKTECH Academy’s report, The World of Work in 2026, here.
