Hybrid work is now the most common arrangement among full-time, remote-capable U.S. employees. Gallup’s research shows that management quality and team coordination play an important role in hybrid work productivity. This page examines the current hybrid workforce, what Gallup’s data show about productivity, and the practices that support business performance.
Where the U.S. Hybrid Workforce Stands Today
Among remote-capable U.S. employees — roughly half of the total workforce — hybrid work is the most common arrangement. As of 2026, 52% of remote-capable workers are hybrid, 26% are exclusively remote, and 22% are fully on-site. These figures have held relatively stable since mid-2022.
Two notable exceptions to the broader U.S. hybrid pattern are the federal government and the technology sector. In 2025, federal hybrid work fell from 61% to 28% after the Trump administration ended remote work for most federal employees. In the technology sector, 47% of remote-capable employees are exclusively remote, 45% are hybrid, and just 9% work fully on-site.
How Much Time Hybrid Workers Spend On-Site
Hybrid workers currently spend 46% of their workweek on-site, or the equivalent of about 2.3 days. That figure is up from 42% in 2022, but most of the increase occurred throughout 2023. There has been little movement since, despite pressure from some employers to increase office attendance.
Who Determines the Hybrid Schedule
Hybrid schedules are now divided roughly equally across three models: 34% of hybrid workers say their schedule is entirely self-determined, 35% say it is decided by their manager or team, and 31% say it is set by their employer or leadership. The decline in fully self-determined schedules — down from 37% in 2024 — suggests employers are asserting more influence over hybrid arrangements, though the shift has been small.
What Gallup's Research Shows About Hybrid Work Productivity
KEY INSIGHT: Hybrid work can support strong employee productivity when teams are managed well. Gallup’s research on hybrid and remote teams points to management effectiveness, clear expectations and team coordination as important factors in strong team performance.
Hybrid employees often report higher workplace engagement than fully on-site workers. The flexibility to do focused, independent work at home while collaborating intentionally on-site supports both workplace productivity and connection.
What Hybrid Workers Say About Their Own Productivity
In Gallup’s 2022 study of 8,090 remote-capable employees, hybrid workers identified higher productivity as one of hybrid work’s greatest advantages. The most commonly cited advantages were:
- improved work-life balance
- more efficient use of time
- freedom to choose work hours and location
- less burnout or fatigue
- higher productivity
Hybrid workers also identified several challenges:
- less access to work resources and equipment
- feeling less connected to organizational culture
- decreased team collaboration
- disrupted processes
These findings point to a practical focus for leaders: Preserve the flexibility employees value while strengthening access to tools, team coordination and connection.
When Hybrid Teams Are Managed Well
In 2024, Gallup reported that having an effective manager leads to four times higher engagement and wellbeing, regardless of how often employees work remotely.
In addition, teams with a formal hybrid collaboration plan are 66% more likely to be engaged and 29% less likely to experience burnout than teams without one. Exceptionally led hybrid teams show higher team engagement, more intentional interactions, and better integration of work and personal life.
Yet in the same 2024 study, only 21% of hybrid workers had received training on how to work effectively in a hybrid environment, and just 28% of hybrid managers had been trained to lead a hybrid team. These findings suggest substantial room for organizations to improve how they manage hybrid work.
Where Hybrid Work Creates Productivity Risk
KEY INSIGHT: Fully self-determined hybrid schedules are associated with greater employee challenges.
Hybrid work creates specific, identifiable productivity risks when teams lack shared norms, managers don't address trust gaps, and role clarity erodes. Gallup has identified the conditions in which hybrid arrangements undermine employee performance.
Autonomy Without Structure Increases Burnout
Compared with employees who have team-determined hybrid schedules, those with fully self-determined schedules are 76% more likely to name burnout or fatigue as their greatest challenge, 57% more likely to cite reduced work-life balance, and 52% more likely to point to meeting customer needs.
The data point to a perhaps counterintuitive finding: Maximum flexibility without team-level accountability creates psychological strain. Hybrid models work best when teams, rather than individuals, set the rules.
Trust Remains a Challenge in Hybrid Work
In 2025, 54% of managers who supervise remote workers strongly agreed that they trust their teams to be productive while working remotely, and 57% of employees said they feel trusted by their manager to be productive when they are working remotely.
Employees are more likely to feel trusted when they experience four simple practices:
- timely and consistent communication across work locations
- a strong sense of team community
- clear accountability for meeting performance expectations while working remotely
- equal opportunities for feedback and development, whether remote or on-site
Gallup found that these four practices can increase employee trust by nearly 30 percentage points.
Clarity of Expectations Has Declined Faster for Hybrid and Remote Employees
A 2024 Gallup and Workhuman study of 4,439 U.S. employees found that over the previous five years, clarity of expectations had declined across the U.S. workforce, with hybrid and remote employees experiencing that decline at twice the rate. Ambiguity at work generates stress and hinders productivity.
The same 2024 study revealed that employees who strongly agree that they know what is expected of them at work are 47% less likely to experience frequent burnout and 23% less likely to struggle with work-life balance a few times a week or more.
Many hybrid teams also lack a shared plan for collaboration. In 2024, 48% of hybrid workers said their team had not discussed a formal or informal plan for collaborating effectively in a hybrid environment. These plans help teammates understand what is expected of them and what they can expect from one another.
