I read the CIPD’s Flexible and Hybrid Working Practices 2025 report yesterday. It’s a really useful summary with loads of data points to help inform hybrid working decisions.

What gave me cause for concern was the impact on learning.

The best workplace learning is culture-enabled. If we’re mandating attendance over experience, we’re reinforcing presenteeism over participation. Think about how your mandated compliance training is perceived. Now multiply by 100.

The report urges employers to go beyond home and office. Compressed hours, job shares, phased returns – flexible job design is more than times and locations. Too much learning is time-bound, SCORM-based, and built for 9–5 knowledge workers.

We need to design learning that matches HOW people actually work. That means asynchronous microlearning and flexible peer-led learning groups.

The biggest shift isn’t about where people work.

It’s about HOW they work.

Hybrid working changes how people co-operate and communicate and learning must adapt to support these shifts. Productivity has moved from inputs towards tech-enabled outputs; just scroll through your Teams and Slack channels if you want proof.

That shift gives L&D agency AND permission.

Agency to focus on asynchronous collaboration, distributed leadership and support, and remote and self-led workflow design.

Permission to work differently.

If we can work like that, why can’t we learn like that?

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#FlexibleWorking #WorkplaceLearning #HybridWork