Five Hybrid Work Trends to Watch in 2025

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Just a few months ago, many people thought the battles over the value of the hybrid work model — and, on the flip side, return-to-office (RTO) mandates — were finally dying down. Two-thirds of U.S. companies had settled into a flexible work policy, according to Flex Index data on 13,000 companies. Office attendance, measured by building occupancy data, had stabilized at around 50% of pre-pandemic norms for almost two years. Then Amazon CEO Andy Jassy pushed the topic of RTO mandates back into prominence, pressing the company’s workers to get back to their offices five days a week.

Next, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and coleader of a proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the upcoming Trump administration, joined in: He has raised the potential of requiring the entire U.S. federal workforce to work in-office full-time.

It’s doubtful that the issue of what’s “right” when it comes to workplace flexibility will get settled anytime soon. While the latest research shows that RTO mandates often backfire, the hybrid work debates will continue. As we look forward to 2025, leaders can also expect continued evolution and refinement of hybrid work models. Here are the 5 hybrid work trends that you should be watching.

1. Organizations that embrace flexible work will steal talent from organizations that impose harsh return-to-office mandates.
2. Forward-looking organizations will shift toward measuring performance based on results, not attendance.
3. We’ll see the hybrid work conversation shift from days in the office to core hours and focus time
4. Leaders will move away from one-size-fits-all hybrid work policies
5. Flexible organizations will become artificial intelligence innovators

What’s common to each of these trends is the shift away from an overly simplistic focus on where people work to focusing on how teams work. Many leaders are seeing an advantage in redesigning their approach to focus on outcomes, particularly when it comes to driving engagement in talented teams. Those leaders aren’t stuck in workplace nostalgia (as some CEOs are, according to University of Pittsburgh research). Nor are they trying to do a soft layoff to please Wall Street.  In the long run, those leaders who move work forward by building organizations rooted in trust and focused on performance will outperform those wrestling with their own employees.