Hybrid work reality check: Why half of companies still aren’t getting it right
While most companies struggle with the return-to-office tug-of-war, the tech giant Cisco is pioneering a fresh approach: making remote work so seamless that physical location becomes truly irrelevant.
Snorre Kjesbu, senior vp and gm of Cisco’s Employee Experience Group and the leader of its Distance Zero initiative, is leading the charge to make work feel in-person, even when it’s not.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. Cisco’s latest Global Hybrid Work Study, based on a survey of more than 21,000 workers across 21 markets, reveals a workplace in crisis. Nearly 4 in 5 employees believe RTO mandates stem from management’s lack of trust in remote productivity. But instead of forcing people back to desks, the Distance Zero project is betting on technology to bridge the gap.
It goes beyond just video meetings, as Kjesbu explains. “What you want is your own AI television producer in every single meeting,” he says. Distance Zero isn’t just about better video quality—it’s about creating technology that intuitively understands human behavior and adapts accordingly.
Picture it: You’re one of three remote participants joining eight colleagues in a conference room. Traditional video shows the user the presenter’s frame, but Distance Zero technology enables multiple cameras and AI to capture the decision-maker who’s listening intently but not speaking. The system automatically adjusts to show the user the person whose reaction matters most to the conversation’s direction.
“You want to be able to read the dynamic in that room,” as Kjesbu puts it. “There might be a person in that room that’s a decision maker. They might not say much, but depending on their reaction, you can read where this discussion is going.”
It’s not only about better meetings but about winning the war for talent. Cisco’s research reveals that half of high performers work for organizations requiring fewer than three days in the office, and more than 3 in 5 of all workers would take a pay cut for more remote flexibility. Companies that can deliver truly seamless hybrid experiences have a massive competitive advantage, the report suggests.
The proof is in productivity results. While nearly three-quarters of employees report increased productivity under new working arrangements, the technology gap is glaring. Only half believe their employer provides consistent tools for effective remote work, despite more than 90% of employers and employees recognizing collaboration technology as crucial.
Workplace experts as well as mental health professionals extol the virtues of hybrid work arrangements—when they work best for everyone involved.
“When half your organization is working remotely, you cannot have two sets of participants,” said Ryan Zhang, founder and CEO of Notta.ai, an AI-powered meeting notetaking and transcription platform. “We’ve all been that remote caller who can’t hear the sidebar or see what’s on the whiteboard. Great hybrid companies make remote people receive the same things as on-site people receive. That’s good audio, shared screens, and methods for capturing conversation that don’t involve somebody’s hacked-up notes.”
“Hybrid models can be transformative, especially for those wanting to stay close to home for caregiving or personal priorities,” says Christina Muller, a workplace mental health expert based in the New York area. “But we need to ensure the human element of connection withstands the digital domain. Connectivity without connection is a recipe for burnout—but with intention, it can also be the medicine that prevents it.”
Distance Zero represents a fundamental shift from thinking about tech features to understanding human communication patterns. Kjesbu points out that natural workplace interactions—the mentoring moment at the coffee machine, the ability to read body language during negotiations—are what current remote tools miss entirely.
“When you walk by someone at their desk, or you see someone at the water cooler, we are very quick to pick up on, ‘Oh, you look a little down today. What happened?’” he notes. The Distance Zero initiative aims to recreate these spontaneous connections digitally, using AI to facilitate the informal interactions that build company culture.
The business case is compelling. Organizations that nail the hybrid experience report dramatic results, with about 7 in 10 employers in the study seeing retention rates increase by an average of 34%. Companies with fully flexible arrangements show the highest productivity gains at 28%, suggesting that when technology truly enables seamless collaboration, location becomes irrelevant.
The approach is already transforming how work gets done. The study reveals that 2 in 5 office interactions now include at least one remote participant, making Distance Zero-style technology a necessity for basic business operations.
Cisco is putting significant resources behind its vision, with digital whiteboards and interactive displays (55%) and hybrid-capable meeting rooms (50%) among the collaboration tools organizations are implementing most.
But the real breakthrough is in AI-powered systems that can automatically manage multiple video streams, understand conversation flow and adjust camera angles based on speaker dynamics. “Technology must never get in the way of the main act,” Kjesbu says. “Technology should always be the supporting actor for what you’re actually going to do.”
The bet is that companies mastering this type of technology will have a whole new advantage when it comes to talent acquisition and retention—and in a world where nearly 4 in 5 high performers are considering career changes due to inflexible office policies, it’s not just about good technology, it’s about good business.