Ep 26: The Death of Cubicle Farms: Navigating the New Era of Hybrid Work With CEO Kevin Smeltz

Kevin is very passionate about helping companies frustrated with the challenges of hybrid work and the modern workplace.

Wednesday, January 29, 2025
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  • Overcoming the challenges of hybrid work to access a better talent pool
  • Using the office as a strategic tool to improve engagement and collaboration
  • How to leverage data and analytics to optimize office design for hybrid work
  • The shift toward shorter, flexible office leases to balance costs and productivity
  • Future trends in the modern workplace: impact of AI on hybrid work coordination

In episode 26, I sat down with Kevin Smeltz, founder and CEO of SCG Hybrid Work Solutions. He’s a seasoned leader management consultant with an extensive career that spans leadership roles at HP, Wipro Technologies, Interdynamix, and PwC.

Kevin is very passionate about helping companies frustrated with the challenges of hybrid work and the modern workplace, including trying to balance the need for a healthy culture with a workforce that increasingly demands more flexibility, the impact of the return-to-office policies on recruiting and retention, and designing offices that work with hybrid models. For all these reasons, Kevin joins us as a hero of hybrid work today.

Overcoming the Challenges of Hybrid Work To Access a Better Talent Pool

Kevin Smeltz shared how his career path led him to focus on helping companies with the transition to hybrid work. In mid-2020, when the pandemic was in full swing, he found himself in the uncomfortable position of not being billable at a Big Four consulting firm. He and his brother decided to start a company that fit their four criteria. Because they had experience in hybrid work, it didn’t take them long to decide they wanted to help companies overcome the challenges of hybrid work.

One of the critical challenges in a hybrid work environment is establishing policies that align with business goals. Each organization is unique and must tailor its approach to hybrid work based on its specific business objectives, constraints, and culture. Kevin Smeltz’s recommendation for organizations is to understand what they want from hybrid work. For some companies, it works great to have a blanket policy across the enterprise. The advantage of that is it’s a bit simpler to implement than a team-level policy. However, other companies may prefer a more granular approach.

“It really depends on the company. But in general, we prefer to see policies at the team level. And the reason is that each team has a different dynamic. They have members in different places, different work, and a different way of bonding with each other.” - Kevin Smeltz, founder and CEO of SCG Hybrid Work Solutions

Kevin Smeltz discussed two broad ways that hybrid work impacts talent acquisition and retention. The first is that remote work opens up a much wider talent pool, making it easier to recruit for hard-to-find skills or critical roles that you have to fill quickly. The second is the impact of hybrid work policies and infrastructure on employee engagement, which affects retention.

Using the Office as a Strategic Tool To Improve Engagement and Collaboration

Kevin Smeltz emphasized the importance of organizations revamping traditional office layouts to align with the needs of hybrid work environments. This includes addressing challenges such as employees coming into the office and finding no one there, which can negatively impact engagement and productivity.

Smeltz went on to explain that traditional offices often do not work well with hybrid work models because they lack sufficient collaboration and focus spaces. The emphasis on density in traditional office layouts, such as ‘cubicle farms,’ can be disruptive and a security issue during hybrid calls because of the background noise and being able to overhear one another. Inadequate technology in conference rooms can also result in poor audio quality and difficulty collaborating between remote and in-person participants.

“I have clients that have subpar technology in their conference rooms. There’s poor quality audio, so the person speaking is choppy, or you hear so much background noise, or the camera wants to zoom around and focus in on who’s talking, but it doesn’t do a good job of that, or the remote people can’t be heard well by the people that are in the boardroom. It’s just an endless list of issues.” - Kevin Smeltz, founder and CEO of SCG Hybrid Work Solutions

Kevin Smeltz shared that designing a hybrid office space for success involves matching the spaces to the utilization pattern, considering aspects such as acoustics, lighting, climate, and physical properties. Creating a flexible office design that accommodates different work modes and needs is important.

How To Leverage Data and Analytics To Optimize Office Design for Hybrid Work

On the topic of office design, Kevin Smeltz highlighted the crucial role that data and analytics play in optimizing workplace operations while maintaining a positive employee experience. By utilizing AI and advanced analytics tools, organizations can monitor environmental factors (i.e., acoustics, lighting, temperature) and adjust them to support the work being done. Additionally, analyzing utilization data helps adapt the workplace to meet the evolving needs of employees.

