Company-wide transitions are never easy. Challenges abound. Stumbles: inevitable. And right now, many organizations are navigating large-scale transitions toward a permanent hybrid workplace.

As much as 89% of the workforce, according to one study, desires at least some work-from-home time in their career. Considering the competition in the job market today, it behooves leaders to make work-from-home accommodations whenever possible.

How to go about doing so was the focus of a panel discussion titled, “Managing a Healthy Workplace in a Hybrid Environment,” moderated by Kelly Yamanouchi, business reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, at From Day One’s Atlanta conference. A few key takeaways from the conversation:

‘A Big Cultural Shift’

Prior to the pandemic, about 20% of the workers for insurance giant Aflac operated remotely or on a hybrid basis. Going forward, 55% of the company’s workforce will be entirely remote; the rest will have hybrid schedules, consisting of a mix of on-site hours and work-from-home time.

“It’s a big cultural shift for us as an organization, as it relates to helping leaders to maneuver through [the change],” said Jeri Hawthorne, VP of corporate HR at the company. “When everybody was on site, managing was a certain way. When everybody was off site, it was consistent. And now it’s a mixed workforce, so how we support and help them in engaging and managing their employees? And giving them equal access to development opportunities? T hose are some of the biggest challenges that our team faces in helping and supporting our leaders.”

One area in which this challenge is manifesting is day care. A benefit of going remote is that a company like Aflac can now hire workers from anywhere when, historically, most of its workforce lived in the Columbus, Ga., area, and reported to its headquarters. Under those circumstances, Aflac employees enjoyed company benefits include on-site day care. How the company provides day care to remote workers, which will have a potential butterfly effect in giving more employees opportunity to step up on the corporate ladder, is something Hawthorne said Aflac is examining.

“We’re looking at how do we better level the playing field for those types of perks and benefits so that all of our employees have access to things that are in demand that are competitive, and that are important to them in this hybrid environment,” she said.

Building-Out and Leveraging Employee Resource Groups

Another way organizations can ensure that all their workers enjoy equal equity and opportunity in terms of their well-being is through the building of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), which are worker-led teams whose mission is to foster a diverse workplace that’s aligned with their company’s values and goals.

Cierra Boyd, global diversity-and-inclusion communications leader at Cummins, the manufacturer of engines and generators, said her company’s ERGs have been a valuable resource in its new, hybrid environment. “With our Cummins Black Network that represents our Black employees globally, we have been able to [launch] so many platforms and programs [and] I’ve heard verbatim from our employees saying it re-energized them,” said Boyd. “It really helped make them feel connected and have the camaraderie and collaboration that you sometimes miss when you’re not in-person.”

Bria Griffith, director of inclusion and diversity at Honeywell, said at her company ERGs are referred to as “employee networks” and have proven a valuable resource, particularly in helping leaders understand and carry out allyship initiatives. Honeywell’s employee networks also informed the construction of what Griffith called a new “concierge benefits service,” focusing on mental health and wellness as the pandemic lingers on, mindful of the different ways that different communities struggle with the fallout.

Across those employee networks Honeywell conducts polls to find out how different pockets of employees are responding and what sources they need. The concierge benefits service can then be better equipped to respond, ensuring that workers who need it, for example, are receiving psychotherapy treatment.

“Equity is making sure that the imbalances and the systems and structures get removed,” Griffith said. “Inclusion is making sure [that] not only do people feel like they belong, but you’re creating the environments in which they do their best work.”

Educating Employees About Benefits Packages

Generating a concierge benefits service, for example, is only as great an idea as it is utilized, however. Greater equity and a more robust sense of inclusion can only be cultivated through employee awareness and engagement with such programs, and just the presence of those programs alone can have outsized positive impact on a workforce.

Employees in such circumstances “feel more supported; they’re able to turn more of their attention to work because they’re getting supported,” said Davida Rivens, VP of product management and sales at E4E Relief, which provides charitable grants to employees in financial need because of natural disasters or other emergencies. When workers experience that type of support, they worry less about short-term financial crises, Rivens said.

“It makes you feel like, ‘Oh, this company cares,’” Rivens said, referring to workers. “And when [leaders] start to show that you care, [employees] want to give more to you. They don’t mind spending an extra 30 minutes, they don’t mind responding to that email at whatever time it might come through because they know that you’ve given them that flexibility.”

“The caregiving issue is huge,” said Wendy Whittington, chief care officer at the caregiving-support platform Cariloop, “and it’s also a diversity, equity and inclusion issue because communities of color have suffered more with the mental health issues, but caregiving itself is a huge burden.”

Whittington noted that caregivers have much higher rates of mental health concerns than people who don’t carry those burdens. She added that 53 million Americans are caregivers for older adults or children with special needs, and 73% of the workforce prior to the pandemic identified as caregivers.

“So it’s just really great to hear others talking about it. It’s a big one,” Whittington said of the caregiving issue. “And it’s not that difficult to support them.”

Michael Stahl is a New York City-based freelance journalist, writer, and editor. You can read more of his work at MichaelStahlWrites.com, follow him on Twitter @MichaelRStahl, and order his first book, the autobiography of Major League Baseball pitcher Bartolo Colón, at Abrams Books.