After 14 months of remote work for many, organizations are making plans to bring people back to the office. Most healthcare CIOs that I spoke with in the past year plan to have their staff either remain fully remote or back in the office part-time for a “hybrid model”. Only one CIO that I spoke to had his full IT team onsite throughout the pandemic. They were considered critical support staff and available to augment staff in other departments if needed.

With this transition there are many articles covering all sides of the topic and the challenges facing organizations and employees. Two recent articles from Harvard Business Review are worth checking out.  The first one, “What Mix of WFH and Office Time is Right For You?”, is aimed at individuals assessing their own workstyle when it comes to work location. If the employee has a choice, the article suggests they do a self-assessment and then discuss with their boss what would work best for them. The second one, “How To Do Hybrid Right”, is aimed at organizations trying to determine the right hybrid model in terms of employee types and workspace design.

A recent opinion piece in the Boston Globe by Jon Levy, “The Hybrid Workplace Probably Won’t Last”, talks about the pendulum swinging back to onsite work. Jamie Nelson, CIO at Hospital for Special Surgery, made similar projections in her recent podcast with Bill Russell on This Week in Health IT and talked about being onsite herself through the pandemic and the importance of leaders in healthcare organizations being present.

Bill and I covered the topic extensively on This Week in Health IT Newsday show earlier this week. A few of my thoughts on the topic:

• There needs to be a balance between the organization’s needs and individual employee choice or preference. Organizations that allow full remote work or a hybrid model will have a competitive advantage in recruiting talent.
• The pendulum swung overnight to everyone who could working from home. While we proved it could work and there were many advantages to individuals, the collaboration and employee development that happens in person cannot be duplicated with everyone remote. I expect the pendulum will slowly swing back over time to more onsite and less remote work for many organizations.
• Healthcare is unique. As I always tell my IT teams, we are part of the extended care team. While we don’t touch patients directly, we provide the solutions and systems that those who do depend on. Yes, much of IT’s work can be done remotely. But knowing when and how certain work requires in-person connection with clinicians needs to be figured out and planned for.

I have worked from my home office since late 2016 when we formed StarBridge Advisors, a virtual health IT advisory firm, unless I was onsite at a client organization. I have served as interim CIO at Boston Children’s Hospital for the past two months. I will be virtual through June given the July 1 target te for a phased return to the office.

Onboarding and getting to know my IT team, other leaders, the organization, and the culture has definitely been harder remotely. I look forward to my upcoming first day onsite to get a tour, meet my boss in person as well as some of the other executives, and some of my leadership team who as clinicians are onsite at times. As an IT leadership team, we agreed to classify ourselves as “hybrid” – neither fulltime remote nor fulltime onsite. But what that means in terms of rotating onsite days or scheduling in-person time together is still to be determined.

As part of the overall “Culture Roadmap” at Boston Children’s, we have many employee focused initiatives. Organizations like Boston Children’s that are thoughtful in their plans and supportive of their workforce during this transition time will be most successful in retaining and attracting talent.

Chapter 1 of remote work was a range of individual arrangements and formal or informal company policies for many years pre-pandemic. Chapter 2 started in mid-March 2020 when overnight everyone who could work from home was sent home.  Now, organizations everywhere are writing Chapter 3. The book is not finished by any means.

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