The pandemic is forcing companies worldwide to seek new ways of organizing work and employees. For many of them, an ideal solution is a new model that combines working in the office with a home office arrangement. What does such hybrid work look like in practice, what can you expect, and what impact can it have on your functioning?
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Alternating between home and the office
The past few months have been full of turbulent changes for the job market. Employees found themselves working from home overnight without any experience or preparation for it. Questions about whether productivity, morale, or employer trust in their team would decline have since been refuted. However, don't expect a return to pre-pandemic times, which were dominated by the traditional office work model.
However, a pure home office is not the ideal solution either. Many employees need occasional access to common areas, special hardware, or to work in a larger team. The answer to the combination of working from home and the office is a hybrid model. Affection for this model is also confirmed by the recent study from Stanford. It shows that up to 55% of American employees want to alternate between working from home and in the office. What aspects does this model involve?
Higher creativity, productivity, and quality of relationships
The hybrid model combines the best of both worlds – the independence and flexibility of working from home, versus the structure and socialization of the office. Those who are already working in a hybrid model cite increased creativity, productivity, and quality of relationships as benefits.
Experts point to the following advantages of a hybrid environment:
- Reduce operating costs Smaller offices with fewer workstations mean not only lower costs but also higher quality office spaces, which are also related to sustainability, for example.
- Increase productivity – one of the basic characteristics of hybrid work is autonomy in deciding with whom, when, and from where an employee wants to work, which directly affects their productivity. Hybrid work is therefore by no means a synonym for absolute freedom.
- Physical workspace option – based on past experience, companies can identify real employee needs, based on the effective use of the office.
- Removing the negatives of working from home Hybrid work also removes many of the negative aspects caused by exclusively working from home, such as isolation, frustration, and loneliness.
Will offices be canceled forever?
During the pandemic, offices became an unnecessary and costly item for many companies. For example, Dropbox has essentially eliminated its office spaces. A similar scenario awaits most companies that want to retain their employees. Offices will not disappear from our working lives, but they will have to adapt to the new era. They will remain a suitable place for recruiting new members, team building, meetings, and for project kickoff and wrap-up.
Modern companies now understand that the 9-to-5 work schedule isn't the only universal solution. More than 80 % managers surveyed say they expect more flexible work-from-home arrangements once the pandemic is over. Moreover, more than 70% of % employees say they plan to take advantage of this option. Companies will therefore have to adapt to their employees’ flexibility in deciding when and where they will work.
Big players are already working hybrid
Companies worldwide are looking for ways their employees can work not only anytime but also anywhere. These changes represent a true revolution. Twitter announced that its employees will be able to work remotely forever. Spotify hopes to attract innovative talent with salaries on par with those in New York and San Francisco; employees will also be able to work remotely from virtually anywhere. Microsoft, meanwhile, has introduced the option to spend up to 50% of working hours at home.
Master the transition in a few steps
The combination of office work and remote work represents a complete organizational change and a reevaluation of work. From IT, through human resources, operations, marketing, to production. In addition to space modifications, legal, digitalization, and security aspects must be taken into account. Companies are learning all of this on the fly, so to speak. So, how can we create ideal conditions for a flexible world of work?
Develop principles that provide people with flexibility
The decisions you make today will affect the company for years to come. Therefore, you need a clear vision with a concrete plan and principles. To plan for the transition to hybrid work, try to answer the following questions. Who will be able to work remotely? Who will have to commute to the office and for how long? Where will employees be able to focus on concentrated work? How will collaborative work take place?
Prepare for a new use of the company's physical spaces
Offices will remain important, but expect changes. For collaboration, you will no longer be limited to physical spaces. In the future, corporate offices will effectively connect the physical and digital worlds, meeting the unique needs of each team. It is important to devise how to connect the communication of people who are physically present at a meeting with those who are joining virtually.
Invest in technologies that connect people.
Due to the pandemic, video conferencing has become the primary means of team connection, and it will likely remain an effective communication tool forever. Bet on modern cloud technologies. Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 enable remote teamwork today. While one is a smart solution for bringing together physical and virtual teams, the other provides employees with a digital work environment accessible anytime and anywhere.
Don't look more people, explainvte robots a aautomation
Hybrid collaboration brings previously unknown possibilities for cooperation. Thanks to the digitization of processes and easier remote connection, employees can collaborate with RPA (Robotic Process Automation) tools. These enable the automation of repetitive tasks, such as filling out forms, XLS spreadsheets, and generating documents. Thus, your company no longer needs more people for many activities, only a well-learned process and automatic execution of its steps. This allows employees to focus on more creative work and improving company processes.
Work hybrid with Microsoft 365
Take even more control of your work and bet on the integrated Microsoft 365 ecosystem. It is the ideal solution for modern businesses that value secure and understandable record-keeping.. V Opium Systems We specialize in developing applications for all components of Microsoft 365, including SharePoint, and developing applications for Microsoft Teams.
Don't worry about the system change. We will help you transition to Microsoft 365, including migration and adoption readiness.. We will train new users in your company, or we can design and implement solutions precisely according to your needs. There are a sea of possibilities, just dive in headfirst!
