In episode 220, Coffey talks with Ranya Nehmeh about the challenges and limitations of hybrid and remote work arrangements based on research from their new book "In Praise of the Office."

They discuss how initial COVID remote work success masked long-term problems; loss of informal interactions and mentoring for newcomers; reduced collaboration and innovation; proximity bias affecting promotions and performance reviews; employee engagement challenges in hybrid settings; designing hybrid schedules with anchor days and structured meeting protocols; redesigning office spaces for collaboration; why hot-desking raises concerns; and adapting performance management to include helping behaviors and mentoring as measurable KPIs.

Resources referenced in this episode include:

Ranya Nehmeh and former Good Morning, HR guest Peter Cappelli’s new book, In Praise of the Office: The Limits to Hybrid and Remote Work

And you can get a preview of their research in the (July–August 2025) Harvard Business Review article, Hybrid still isn’t working

Working From Home, Worker Sorting and Development; David Atkin, Antoinette Schoar, & Sumit Shinde; National Bureau of Economic Research

Employee Innovation During Office Work, Work from Home and Hybrid Work; Michael Gibbs, Friederike Mengel, and Christoph Siemroth; University of Chicago—Becker Friedman Institute for Economics

The Power of Proximity to Coworkers: Training For Tomorrow or Productivity Today?; Natalia Emanuel, Emma Harrington, & Amanda Pallais; National Bureau of Economic Research

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About our Guest:

Ranya Nehmeh is a senior HR strategist with expertise in people strategy, HR policy, leadership development, and talent management. She has held key HR roles at the OPEC Fund for International

Development in Vienna and the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. She is a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences for Management & Communication in Vienna and also the author of The Chameleon Leader: Connecting with Millennials (2019).

Ranya holds a master’s in industrial relations and human resource management from the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) and a Doctor of Business Administration from the Swiss Management Center in Zug. Her recent articles, co-authored with Wharton professor Peter Cappelli, include “Hybrid Still Isn’t Working” (Harvard Business Review July/August 2025), “Sustainable Agility: How HR Can Survive the Rapid Pace of Change” (People + Strategy Journal, SHRM, July 2024), “It’s Time to Do Away with ‘Dry Promotions,’” (Harvard Business Review, July 2024) and “HR’s New Role” (Harvard Business Review, May/June 2024 magazine).

Ranya Nehmeh can be reached at:

https://www.ranyanehmeh.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ranyanehmeh

https://www.facebook.com/ranya.nehmeh/

https://www.instagram.com/ranyanehmeh/

https://x.com/ranyan

About Mike Coffey:

Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business.

Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business’ small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association. Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community.

Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year. Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas’ 31 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week.

Mike and his very patient wife of 28 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth.

Learning Objectives:

1. Recognize the impact of fully remote environments on collaboration, innovation, and newcomer integration.

2. Implement structured hybrid policies designed to promote collaboration and productivity.

3. Redesign performance management systems to include measurable KPIs for mentoring, timely response to help requests, and cross-functional collaboration to counteract the individual contributor mindset that remote work can foster.