The hybrid work culture, which encapsulates, the mix of both onsite and remote work, is proving popular with companies as well as employees. It’s hard to imagine, but prior to the pandemic, only 8% of meetings included a remote participant. Collaboration was almost always done in person. The pandemic forced companies to quickly adopt remote work as an integral part of their business continuity strategy. It became abundantly clear that employees could be just as productive as when they were in the office, if not more so.
The Best of Both Worlds
Creating a hybrid work environment is like the best of both worlds. If adapted systematically, it definitely is the most popular way to work going ahead. So as companies start preparing to bring employees back to the office, they also need to be prepared to adopt hybrid work, where some people will work in the office, others remotely, and still others a combination of the two.
According to a TinyPulse survey of HR leaders, 62.8% see hybrid work as the most productive approach to their companies and as per Accenture’s findings, 63% of high growth businesses work in a hybrid way. According to EY’s 2021 Work Reimagined Employee Survey, 9 in 10 employees want flexibility in where and when they work.
Basic components of Hybrid Work
When work goes hybrid, work policy and culture is important for its success. Creating a successful hybrid working environments depend on imperative features, here are some important ones:
Flexible
Your organization should accommodate a variety of collaboration and communication styles and methods. The tools your employees use should enable any type of collaboration and communication styles. These methods need to provide the same quality of experience for remote and in-office employees, but also for those who are external to your organization.
Inclusive
80% of communication is nonverbal, which means you should provide equal experiences for everyone, in a hybrid meeting and should feel like they are seen and heard, regardless of whether they’re in a meeting room or remote.
Supportive
Your organization needs to show empathy for employees who may be fatigued from working virtually but feel anxious about returning to the office.
Secure
With hybrid work, you need security that doesn’t compromise simplicity and employee efficiency while also ensuring you honor employees’ privacy.
Managed
You need a simple way to manage the infrastructure of hybrid work, including easy provisioning of users and their devices. You also need the ability to gather real time analytics to help ensure all employees have the best possible collaboration experience.
Benefits of Hybrid Work
Hybrid work, when done correctly, nurtures an employee centric workplace experience. As a result, the onsite environment is designed to meet their specific requirements and becomes a great place to work. Let’s look at how hybrid is changing the workplace.
Improve employee engagement at work
When your staff has greater discretion over where they work, they’re more likely to balance their workloads, participate fully in job duties, and derive pleasure from their jobs. According to Gallup polls, more engaged workers are more likely to stay and produce better results.
Despite the availability of a flexible working arrangement, some workers may still maintain their regular routine. Simply having the option to work on-site or remotely is liberating and has been shown to result in more engagement at work.
Better company culture
Hybrid work allows workers to move between various environments as needed and desired. As a result, they’ll be more driven to do their job when they arrive at the office.
An employee, for example, may complete solitary chores at home that don’t require face-time with coworkers. They can then join on-site project teams and develop relationships with their coworkers after coming on-site.
Improved space efficiency
In a hybrid work model, there are fewer employees onsite each day. You can make more efficient use of your business’s physical space because there is less crowding than in organizations under the traditional model of work.
A small, well-organized workplace is more productive and efficient. It allows you to notice areas for improvement without having your workspace feel too empty or crammed. As a result, your business may require less office space, lowering overhead expenses.
To sum it all
Hybrid work is here to stay and adopting a solution designed to handle it all will help your organization thrive and grow with its new hybrid model.