Hybrid work arrangements: Challenges and the way forward in the private sector
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33736/jcshd.8904.2025Keywords:
work-life balance, hybrid work arrangement, work performance, time management, employee well-beingAbstract
Working from home, teleworking, and hybrid work arrangements are not new concepts, but they have become the norm in response to the post-pandemic environment and are increasingly recognised for promoting a healthy work-life balance. Advances in technology have also transformed how employees manage their professional and personal lives. This study explores the work-life balance of employees in hybrid work arrangements within a private organisation in Sarawak, examining the challenges, impacts, and strategies used to balance work and personal responsibilities. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with five managers, each of whom had at least one child. The findings reveal that long working hours and heavy workloads are the main challenges employees face, negatively affecting both their family time and work performance. Time management and maintaining a positive attitude were identified as key strategies for achieving work-life balance. The study also shows that employees are generally satisfied with current hybrid work arrangement policies and support, with many expressing a desire to continue working under these arrangements until retirement. It is recommended that the organisation continue offering hybrid work options, enabling employees to optimise performance without compromising their well-being.
References
Ahmad, A. (1997). Work-family conflict and social support: A study of female secretaries in Malaysia. Pertanika Journal of Social Science and Humanities, 5(2), 93–101.
Ajzen, M., Coster, S., Taskin, L., & Laurianne, T. (2021). The re-regulation of work-life balance and its impacts on the centrality of work in the context of the (post-) covid hybrid work. 12th International Critical 2021. BML Munjal University.
Alexander, A., De Smet, A., Langstaff, M., & Ravid, D. (2021). What employees are saying about the future of remote work. McKinsey & Company. https://www2.mvcc.edu/shn/pdf/presentations/2021-11/what-employees-are-saying-about-the-future-of-remote-work.pdf
Bacarra, R., & Decenorio, N. (2022). The hybrid work model: Benefits, challenges & strategies for companies. Social Science Journal, 12(6), 2425–2433.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Budiman, N., Hidayat, N. K., & Basbeth, F. (2022). The impact of hybrid working in the post-pandemic covid19 on employee job satisfaction through work-life balance and workload in Indonesia leading heavy equipment company. Budapest International Research and Critics Institute-Journal (BIRCI-Journal), 5(4), 29811–29826.
Dale, G. (2022). Understanding healthy remote and hybrid work: Developing a framework for practitioners. Faculty Research Day, December 2022.
Deole, S. S., Deter, M., & Huang, Y. (2023). Home sweet home: Working from home and employee performance during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Labour Economics, 80, 102295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2022.102295
Elmendorf, K., & Byrne, J. (2021). The future of remote work: Comparing virtual, in-person, and hybrid work environments [Doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University]. https://keep.lib.asu.edu/items/160981
Gálvez, A., Tirado, F., & Alcaráz, J. M. (2018). Resisting long working hours: The case of Spanish female teleworkers. German Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(3–4), 195–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/2397002218782174
Ghislieri, C., Molino, M., Dolce, V., Sanseverino, D., & Presutti, M. (2021). Work-family conflict during the Covid-19 pandemic: Teleworking of administrative and technical staff in healthcare. An Italian study. La Medicina Del Lavoro, 112(3), 229–240. https://doi.org/10.23749/mdl.v112i3.11227
Gifford, J. (2022). Remote working: Unprecedented increase and a developing research agenda. Human Resource Development International, 25(2), 105–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2022.2049108
Hassan, N. M. (2016). Work-life balance: A concern on effectiveness of job role and employee’s engagement towards organizational goal. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 6(11), 411–422. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v6-i11/2410
Hopkins, J., & Bardoel, A. (2023). The future is hybrid: How organisations are designing and supporting sustainable hybrid work models in post-pandemic Australia. Sustainability, 15(4), 3086. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043086
Ipsen, C., van Veldhoven, M., Kirchner, K., & Hansen, J. P. (2021). Six key advantages and disadvantages of working from home in Europe during Covid-19. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(4), 1826. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041826
Landes, S. J., McBain, S. A., & Curran, G. M. (2020). Reprint of: An introduction to effectiveness-implementation hybrid designs. Psychiatry Research, 283, 112630. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2019.112630
Levin, A. (2022). What are the management strategies to promote work-life balance for hybrid teams? A systematic review (Publication No. 29999500) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland Global Campus]. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/what-are-management-strategies-promote-work-life/docview/2769187054/se-2
Mishra, N., & Bharti, T. (2023). Exploring the nexus of social support, work-life balance and life satisfaction in hybrid work scenario in learning organizations. The Learning Organization, 31(1), 27–47. https://doi.org/10.1108/TLO-08-2022-0099
Orel, M. (2019). Supporting work–life balance with the use of coworking spaces. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, 39(5), 549–565. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-01-2019-0038
Racherla, S. (2020). Predicting employee attrition: The impact of hybrid work. Journal of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Management, 4(1), 14–26.
