A glimpse into the ideas behind the Nordic EY Hybrid Model

A brief look into our own Workplace of the Future and the ideas behind it.

We constantly strive to create and redefine the existing workplace to fit the evolving needs of the future. After listening to the voices of our people and going through the latest research, we realized that we needed a workplace that focuses on trust in our people and respect for individual needs, preferences and life situations. Along with individual preferences, we also wanted the future workplace to focus on team collaborations and leadership. This concept was discussed and developed to create the EY Hybrid Model.

What is the EY Hybrid Model? 

The EY Hybrid Model is based on freedom and flexibility, which means our people can decide for themselves when and where to work. We believe that by offering the right technology and office spaces combined with trust and transformative leadership skills, we can help build a flexible and inclusive workplace. How and where we work will be guided by our clients’ needs and the ambition to create a modern work culture that will develop our people. 

One size does not fit all

What makes the EY Hybrid Model stand out is the ability to customize a workplace suitable for the individual. Instead of defining the workplace using a set of policies, we wish to focus on a variety of possibilities.

Bjørn Vihovde believes that the new working model is full of endless prospects. How and where we work will be guided by our client centricity, building a modern culture and developing our people. For these reasons, we believe that one size will not fit all. We will continue to enhance the EY Hybrid Model and work on building a more sustainable and better working world.

The three pillars of EY Hybrid Model

When organizations reimagine where, when and how they work, they need a holistic approach by integrating the following three Bs: Bricks, Bytes and Behaviors. We have used this approach at EY as well.

Bricks ensure that every employee has access to a network of spaces that supports different activities performed during a workday. The main purpose of the future EY offices is to meet, collaborate and build strong teams and not just to work. We hope to redefine what office spaces mean with the help of this pillar. Therefore we, utilize more flexible office space as part of the plan. 

Not only is this a more sustainable approach, but also in line with what our people prefer. We provide support for our people to set up their home offices since we know that it is part of the network of spaces. This network of spaces will increasingly facilitate connection and collaboration and be a great experience.

Bytes offer a user-centric digital workplace that enables knowledge sharing and collaboration regardless of time and place. It consists of both individual technology for all our people along with technology in the offices supporting modern work. Automated tools and cutting-edge technology form a part of this pillar and support our people regardless of where they choose to work.

Behaviors focus on building a purpose-driven culture in the organization based on trust, encouraging collaboration, innovation, transparency and self-leadership. It focuses on new ways of working and modern, hybrid leadership. This pillar supports and encourages our people to perform at their best and support our sense of belonging.

How does hybrid working empower the sustainability agenda?

Sustainability plays an increasingly important part in our future way of work. EY has already achieved the goal to become carbon negative. Now our ambition is to further reduce our carbon footprint to “net zero” by 2025. The new working model will support this goal with smarter use of space and less travel and commute.

The future of the workplace 

The EY Hybrid Model will be continuously enhanced by collecting feedback from our people, reviewing client experiences and by bringing the latest research into account.