2023-2027 | BELSPO
Research description
Hybrid work—that is the combination of multiple workspaces, including home-based teleworking (Halford, 2005)—is expected to increase in Belgium over the coming years. This trend has been accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent ‘future of work’ that is now being designed by employees and employers, in a context where hybrid work is considered as a vehicle for the social and environmental transition. Supporting the development of hybrid work calls for new policies and regulations at different levels that are still largely missing since the mid- and long-term effects of structural hybrid work have not yet been comprehensively analyzed. Indeed, results of existing specialized studies are contradictory and fragmented—i.e. focusing on one single aspect with no global view—and somehow outdated referring to what hybrid work looked like before the start of the extended lockdowns that aimed to reduce the spread of the COVID pandemic. By studying the effects of hybrid work on well-being, productivity and energy demand in an interdisciplinary approach, SUSHY addresses the multi-factorial nature of hybrid work. It allows identifying the conditions under which a balance between these different factors and the variables behind can be reached—and make hybrid work productive in a manner that is sustainable for the people and the planet. By doing this, SUSHY contributes to the area #Beproductive of the Brain call.