Gallup identifies several ways managers can strengthen clarity:
- explicitly communicate expectations
- collaborate with employees to prioritize projects and tasks
- remain available and approachable to answer questions
- work with employees to reprioritize as demands change
Weekly Meaningful Feedback Is Critical Across Work Locations
In 2025, Gallup reported that nearly eight in 10 employees who strongly agree that they have received meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged at work, regardless of how many days they worked in the office. Employees who receive weekly, meaningful feedback are four times more likely to be engaged than those who do not.
Yet only 21% of employees strongly agree that they have received meaningful feedback from their manager in the past week.
Gallup researchers found that meaningful conversations can be as short as 15 to 30 minutes when held weekly. They tend to include discussion of:
- current goals and priorities
- collaboration and relationships
- recognition or appreciation for recent work
- employee strengths and what they do well
What "Intentional Hybrid" Looks Like in Practice
Intentional hybrid work requires deliberate coordination across locations. Gallup’s research points to several practical ways teams can achieve this, including establishing shared ways of working, making purposeful use of on-site time and maintaining consistent manager communication.
Start With a Team Charter
A hybrid team charter should include the team’s agreed-upon mission, goals, strengths and ways of working.
Gallup recommends beginning the process with a team reset, a series of check-in meetings in which team members review their mission, goals, strengths and commitments to working in a hybrid environment. These commitments are often formally captured in a team charter and routinely revisited during ongoing team check-in meetings.
Among hybrid workers whose team has a plan for improving hybrid collaboration, the most commonly cited best practices in 2024 included:
- regularly scheduled team check-in meetings (67%)
- guidelines for when to be available, in person or online, during working hours (62%)
- guidelines for communicating periods of unavailability (50%)
Make On-Site Time Purposeful
Gallup identifies four reasons that justify the commute and that should drive decisions about when employees come in:
- Connection — time with colleagues that builds trust and relationships
- Collaboration — complex team tasks, brainstorming and decision-making
- Creativity — spontaneous interaction and idea sharing that remote work limits
- Culture — mentoring, coaching, and reinforcing shared values and purpose
Leaders who design in-office time around these four elements build a workplace value proposition that draws employees in, rather than mandates attendance.
Keep Manager Conversations Consistent
Employees who spend more time working remotely are less likely to report receiving weekly feedback from their manager, according to a 2021 Gallup Panel™ study of full-time U.S. employees. As flexibility increases, managers should communicate regularly about work priorities, progress and handoffs between team members.
Gallup also finds that hybrid team engagement can far exceed on-site engagement when managers proactively check in with employees multiple times per week.
Frequently Asked Questions About Hybrid Work and Productivity
Does hybrid work improve or hurt productivity?
Hybrid work can support strong team productivity. In Gallup’s 2022 study of 8,090 remote-capable employees, hybrid workers identified higher productivity as one of the greatest advantages of hybrid work. Gallup’s 2024 analysis also points to effective management, training and team coordination as important to making hybrid work productive and engaging.
What does Gallup's research say about hybrid work?
Hybrid work remains the most common arrangement among full-time, remote-capable U.S. employees, and work location patterns have remained relatively stable since 2022. Gallup identifies team coordination and trust as the defining management challenges that will shape the future of hybrid work.
How do managers maintain accountability in hybrid teams?
Managers can maintain accountability in hybrid teams by setting guidelines and expectations together as a team. In addition, hybrid managers should have frequent, meaningful check-ins with employees to discuss priorities, roadblocks, questions and wellbeing. Employees are more likely to feel trusted when they strongly agree that their manager holds them accountable for meeting performance expectations while working remotely.
What is the right number of days in the office?
There is no single right number of office days for every hybrid team. In 2025, hybrid workers spent 46% of their workweek on-site, or about 2.3 days, while earlier Gallup data found that employees preferred two to three days in the office, on average. The right mix varies by organization, team and the type of work being done.
How should leaders approach return-to-office policies?
Leaders should balance organizational needs with employee and team input when setting return-to-office policies. In 2025, employees were more likely to view hybrid policies as fair when they or their team had a role in determining the schedule. Gallup also recommends assessing business needs, employee work experiences, and the risks of different remote and hybrid arrangements before setting policies.
What are the biggest challenges of hybrid work?
Hybrid workers most often report challenges involving access to tools and resources, connection to organizational culture, collaboration and relationships, and work processes. Gallup identified these among the leading challenges of hybrid work in its 2022 study of 8,090 remote-capable employees.
How do you build culture in a hybrid team?
Hybrid teams can strengthen culture by using on-site time for activities that benefit from being together. Gallup’s 2024 analysis found that hybrid teams with a collaboration plan are 66% more likely to be engaged and 29% less likely to experience burnout. The same analysis points to collaboration, feedback, team building and regular check-ins as important practices for effective hybrid teamwork.
Make Hybrid Work for Your Organization
Hybrid success depends less on where employees work and more on how they are managed. Gallup works with leaders to build the management practices, team norms and engagement strategies that turn hybrid work into a competitive advantage for productivity, retention and talent.
Contact us to learn how we can help.