“We have two sometimes competing goals. One is to keep our costs down. We don’t wanna have tons of office space that we don’t need. The second is to make sure that office is used as a strategic tool, that it’s helping people to do their job, that it’s making them happy to go there and to do their work, rather than exactly the opposite and making them wish they could stay at home and do their job from home.” - Kevin Smeltz, founder and CEO of SCG Hybrid Work Solutions

Additionally, space utilization analytics and integration with resource scheduling are essential for ensuring efficiency and productivity in a workspace. Kevin Smeltz explained that organizations can optimize resource allocation by analyzing the number of people in a space and their activities. Integration with resource scheduling allows for better planning and utilization of available spaces.

The Shift Toward Shorter, Flexible Office Leases To Balance Costs and Productivity

Kevin Smeltz pointed out that hybrid work models are causing organizations to move away from traditional long-term leases to shorter, more flexible ones. This shift allows companies to balance cost-effectiveness with strategic use of office space to support employee productivity and well-being. As such, Smeltz advises companies to negotiate shorter-term leases for office spaces to allow for more flexibility. For those in long-term leases, Smeltz advises them to optimize office spaces by creating better, more collaborative environments.

“Going forward, it’s in the best interest of most companies to try to negotiate shorter-term leases because the needs will change. There has to be some flexibility. And right now is a good time to do that because many commercial real estate landlords and so on are a little more open to negotiating that right now given the high vacancy rates.” - Kevin Smeltz, founder and CEO of SCG Hybrid Work Solutions

Kevin Smeltz acknowledged that this shift to hybrid work can be challenging. It is important to be creative, collaborative, and patient during the adjustment period. He shared that evidence-based decision-making can also support the transition to new ways of working. Hybrid work has been proven to have more benefits than downsides, including increased flexibility, productivity, and employee happiness. Despite some mandates from leadership not working well, the data overwhelmingly supports the advantages of hybrid work.

“We have four years’ worth of studies and four years’ worth of data that tell us the advantages of doing these things. It’s overwhelmingly saying one thing—that hybrid work done well has more benefits than it does downsides.” - Kevin Smeltz, founder and CEO of SCG Hybrid Work Solutions

Future Trends in the Modern Workplace: Impact of AI on Hybrid Work Coordination

Kevin Smeltz shared two future trends he foresees, including the impact of AI on hybrid work coordination. One future trend is the shift towards more hybrid work arrangements, with an initial possibility of more full-time RTO before settling into a more flexible model. Another trend is the complexity of scheduling in a hybrid work environment, considering various factors like team locations and resource allocation.

“There’s gonna be a little bit of a pendulum effect. There might be initially more return-to-office and going back to the old way of doing things, but I don’t think that’s long-term. It will settle out and reach an equilibrium. And I think that will be with more hybrid work than today.” - Kevin Smeltz, founder and CEO of SCG Hybrid Work Solutions

Kevin Smeltz explained that there are too many factors to consider when scheduling meetings and resources. That’s where AI tools are becoming crucial in improving the coordination of hybrid work setups by alleviating the ‘hybrid coordination tax’ and streamlining the scheduling process. By utilizing AI, teams can easily identify the geographical locations of teammates, optimize commuting plans, and enhance overall productivity in hybrid work environments.

“Every company is different. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to hybrid work strategies. To do hybrid work well, each company must invest in a comprehensive hybrid work strategy that provides numerous benefits and mitigates risks.” - Kevin Smeltz, founder and CEO of SCG Hybrid Work Solutions

References

SCG Hybrid Work Solutions helps clients solve problems related to hybrid work - fostering collaboration, building and maintaining a healthy organizational culture, managing performance, designing offices that work with hybrid, and managing risks.

Speakers

HOST

Jenny Moebius

SVP @ Skedda | Angel Investor

Jenny is a top Go-To-Market (GTM) leader in the Greater Boston area, where she has a track record of building powerful brands and categories, generating demand (for both sales- and product-led orgs), and creating energizing mission-driven cultures of belonging in the B2B tech space.

GUEST

Kevin Smeltz

Founder and CEO of SCG Hybrid Work Solutions

Kevin is a seasoned leader and management consultant. He is passionate about helping companies frustrated with the challenges of hybrid work and the modern workplace. His extensive career spans leadership roles at HP, Wipro Technologies, Interdynamix, and PwC.

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