Author| Zhang Chao Editor| Luo Lijuan
The sudden outbreak of the new crown epidemic has not only accelerated the digital upgrading of traditional enterprises, but also triggered a change in the global office model.
According to data from iiMedia Research, during the resumption of work in the Chinese New Year in 2020, more than 18 million enterprises in China have adopted the online remote work model, with a total of more than 300 million users using remote work applications; it is worth mentioning that more than 50% of the surveyed users said that they were adapting to the remote work model.
Image source: Ai Media Consulting
Telecommuting has become one of the trendy ways of working in the new era. Even today, when the epidemic situation in China is well controlled, it is implemented as an important working model and implemented in an institutional manner.
On February 14, online travel company Ctrip announced that it will implement a mixed office system throughout the company: since March 1, every Wednesday and Friday, the company's business departments and functional departments can implement or gradually implement 1-2 days of mixed office according to actual management needs, that is, 1-2 days a week, and eligible employees can choose their own office location, which can be home, café or resort hotel.
At the same time, Ctrip also issued policies such as employee application and management processes and equipment support, which means that Ctrip became the first company in China to actually implement the mixed office system.
This is not a decision made by Ctrip with a casual pat on the head, but an important change that has been made after more than ten years of internal small-scale experimentation and large-scale trial for nearly half a year.
According to Ctrip, as early as 2010, the company launched a mixed office experiment for customer service personnel, and the results showed that "working from home" improved employee performance by 13%, employees had higher satisfaction, and the turnover rate dropped by 50%.
In the past two years, Liang Jianzhang, founder and chairman of the board of directors of Ctrip, after visiting a number of european and American sister companies and high-tech companies, found that the hybrid office model is conducive to social, corporate and personal development, and tried to learn and promote this model.
In his view, the system not only improves employee satisfaction without affecting work efficiency, but also helps to reduce traffic congestion and environmental protection; alleviate high housing prices and regional differences; and is also conducive to family harmony, women's career development and increased fertility.
In August 2021, Ctrip launched a hybrid office trial of more than 1,600 participants, and the results showed that after nearly half a year of experimentation, employees' willingness to participate rose to nearly 60%, and the turnover rate dropped by about one-third without significant impact on performance. Such an experiment gave Liang Jianzhang and Ctrip's board of directors great confidence, and finally decided to implement a mixed office model company-wide (except for probationary periods and special types of employees).
Ctrip 2021 Hybrid Office Trial Report
However, there are also voices questioning that Ctrip's move is doubtful of reducing office costs. After all, the global tourism industry has been greatly affected by the epidemic, and Ctrip is no exception, with overseas business being blocked and the pace of globalization slowing down.
Liang Jianzhang said frankly that in addition to enhancing the attractiveness of the company's recruitment, the mixed office system does have a certain pulling effect on the tourism industry, which can make the employee schedule more flexible and more conducive to holiday travel; even after the epidemic, the company will firmly implement the mixed office system for a long time.
He also hopes that the hybrid office system will be promoted in more mainstream Chinese enterprises in the future, which will have a positive and far-reaching impact on China's society and economy.
Why does Ctrip implement the "3+2 Hybrid Office System"? How does the system affect employees, businesses and society? On February 15, Liang Jianzhang held a special media briefing to answer these questions.
The following is the main content of the dialogue (compiled by the 24/7 Technology Editor):
The impact of hybrid office on Ctrip
Q: How do you convince the Board of Directors and other colleagues in management to accept the hybrid system?
Liang Jianzhang: At the beginning, there were a lot of concerns, and when we tried to do this half a year ago, everyone held a wait-and-see attitude.
In the past period of time, I have visited many brother companies and high-tech companies in Europe and the United States, and they have been forced to adopt a mixed office model, which has gradually become accustomed to in the past two years; and they feel that the work efficiency has not declined, and employees are unwilling to return to the company, and the employees have very strong requirements for the implementation of the mixed office model, and the company is almost forced to continue this system.
This makes me feel that mixed office is indeed very good, but everyone has been accustomed to this model in the past, so that everyone is afraid to try; once forced to try, such as European and American companies, they do feel that the model is completely superior to the original office model. Of course, they have not yet considered the good social benefits, only from the perspective of the company and employees, which is a good thing.
Because of the good control of the epidemic in China, everyone quickly returned to the company and did not have the opportunity to try mixed office. I felt that Ctrip should at least give it a try, and at my urging, the company did six months of experimentation. We did a very rigorous experiment, the results of the test are very convincing, efficiency, employee satisfaction, turnover rate, employee behavior changes, management concept changes are very positive, which also strengthens our confidence.
After this period of trying, everyone basically reached a consensus - this is a very good thing, and Ctrip should indeed take the lead in trying to set an example for society. We believe that Ctrip is the first, but it will not be the only one, and many companies should be able to try a hybrid office model in the future.
