How productive is your team really – or are you just hoping for the best?
Millions of employees have been working hybrid for several years now. But while many companies have become accustomed to flexible models, one key question remains unresolved: How can hybrid work be managed effectively?
Home office days, digital meeting rooms, shared calendars – the new reality of work seems modern, but there is often a lack of clear metrics. Some companies continue to rely on intuition or weekly status calls. Others collect data but don't know which of it actually means anything.
The situation is serious. In a recent study by Fraunhofer IAO, managers emphasize that hybrid models only work in the long term if they are managed based on data including specific targets for productivity, collaboration, and satisfaction (Fraunhofer IAO 2023). McKinsey also warns that without strategic KPIs, there is a risk of efficiency losses and, even worse, creeping dissatisfaction (McKinsey 2023).
That's why in this article, we'll show you five key performance indicators that you can use to manage hybrid work in a targeted manner and make a difference.
Productivity metrics – output beats presence time
The classic idea of performance - eight hours at your desk, as visible as possible - has become obsolete in hybrid working. But what will replace it? Many companies are at a loss when it comes to reliably measuring productivity.
Yet the need is clear. In the Fraunhofer IAO study mentioned above, 79% of the managers surveyed stated that they only want to establish hybrid models in the long term if they can evaluate clear performance data. The good news is that the data is there, companies just need to know what matters.
Away from the time clock mentality – toward a focus on results
Hybrid productivity can be controlled little or not at all by login times or email activity. Those who rely on this are, at best, measuring actionism. Instead, the focus is shifting to output-based KPIs - key performance indicators that are based on actual results:
- Completion rates for tasks, milestones, or OKRs
- Throughput times per work package (e.g., in Jira or Asana)
- Goal achievement at the individual, team, and departmental levels
- Quality of outputs (e.g., error rate, rework rate)
But not every number is helpful. It is crucial that KPIs are appropriate for the respective role. The productivity of a PLC programmer is measured differently than that of a recruiting manager or sales engineer. Uniform metrics quickly lead to misinterpretations – or demotivating comparisons.
What really works: Anchoring performance indicators in hybrid everyday life
Productivity in a hybrid setup is not only reflected in numbers, but also in how well work is organized. In a study of medium-sized industrial companies, McKinsey showed that companies with clearly defined output targets in hybrid teams worked on average 5% more productively, while also having lower absenteeism (McKinsey 2023).
In day-to-day business, this means:
- Formulate goals in small steps – away from “project completed” to “feature X delivered in sprint 3.”
- Think of KPI dashboards in terms of teams, not only centrally in reporting. Visibility creates personal responsibility.
- Regularly reflect on productivity with employees – for example, in retrospectives, one-on-one meetings, or peer reviews.
This way, productivity does not become an abstract control variable, but rather a tool that truly strengthens leadership and collaboration in the hybrid space.
Collaboration & communication – making silos visible
Working hybrid means working together, but not necessarily at the same time, in the same place, or via the same channels. What at first glance sounds like maximum flexibility often leads to a familiar problem in practice – communication silos. And it is precisely these that remain unnoticed for too long in hybrid structures if companies do not take a closer look.
Many executives underestimate how much distributed work transforms the quality of communication and collaboration. Instead of spontaneous consultations, planned touchpoints dominate. And between Slack messages, emails, team calls, and project boards, the overview is lost.
What cannot be measured is overlooked – and often misjudged
The Stanford study on hybrid work at Trip.com showed that teams with a clear communication structure and defined rules for collaboration were not only more productive - they also had 33% fewer resignations (Bloom 2024). This is a clear signal that good collaboration is not a soft skill, but a measurable success factor.
Which KPIs help to make collaboration in hybrid working visible?
- Meeting effectiveness: Ratio of meeting time to decision outputs
- Cross-departmental communication: Number of cross-departmental projects or consultations per quarter
- Tool usage: Frequency and depth of use of platforms how Confluence, MS Teams, Slack, Miro, etc.
- Response times & availability: Average response time to tasks and messages
Pay particular attention to evaluating quality as well as quantity. A team that writes 30 emails a day does not necessarily communicate better than one with five structured check-ins per week.
Communication is a management task – especially in hybrid mode
Good hybrid collaboration does not happen automatically through tools. It is the result of a consciously designed communication architecture: clear channels, predictable response times, transparent goals.
Companies that disclose their communication KPIs and reflect on them regularly build trust and demonstrably reduce the risk of silent resignation or project failure (McKinsey 2023; Fraunhofer IAO 2023).
Employee satisfaction – the strategic leading indicator
If performance is the output, then satisfaction is the operating system. Hybrid work only works sustainably if employees don't feel like they're constantly oscillating between freedom and overload. And that's exactly what happens more often than companies suspect.
