The New Future of Work

In March 2020, people across the globe experienced a rapid shift to remote work that upended their existing work practices. Over two years later, many are returning to the workplace and work practices are changing once again – this time from remote to hybrid. Hybrid work presents a whole new set of questions and challenges: individuals determining the best place for them to do different aspects of their jobs, teams trying to have effective and inclusive hybrid meetings, and organizations figuring out how to coordinate a hybrid workforce.

The current moment presents an opportunity to create a new and better future of work that empowers the people who return to working in an office, those that stay remote, and those seeking to balance the two. To realize this opportunity, hundreds of researchers from across Microsoft, LinkedIn, and GitHub have come together to form the largest research initiative in the company’s history, called the New Future of Work Initiative, with the goal of using research to create a future of work that is meaningful, productive, and equitable.

A cornerstone of this site is the 2022 Microsoft New Future of Work Report, which synthesizes the massive and rapidly developing scientific literature on new work technologies and changing work practices. This site also features research from the initiative that has been published in peer-reviewed scientific venues, as well as research-backed guides to help you build on this research and get the most out of remote and hybrid work.

Microsoft Research Summit

The 2021 Research Summit had a whole track dedicated to the New Future of Work – check out research presentations, product demos, Q&As, and more. (Filter by track->New Future of Work)

The “Leaf Blower Problem”

Noise cancellation prevents others from hearing your background noise, but you still hear it, making “common ground” with your colleagues more difficult.

Hybrid meetings guide

We draw on pre-pandemic research, what we’ve learned from remote work, and on-going studies of hybrid to offer tips for effective and inclusive hybrid meetings.

Report on remote work

Paper: Published in January 2021 — A synthesis of findings related to how people’s work practices have evolved since the start of the pandemic.

What is hybrid?

Remote, flexible, hybrid workers, hybrid teams… The new future of work involves a variety of features and working styles. This short document clarifies some terms.

WorkLab

WorkLab is a new Microsoft site that builds on the research here to deliver stories and science-based insights on how to connect more, create more, and unlock ingenuity.