Q: After the implementation of the hybrid office model, is there a difference between performance management and full office system?
Liang Jianzhang: Now it seems that there is no difference in performance appraisal, and there may be differences in future meetings.
Because some meetings may be more efficient remotely, some may be more efficient face-to-face; from an academic point of view, we also have a lot of such studies, which communication is good face-to-face, which communication remote is not bad or even more efficient.
I think the most suitable meeting for face-to-face meetings is probably a one-on-one annual review, we have three days left in the company office, there should be ample opportunities to arrange such meetings. Some small-scale innovation brainstorming or meetings where complex issues require intense discussion may also be better held face-to-face.
But this kind of face-to-face meeting may also be attended by nine of the ten people in the field, and one at home. Now that global companies are common, there may be several employees coming in to meetings from other parts of the world because they may have a special reason or are in isolation.
Not every will be like this, some will be communication, maybe 100% remote, (and will need) 100% on-site, maybe a hybrid (office) model, I think it's a more flexible model.
So I think there will be some adjustments to the overall coordination and conference system, but in general, there will be no big change to the current management model, and the overall efficiency should be improved.
Q: What impact might the hybrid office model have on Ctrip? Will the company reduce office space, control costs, and have corresponding considerations for ensuring data security?
Liang Jianzhang: We invested in information security (management) many years ago and prepared for hybrid office in terms of IT support. This time to do the experiment or comprehensive promotion, there is no problem in this regard.
I think this aspect is very worth investing, the investment is not large, it may require each employee to have a set of equipment, do a good job of information security at home, and the home network to achieve the same protection measures as the intranet. Because the benefits and employee satisfaction are improving, [the investment] is very worthwhile.
Q: In addition to information security, how to deal with the possible decline in management efficiency?
Liang Jianzhang: Of course, I will continue to observe. We now see that management efficiency should not have much impact; some departments will gradually promote, such as the external hotel purchasing manager, who is outside every day, which is a completely different model.
Q: As the hybrid office system continues, what comprehensive results do you think will bring to Ctrip employees and the company as a whole?
Liang Jianzhang: Ctrip will greatly increase its attractiveness to existing employees and potential future employees who want to work for Ctrip.
Because it really helps employees save a lot of time and money, it is very worth it. Of course, I hope that not only Ctrip alone will do this, but also hope that more companies can follow suit and make the hybrid office model the standard; after becoming the standard, although Ctrip's relative attractiveness may be the same as other companies, it is a good thing for society as a whole.
The impact on employees, of course, also involves the impact of society as a whole. Employees may not need to live too downtown, because downtown housing prices are particularly high, he can live a little farther, a little more spacious, and the pressure to buy a house will be reduced. For example, you can live in Shanghai's satellite city, Fengxian and so on. If employees have to go back and forth every day, it may be very hard, but the house price there (satellite city) may only be a small or a half or one-third of the city, and even through the high-speed rail (Ctrip's Shanghai headquarters is very close to the high-speed rail station), it is cheaper to live in the city along the high-speed rail. I think that in the future, employees may also have a reduction in housing pressure and housing pressure, which is very good in the long run.
Q: Although the hybrid office model reduces the commute time of employees, it may be that the distinction between life and work will be weaker, but it will increase the working hours. What do you think of this view?
Liang Jianzhang: Most of Ctrip is a product and R & D personnel, so it is difficult to measure their actual working hours, only from the results, evaluation, I think there is no difference.
From what we know from the call center personnel before, he saves an hour and a half and will put the time saved on the job, but not exactly in the work. We estimate that, for example, to save an hour and a half, you may put 20 minutes or half an hour at work. Of course, if call center personnel put more time into work, there is also an increase in income, because a lot of it is piece pay.
From past and present experience, at least employees volunteer to work more hours; this is not a major one, because most of the time saved is left to his own family or other leisure travel, so the overall satisfaction of employees is improved.
There is also a part of the change, maybe employees in the company will have more social interaction with colleagues, not necessarily talk about work, may chat about home or talk about the world; if at home, these hours will be reduced. These times are not completely useless, and it is also useful to have a good relationship with colleagues, but the overall reduction of this part of the time will also be converted into actual working hours, which is more efficient. So, the hybrid office model may be the most suitable, because he can socialize and build feelings during the three days of the company.
The social benefits of mixed office
Q: You think that the implementation of the mixed office system is more about considering the great social benefits, can you briefly analyze it?
Liang Jianzhang: The epidemic may bring us a lot of trouble, but the change in the work system may be a relatively good legacy left by the epidemic.