This is because hybrid models lead to a new form of invisibility: those who are less present are often less noticed in decisions, in dialogue, in development opportunities. The result? Frustration and quiet resignation, which does not begin in the exit interview, but takes its course months earlier in the inner resignation.
Satisfaction is not a soft factor – it can be measured. Precisely.
Stanford researcher Nicholas Bloom showed that companies that clearly structured hybrid work and combined it with regular pulse surveys reduced their resignation rate by a third, while maintaining stable or even increasing performance (Bloom 2024).
Which KPIs provide reliable indicators of employee satisfaction?
- Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
- Mood and pulse surveys
- Meeting feedback scores
- Access times to internal learning opportunities
Pay attention to timelines, not only snapshots. Linking satisfaction data with turnover KPIs reveals early on where leadership, culture, or communication are not working.
Satisfaction cannot be outsourced – it is a management reality.
This KPI category is essential, particularly in industrial companies where hybrid structures meet more traditional work cultures. It shows how well transformation is being implemented – and how capable the company is of not only attracting talent, but also retaining it.
Innovation & knowledge sharing – the underestimated KPI field
Hybrid working models bring structure – but they often cost companies what actually makes them fit for the future: spontaneous exchange, creative friction, collective learning.
The challenge: Innovation cannot be measured directly … but its prerequisites can.
Practical experience shows that companies that focus on exchange formats, cross-departmental collaboration, and structured knowledge management create better conditions for new ideas, faster problem solving, and sustainable product development (Fraunhofer IAO 2023).
These KPIs give you a valid picture:
- Proportion of cross-departmental projects
- Contributions to internal innovation platforms
- Frequency of use of knowledge databases
- Reverse mentoring & internal learning formats
In industrial companies with a high R&D density particularly, a declining number of cross-departmental initiatives can be an early indicator of innovation paralysis.
Innovation does not need creative lone wolves – it needs shared structures.
Truly innovative companies create hybrid spaces where creativity can be planned: with fixed formats for idea-driven collaboration, accessible platforms for feedback, and KPIs that show where knowledge flows are drying up before it becomes expensive.
Retention & turnover – the silent warning signal
Some KPIs come too late. Resignation is one such case. When someone leaves, the reasons are usually old only the signal is new. And yet many companies treat turnover in the way a statistic is handled: it is reported, but rarely understood as a strategic control lever.
Particularly in hybrid working models, it is worth taking a second look. Because the dynamics have transformed: less visibility, more autonomy but also more withdrawal. Those who resign internally often stand out later. Those who are dissatisfied find it easier to leave. And those who are undecided don't wait for the next office meeting.
Retention is not only an HR KPI – it is an early indicator of leadership quality.
You should monitor these key figures regularly:
- Intentions to resign: e.g., from anonymous pulse surveys
- Reasons for leaving: systematically recorded and categorized
- Return rate: how many former employees come back?
- Internal willingness to change: how many are actively looking for new roles internally?
- Time-to-exit: how much time passes between dissatisfaction and resignation?
In a hybrid environment, even well-performing teams can become unstable if there is a lack of commitment, both emotional and structural. And the more specialized the role, the more painful the departure. The costs of turnover go far beyond recruiting: loss of expertise, team uncertainty, customer loyalty – all of this depends on the people who are supposed to stay.
If you don't manage retention, you manage costs.
A pragmatic approach: link turnover data to the other four KPI fields. Is the eNPS falling? Is the number of internal departmental changes rising? Is communication rated worse? This combination provides valuable early warning systems before Excel spreadsheets report the problem.
Conclusion: Between trust and responsibility
The discussion about hybrid work is long over. It is no longer a question of whether people work flexibly, but how well they can do so. And whether companies are able to understand, support, and develop this work.
Key figures help with this. Not to control people, but to lead them better. They show where collaboration works and where it stalls. They reveal what would otherwise be overlooked. And they give teams the opportunity to manage themselves better.
It's not about perfection, but about clarity. And above all, it's about the willingness not only to introduce new ways of working, but also to take them very seriously.
We all know that what cannot be measured is difficult to improve. What you don't understand cannot be developed further.
Good leadership in hybrid times remains a challenge. One that can be measured and should be measured.
Are you shaping hybrid work in an Industry 4.0 company and want to lead your teams in a more targeted way instead of just managing them? We support you in identifying the right KPIs, implementing them effectively, and thus measurably improving collaboration, productivity, and satisfaction without losing sight of the people.
We look forward to the exchange and to new perspectives for your working world of tomorrow.
Sources
- Bloom, N. (2024): Hybrid work is a win-win-win for companies, workers, and society. Stanford University.
- Fraunhofer IAO (2023): Performance of hybrid work: Perspectives for employees, executives, and companies.
- McKinsey & Company (2023): Rethinking and reorganizing work: How SMEs can successfully transition to hybrid forms of work.
- XELOS (2022): Measuring internal communication – How to do it successfully.
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