Belonging in Hybrid Work: How Connected Do People Outside the Office Feel?

Hybrid work is no longer a temporary arrangement in many organizations; it is a permanent way of working. Some employees spend most of the week in the office, some come in once or twice a week, and some hardly ever come in. This flexibility is valuable to most people, but it also brings a quiet risk: How strongly do people who are not in the office feel they belong?

The answer usually doesn't show up in the organization's overall engagement score. The overall score may look healthy, and remote employees may even appear more satisfied thanks to flexibility. But look item by item, at statements such as "I feel part of my team", "I hear about important developments on time" or "My work is noticed even when I'm not in the office", and a clear gap can emerge among employees who are in the office less.

In this article we look at where the belonging gap in hybrid work comes from, how to see it in survey data and what practical steps can strengthen the connection of people outside the office.

Why belonging deserves separate attention

Belonging is an employee's sense of being a genuine part of their team and organization: feeling accepted, heard and that their contribution is noticed. It is one of the building blocks of engagement; when belonging weakens, engagement, intention to stay and collaboration within the team are affected over time.

In hybrid work, belonging needs to be tracked separately because the small but constant moments of contact that come with being physically together, such as greetings, lunches and quick chats after meetings, largely disappear for people outside the office. On their own these moments seem trivial, but together they build a sense of "us".

Where does the belonging gap come from?

Weaker belonging among people outside the office is rarely the result of deliberate exclusion. It is usually driven by a few mechanisms that work unnoticed:

• Proximity bias: People remember those physically close to them more often, hand them work more easily and notice their contributions more. Managers are no exception.
• Informal information flow: Some decisions are made not in meetings but in the hallway or after the meeting ends. People outside the office hear about them late or second-hand.
• Differences in visibility: The effort of someone in the office is visible; the effort of a remote employee is often seen only through output. This can affect how recognition and career opportunities are distributed.
• Office-centered rituals: When birthdays, team lunches, celebrations and social events are planned around the office, remote employees are left out of the team's shared memory.
• Hybrid meeting dynamics: Meetings where the majority in the room talk among themselves and people on screen struggle to get a word in can make those outside the office feel like "second-class participants".

What these mechanisms have in common is that they accumulate. A single missed conversation changes nothing, but over months the employee outside the office drifts towards the edge of the team.

Spotting the belonging gap in survey data

The best way to see a belonging gap is not to run a separate "remote employee survey" but to run the same survey for everyone and compare results by work arrangement. This requires work arrangement (office, hybrid, remote) to be captured in the survey or in employee data. Splitting the hybrid group further by number of office days can also help.

We listed the questions you can use in our article on how to measure engagement among hybrid and remote employees. For belonging, pay particular attention to these areas:

• Connection: Feeling part of the team, relationships with colleagues.
• Access to information: Hearing about important developments and decisions on time.
• Visibility and recognition: Having contributions noticed and recognized.
• Fairness: The perception that career, promotion and assignment opportunities are distributed regardless of location.
• Relationship with the manager: Regular, meaningful contact with the manager.

Example comparison

The table below shows results from one organization broken down by work arrangement (an illustrative scenario; scores are on a 0–100 scale):

This example shows a common pattern: overall engagement is almost identical across the three groups. A leadership team looking only at the overall score might conclude that "the hybrid model has no effect on engagement". Yet item by item, the groups that are in the office less show a clear drop in belonging, access to information, visibility and perceived fairness. The reason this drop doesn't show in the overall score is that the same groups are much more satisfied with flexibility.

That is a long-term risk. Flexibility may be offsetting weak belonging today, but if the organization's flexibility policy changes, or another employer offers the same flexibility, there may be no strong bond left to keep these employees.

What to watch out for when interpreting

• Check group sizes. If the remote group is small, don't report results below the anonymity threshold. We covered these thresholds in anonymity in employee surveys.
• Separate other variables. If remote employees are concentrated in a particular unit or role, the gap may come from the unit rather than the work arrangement. See segmentation in employee surveys for cross-breakdowns.
• Don't over-read small differences. A few points may not be meaningful, especially in small groups. Focus on clear, consistent gaps.
• Read the open-ended comments. If comments from people outside the office frequently mention themes such as "we aren't kept informed", "we aren't heard in meetings" or "people in the office get ahead", the numerical gap is backed up by the comments.

Strengthening belonging for people outside the office

Closing the belonging gap is not about calling everyone back to the office. The problem is usually how work is done, not where. The goal is to make being part of the team independent of where people work.

1. Design meetings to be equal for everyone

• In hybrid meetings, make it the facilitator's responsibility to bring in people on screen; starting the round with remote participants is a simple but effective technique.
• Having people in the meeting room join from their own laptops, where possible, puts everyone on screen on equal terms.
• Make decisions in the meeting or in written channels, not in the hallway afterwards.

2. Make information written and accessible by default

• Share important decisions, changes and announcements in a common channel everyone can access.
• Circulate meeting notes and decisions as short summaries.
• Treat "we discussed this in the office" as a warning sign within the team.

3. Make recognition visible and location-independent

• Recognize contributions openly in team channels or meetings; a "well done" said only face to face never reaches people outside the office.
• Judge contributions by results, not by time spent in the office or visible busyness.

4. Distribute career and assignment opportunities transparently

• Announce new projects, assignments and open positions where everyone can see them.
• Regularly check whether promotion and assignment decisions differ by work arrangement.

5. Plan time together with a purpose

• Design office days not as days when everyone does individual work, but as days when the team is together and work that needs collaboration and social contact is scheduled.
• Design some social events and celebrations so people can join remotely.
• For new joiners, plan face-to-face contact and a buddy in the first weeks. We covered how to track belonging during onboarding in onboarding survey questions.

6. Put the manager at the center

The first-line manager has the biggest influence on the belonging of people outside the office. A manager who holds regular one-to-ones with remote team members, deliberately involves them and is aware of proximity bias can make more difference than any policy. A short guide or training for managers on leading hybrid teams makes these behaviors easier to spread.

Tracking the impact of actions

The belonging gap won't close in one go. Once actions are agreed, their impact needs to be tracked regularly:

1. Keep the same breakdown in the annual survey. Repeat the comparison by work arrangement every time; see whether the gap is narrowing or widening.
2. Run short check-ins in between. A short pulse survey with a few items on belonging, access to information and visibility shows within months whether actions are working.
3. Ask what is behind the number. If the gap is clear but its cause isn't, a few focus groups with people outside the office often give a clearer answer than the survey.
4. Tie actions to a plan. Turn findings into a concrete 90-day action plan at unit and team level.

Common mistakes

• Looking only at the overall engagement score: Satisfaction with flexibility can hide a drop in belonging in the overall score.
• Running a separate survey for remote employees: You lose comparability, and these employees may feel even more "separate".
• Trying to solve the problem only with a return to the office: As long as meetings, information flow and recognition stay office-centered, more office days won't close the gap.
• Treating social events as the only solution: Virtual coffee breaks can help, but they don't fix inequalities in access to information and career opportunities.
• Leaving managers out: Belonging is formed mostly in day-to-day team experience; policies have limited effect unless they show up in managers' behavior.

Conclusion

The belonging gap in hybrid work usually moves quietly: overall scores look good, few complaints come in and satisfaction with flexibility is high. But people who are in the office less can drift towards the edge of the team without anyone noticing. To see the gap, break results down by work arrangement; to close it, make meetings, information flow, recognition and career opportunities independent of location. In your next survey, make sure you can answer this question: "Do our employees outside the office feel as much a part of the team as those in it?"

Frequently asked questions