Remote Work, Hybrid Work Models, and Employee Well-being: A Review of Human Resource Management Practices

Abstract

Remote and hybrid work arrangements have moved from a peripheral, occasionally offered employment benefit to a mainstream feature of organisational life, a shift accelerated dramatically by the COVID-19 pandemic and sustained, in modified form, well beyond it. This paper reviews the academic literature examining remote work, hybrid work models, and employee well-being, with particular attention to the human resource management practices that shape how these arrangements are experienced by employees. The review traces the evolution of remote work research from its pre-pandemic origins, through the pandemic-era surge in mandatory remote working, to the more deliberate and structured hybrid work models that have since emerged. The review is organised around four themes: pre-pandemic and early evidence on remote work and well-being, pandemic-era evidence on well-being, productivity, and stress, hybrid work models and associated human resource management practices, and the role of leadership and organisational support in shaping the well-being-productivity relationship. The findings indicate that remote and hybrid work arrangements are associated with a complex, double-edged pattern of well-being outcomes: greater autonomy, flexibility, and reduced commuting burden on one hand, alongside risks of social isolation, blurred work-life boundaries, and technology-related strain on the other, with the balance between these outcomes substantially shaped by organisational support, leadership behaviour, and the specific human resource management practices an organisation adopts. A structured literature-review methodology underpins the analysis. The paper concludes by synthesising practical implications for human resource management and by outlining directions for future research.