Women’s Agenda, August 7, 2023

With hybrid work models taking shape as the new norm in many knowledge-based workplaces, ensuring that employees have enough visibility is a new and complex challenge facing managers and employers. 

Recognition of your skills and output, as well as being visible to your colleagues and managers, is essential for productivity, and for workers to feel satisfied, motivated and confident in their jobs.

In the 2023 Women’s Ambitions survey, published in a report this month by Women’s Agenda, 27 per cent of women who had a hybrid or remote working model indicated that a lack of visibility at work was hindering their career. 

Additionally, 37 per cent of women said a lack of visibility, specifically to their upper management, was hindering their career progression. Another 16 per cent said their hybrid or remote work arrangements were getting in the way of them being promoted. 

Access to leaders is crucial for those in hybrid work

The complexity of hybrid work and its impact on visibility has also been brought to the fore in the recent Women@Work 2023: A Global Outlook Report from Deloitte. 

Here, four in 10 women said they had been excluded from meetings, decisions and informal interactions while working in a hybrid way, and 30 per cent of women said hybrid working has meant they have less exposure to senior leaders.