Rudnicka, A., Newbold, J. W., Cook, D., Cecchinato, M. E., Gould, S. J. J., & Cox, A. L. (2020). Eworklife: Developing effective strategies for remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic. The New Future of Work Online Symposium 2020. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10106475/
Shaari, R., Sarip, A., & Shaari, S. (2022). Work-family balance and hybrid working environment for women: An agenda. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 12(12), 1726–1733. http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v12-i12/15974
Shirmohammadi, M., Au, W. C., & Beigi, M. (2022). Remote work and work-life balance: Lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic and suggestions for HRD practitioners. Human Resource Development International, 25(2), 163–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2022.2047380
Sirgy, M. J., & Lee, D. J. (2016). Work-life balance: A quality-of-life model. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 11(4), 1059–1082. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-015-9419-6
Siwale, J., Hapompwe, C., Kukano, C., & Mwiikisa, F. (2021). Exploring the effects of work-life balance on employee performance in the banking sector: A case study of AB Bank in Lusaka-Zambia. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 11(6), 113–123.
Stich, M. (2022). Making hybrid work: A systematic literature review on hybrid working teams [Master Thesis, Johannes Kepler University]. https://epub.jku.at/obvulihs/download/pdf/8258647
Taylor, H., Florisson, R., & Hooper, D. (2021). Making hybrid inclusive – Key priorities for policymakers. https://www.managers.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/wf-cmi-making-hybrid-inclusive-policy-brief.pdf
Tran, L. (2022). The impact of hybrid work on productivity: Understanding the future of work: A case study in agile software development teams [Master Thesis, KTH Royal Institute of Technology]. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-318133
Vinueza-Cabezas, A., Osejo-Taco, G., Unda-López, A., Paz, C., & Hidalgo-Andrade, P. (2022). A comparison of working conditions and workers’ perceptions among on-site, telework, and hybrid workers in Ecuador during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(21), 14337. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192114337
Wong, A. H. K., Cheung, J. O., & Chen, Z. (2021). Promoting effectiveness of “working from home”: Findings from Hong Kong working population under COVID-19. Asian Education and Development Studies, 10(2), 210–228. https://doi.org/10.1108/AEDS-06-2020-0139
Yang, E., Kim, Y., & Hong, S. (2023). Does working from home work? Experience of working from home and the value of hybrid workplace post-COVID-19. Journal of Corporate Real Estate, 25(1), 50–76. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCRE-04-2021-0015
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 UNIMAS Publisher
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright Transfer Statement for Journal
1) In signing this statement, the author(s) grant UNIMAS Publisher an exclusive license to publish their original research papers. The author(s) also grant UNIMAS Publisher permission to reproduce, recreate, translate, extract or summarize, and to distribute and display in any forms, formats, and media. The author(s) can reuse their papers in their future printed work without first requiring permission from UNIMAS Publisher, provided that the author(s) acknowledge and reference publication in the Journal.
2) For open access articles, the author(s) agree that their articles published under UNIMAS Publisher are distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, for non-commercial purposes, provided the original work of the author(s) is properly cited.
3) The author(s) is/are responsible to ensure his or her or their submitted work is original and does not infringe any existing copyright, trademark, patent, statutory right, or propriety right of others. Corresponding author(s) has (have) obtained permission from all co-authors prior to submission to the journal. Upon submission of the manuscript, the author(s) agree that no similar work has been or will be submitted or published elsewhere in any language. If submitted manuscript includes materials from others, the authors have obtained the permission from the copyright owners.
4) In signing this statement, the author(s) declare(s) that the researches in which they have conducted are in compliance with the current laws of the respective country and UNIMAS Journal Publication Ethics Policy. Any experimentation or research involving human or the use of animal samples must obtain approval from Human or Animal Ethics Committee in their respective institutions. The author(s) agree and understand that UNIMAS Publisher is not responsible for any compensational claims or failure caused by the author(s) in fulfilling the above-mentioned requirements. The author(s) must accept the responsibility for releasing their materials upon request by Chief Editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
5) The author(s) should have participated sufficiently in the work and ensured the appropriateness of the content of the article. The author(s) should also agree that he or she has no commercial attachments (e.g. patent or license arrangement, equity interest, consultancies, etc.) that might pose any conflict of interest with the submitted manuscript. The author(s) also agree to make any relevant materials and data available upon request by the editor or UNIMAS Publisher.
