While we can all agree hybrid work is here to stay (at least until the pendulum swings again), two new reports find that employees and employers have very divergent views about what this post-pandemic work model should look like.

One global survey of 7,600 IT and business decision makers commissioned by VMware found 70% of companies surveyed have implemented or plan to implement some type of employee surveillance measures. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this “drastically increases” employee turnover.

Meanwhile, new research from NTT analyzed 1,146 interviews across 23 countries and found that executives are much more satisfied with this new normal than their employees. For example, 79% of bosses believe employees prefer to work in an office. But just 39% of employees say they prefer to work from an office full time.

VMware Shines Spotlight on Spying

VMware’s study, based on research conducted by Vanson Bourne, highlights the importance of transparency and trust in the shift to hybrid work — or what VMware calls the “virtual floorplan.” And it also shines a spotlight on employee surveillance.

It found that to monitor employee productivity, employers use or plan to use several spying, err, surveillance measures including monitoring email (44%), web browsing (41%) and collaboration tools (43%); video surveillance (29%); attention tracking via webcams (28%); and keylogger software (26%).

Meanwhile, employees’ expectations about device privacy don’t mesh with this reality. While 77% of all respondents agreed their organization has a right to monitor their productivity, only 54% said they thought their company had installed some type of monitoring system.

In other words: it’s not so much the spying that poses the problem. Employees just want their companies to be transparent about the surveillance.

This disconnect, however, has serious consequences for employee retention. Of the companies that monitor employees’ devices, 39% report seeing “drastically increased” or “increased” employee turnover. That percentage jumps to 41% among companies in the process of rolling out this surveillance method.

The shift to remote work required a level of trust between employee and employee because workers were no longer in the office. VMware’s study found 75% agreed that this move meant their employers valued their performance over more traditional metrics like time spent in the office.

‘Trust, Transparency, Communication’ Key to Hybrid Work

The virtual floorplan solidified “the importance of trust, transparency, and communication in the workplace,” the report says. And it also ushers in new rules and roles across organizations, according to VMware.

Among these new rules: enable and encourage more formal and informal connections over digital channels.

Additionally, leaders and managers should focus on team building to encourage better cohesion and productivity. “Leaders who operate from a place of transparency and trust are more likely to retain their talent,” the report says

Finally, don’t forget security — but enact security that works with employees, not against them. Almost 70% of employees said they used a personal device to connect to the company network or data. And 64% said IT security measures used to protect remote devices have hurt their team’s productivity.

The lines between personal and professional spaces and devices continue to blur, the report says. “IT teams must broaden their toolbox — embracing a combination of education, technology, and policy to secure their most sensitive data and defend against cyber threats.”

NTT Finds Executive-Employee Disconnect

Meanwhile, a different hybrid-work report, also released this week, emphasizes the importance of trust, transparency, and communication in a hybrid-work model. And it finds all three lacking.

According to NTT’s 2021 Global Workplace Report, business leaders are more satisfied with the new work normal than their employees. When offered a choice of at-home, hybrid, or in-office work, NTT found that employees are pretty evenly split between the three at 30%, 30%, and 39%, respectively. However, 84% of business leaders say that they believe employees prefer remote working.

Additionally, CEOs are 28 points more likely to believe they are effective at preventing burnout than their operations staff, and 41 points more likely to be “very satisfied” with their company’s employee experience capabilities.

Meanwhile, only 38% of employees say their organization fully values their health and wellbeing, and just 23% say they are fully happy working for their company.

Why Employee Experience Matters

This data shows that employers need to ensure that both digital and physical workspaces enable better employee experiences. To this end, 69% of organizations have deployed or are planning to deploy video conferencing and video collaboration on premises, and 66% say they will provide more teamwork spaces.

“Currently, the narrative is all about remote working — but the reality of employees’ needs is much more complicated, and any failure to accurately assess and respond to that fact presents a serious risk to organizations,” NTT Global SVP Alex Bennett said in a statement. “These are not mild preferences: we found that work-life balance and commute times are now the two biggest factors people look at when deciding where to work, and so performing well on workforce and workplace strategy will be a real competitive advantage.”