The Impact of Hybrid Work Models on Employee Engagement and Retention: A Comparative Study of Remote, On-Site, and Hybrid Employees in Pakistan’s Information Technology Sector

Background: As the post-pandemic shift to hybrid work has introduced a new and uncertain HRM dilemma, either between hybrid or fully remote work setups, or between fully remote and fully onsite work, it is important to understand whether hybrid is the best option for maintaining employee engagement and retention. Evidence in other contexts, such as emerging markets like Pakistan’s IT sector, where flexible work has grown quickly, though not uniformly, and where turnover rates are high, remain fragmented. Research purpose: In this research, we aim at comparing the employee engagement and retention (turnover intention) between three different work arrangements (fully remote, hybrid, and fully on-site) and investigate whether the work arrangement predicts the employee engagement and retention after controlling for demographic and job-related characteristics. It also examines whether there are any arrangement effects, and if so, whether these effects are moderated by managerial support and work-life balance. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey methodology was used to gather information from 312 full-time employees from IT and IT-enabled services companies located in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad over an eight-week period. The UWES-9 was used to evaluate engagement, and a three-item scale was used to measure turnover intention, with attenuating mechanism factors being managerial support and work-life balance. One-way ANOVA with Tukey post hoc tests, hierarchical multiple regression and bootstrapped mediation analysis were used. Results: Hybrid work employees had the highest engagement scores (M = 5.71), and the lowest intentions to quit (M = 2.14), followed by remote work and on-site work employees, who did not significantly differ. After controlling for other factors, work arrangement was significantly related to engagement (β = .19, p = .003) and turnover intention (β = −.21, p < .001). The arrangement effects were mediated by managerial support and work-life balance, with 22.6% and 16.7% of the total effects respectively. There was a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between remote days per week and engagement, with the highest score occurring around 2.7 remote days per week, in a supplementary continuous specification. Conclusion: Hybrid work is likely to provide the best engagement-retention ratio in the context under study, in line with job demands-resources and social exchange theory. HRM should consider hybridity as a designed resource configuration and not as a location policy. JEL Classification: M54; J63; M12; J24; O15 References Asif, D. M., & Khan, D. M. A. (2026). The impact of AI-enabled HRM practices on employee work engagement: The moderating role of employee digital literacy. 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