Presence-Based Hybrid Work Model
Separate focused home work from deliberate in-office collaboration
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 96%
This model assigns a distinct operating purpose to each workplace rather than treating home and office as interchangeable locations. Home remains the default environment for concentrated individual productivity, while the physical office is reserved for collaboration, team meetings, and relationship building. Employees retain flexibility over most attendance days, but department leaders establish at least one coordinated day when the full team is present. This prevents fragmented meetings in which some people sit around a table while others struggle to participate remotely. The output is a hybrid schedule tied to work requirements rather than managerial visibility. Its effectiveness depends on intentional meeting design, team-level coordination, and regular checks that commuting produces collaborative value unavailable at home.
Origin
Lisa Jones developed this approach while Amundi US moved from emergency remote work toward a three-day hybrid schedule after the pandemic lockdowns.
Core principles
- 01Match each workplace to the work it supports best
- 02Use remote time for individual productivity
- 03Use office time for collaboration and relationship building
- 04Coordinate attendance at the team level
- 05Avoid meetings that disadvantage remote participants
How to run it
- 1
Define Each Location's Purpose
Designate home as a place for focused productivity and the office as a place for collaboration. Communicate this distinction before setting attendance rules.
Pro tip Describe the kinds of tasks suited to each setting, not merely the number of required days.
Watch out Without a clear purpose, office attendance can become performative rather than productive.
- 2
Preserve Individual Flexibility
Set a reasonable attendance expectation while allowing employees to choose most of their office days. This preserves autonomy and accommodates different working patterns.
Pro tip Give teams latitude unless coordination needs require a particular day.
Watch out Total individual choice can leave colleagues commuting on different days and missing one another.
- 3
Coordinate a Shared Team Day
Ask each department head to select a day when the whole team attends. Place team meetings and collaborative sessions on that day.
Pro tip Cluster workshops, reviews, mentoring, and informal connection into the shared day.
Watch out Do not designate a shared day and then fill it with individual video calls.
- 4
Design Meetings for Equal Participation
Prefer meetings where everyone is either remote or together in person. When mixed attendance is unavoidable, explicitly protect remote participants from becoming secondary.
Pro tip Use one-person-one-screen when a mixed meeting would otherwise privilege the conference room.
Watch out A table of in-person attendees creates a different dynamic from isolated remote participants.
- 5
Inspect the Value of Attendance
Review whether office days are producing collaboration that employees could not achieve from home. Adjust schedules, meeting formats, or shared days based on the evidence.
Pro tip Ask employees which in-person activities materially improved their work.
Watch out Do not measure success solely through office occupancy.
In the wild
An investment team lets employees choose two of their three office days but designates Tuesday as the shared day. Portfolio reviews, mentoring sessions, and cross-functional decisions occur Tuesday, while research and analysis are protected for remote days.
→ Employees retain flexibility while gaining a predictable period for high-value collaboration.
Common mistakes
Commuting to Join Zoom
Requiring attendance without coordinating colleagues causes employees to travel to the office only to perform work they could do more effectively at home.
Unequal Mixed Meetings
Allowing a dominant in-room group to interact differently from remote attendees reduces participation and meeting quality.
Scheduling by Visibility
Using presence as a proxy for productivity ignores the strong focused-work performance employees can achieve remotely.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for knowledge-work organizations that need both concentrated individual work and recurring team collaboration.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for frontline roles that require continuous physical presence or access to location-specific equipment.
From the transcript
“the home office remains as a place of productivity, then the physical office at sixty State Street remains the place for collaboration.”
“we're asking people to come back three days a week, any three days that you want, but we're asking the department heads to make sure…”
“the zoom calls work when everyone is remote, it gets more challenging when some are remote and some are sitting around a table.”
From the episode
Lisa Jones on Investing With a Purpose (Podcast)
Lisa Jones