Everyone is used to remote work, and remote office facilities are gradually improving, so can we use the trend of remote work to promote the mixed office model? Ctrip certainly wants to be the first to make such an attempt. This is also why we did not simply implement, but spent a lot of energy to do very rigorous experiments. We not only argue for ourselves, but also for employees and management, but the whole society can see that the form of working from home has a good effect on efficiency and employee satisfaction.
This rigorous test model took more than half a year to prepare before it was shown to everyone, hoping to get more attention and promotion from everyone.
In terms of social benefits, everyone may be an employee, (although) not everyone can work from home, but the degree of extensiveness should be quite large, estimated to occupy half of the positions; overseas estimates that half of the positions can achieve a mixed office model, China is at least a small half, for the whole society is a huge increase in satisfaction or save a huge commuting cost.
If the hybrid office model is implemented, half of the time of half the people is at home, which may save 20% of commuting, which can reduce the burden on all aspects of society - employee time is saved, satisfaction is improved, traffic is not so congested, the environment will be better, and emission reductions are also very helpful. I think that increasing efficiency and reducing commuting waste may have a 10%-20% impact on society as a whole, and if you calculate money, it is also a huge saving.
Second, it may help to alleviate the pressure on big cities, especially young people, to buy a house.
Housing prices in big cities are now particularly high, and the headquarters of the best companies and head companies are basically in big cities, and the pressure for young people working in the headquarters of these companies to buy houses is very large. Although they also have a lot of income, it is still very difficult to buy a house compared to the house price.
If they don't need to go to the company every day, they may live in a remote place, such as: satellite city or even along the high-speed rail. These places are relatively inexpensive and they can buy a house there. This is very helpful for alleviating housing prices in central cities and driving real estate and related economies in satellite cities and surrounding cities. In fact, it is to alleviate the pressure on large cities to a wider range and drive the development of a wider area.
Third, in terms of population, China's fertility rate is very low, young people have to take care of both work and family is very tired, if young people can have more flexible arrangements of time, they can accompany their families and children more.
Of course, women are the biggest beneficiaries, they can have more time to flexibly arrange work, balance work and family; male employees can also have more time to do housework, share the burden of accompanying children or housework, which is conducive to family harmony. If everyone had more time with their families and children, it might also help fertility.
Q: What impact will the hybrid system have on the global talent market?
Liang Jianzhang: Some companies not only implement 3+ 2, but may require some employees to do team building for a few days a month or on a regular basis; many companies can even recruit employees from different places, employees do not need to be at headquarters, employees may live in another province or another state or another country in Europe, and they can have team building on a regular basis, which is more obvious in particularly aggressive high-tech companies.
That was fine during that time, because everyone was working from home; now it's basically back to normal, and those companies are asking these employees to go back to headquarters at least a few days a week, which can't be done. Many employees need to work across provinces and even countries, so employees can work anywhere in the world. So these companies simply push the work from home to the extreme, recruit employees around the world, and regularly visit the headquarters.
This is very helpful for second-tier cities, or some countries that do not have too strong high-tech industries but have talents. It turns out that these cities, the best talents in these countries, may have been attracted to the head city, and now the young people in these cities can still live in the original country and work for the head company.
The benefit these companies are that they can take advantage of the world's talent resources. Some companies have tried and benefited, and if it becomes the norm, especially European and American companies have a global recruitment strategy, plus English is the global lingua franca, they can get good talent.
If Chinese companies do the same, they will also have the opportunity to use talent from all over the country in the future. Ctrip now has a lot of employees in the world, because travel is a global business. If Ctrip can also take advantage of global talent, it will also improve its competitiveness.
Q: Which industries do you think are suitable for following up on the hybrid office system? Will this become a mainstream trend in the long run?
Liang Jianzhang: I think almost all the work done in the office can be considered working from home.
Offices and homes are now almost identical means of communication; the only difference may be that face-to-face communication is suitable for a small part of communication, such as heart-to-heart talk, small team heated discussions. This total adds up to far less than half (the workload), and most communication doesn't require face-to-face. So, I think almost all work can be done remotely, by working from home. This part of the work is quite high in large cities, and may not be so high in the service industry or in factories; but more and more robots can replace this aspect of work.
Q: You're both a tourism entrepreneur and a population economist. How will this policy affect both areas of your life?
Liang Jianzhang: It has a certain pulling effect on tourism.
The mixed office model reduces commuting, and if more employees of companies do not live in the central city and live in surrounding cities, it will help for hotels and even the sale of train and plane tickets. If you don't go back one day of the week and stay in the city, it helps the hotel as well.
Some companies may adopt a more aggressive remote work model in the future, requiring employees to spend less time in the company, and may occasionally engage in a team building, and employees will have more travel and team building needs.
Especially in the holiday stage, if the child wants to travel, the staff work does not have to be completed on Friday, and the work on Friday can be completed on any of the three days of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so the long holiday arrangement is more flexible and helpful for tourism.