Hybrid Model of Working announced by Cerner

Cerner stated on Thursday that in the autumn, its U.S. offices would move to a hybrid in-person/remote work environment. The electronic health record vendor will have a small number of full-time on-site employees and a limited number of full-time virtual employees. However, the bulk of workers will be classed as dynamic, with the ability to work from home or on-site depending on their preferences and required tasks, according to the firm.

For in-person work, such as group collaboration or team building, they will have access to Cerner facilities. Tracy Platt, chief human resources officer for Cerner, said, “While there is no single recipe for success, we envision many teams will choose to work on-site a few days a week, or a few weeks a month, with the remaining time spent at home or in a remote location.”

According to a research and advisory firm, Gartner, 82 percent of company leaders aim to allow workers to work some of the time remotely by 2020, and Cerner will now join that group. Nearly 70% of Cerner employees said they wanted a combination of in-office and work-from-home flexibility. Despite this, many employees said they struggled to “turn off” at home at the end of the day.

Though studies show that many workers are more productive when they work from home, they may suffer from social ties in the long run. As Platt points out, a hybrid model is an unknown territory for many firms, necessitating the observation and flexibility of leaders and managers. Cerner leadership, according to Platt, expects this model to change over time in response to employee and client success metrics.