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: Continue reading →