Hybrid work lies somewhere between office-only and home office, giving employees the freedom to choose whether to go to the office or work from home. The global pandemic has shown companies that it is possible to conduct remote meetings successfully and be productive from home. Thus, employees can now define where they work best. Today's technology allows us to connect various spaces and create a unified virtual place to get our work done.
What Does Hybrid Work Mean?
Hybrid work can take many forms and can be composed in various ways. Depending on how your work and company culture allow, you can work part of the week on-site and the other part remotely. In some companies, employees work either entirely from home or entirely on-site, while others may allow a combination of both. Anything is possible as long as it is agreed upon in advance.
How to Implement a Hybrid Work Model?
To develop a suitable hybrid model for your company, you should first survey the needs of your employees. By involving employees in your vision, you can create a work model that motivates them to perform their best.
Create a survey to gauge your employees' attitudes toward hybrid work. This can vary greatly, so it is crucial to ask detailed questions. Ask about the work environment in which they feel most comfortable and include examples. Here are some questions you might include:
- Where are you most productive? On-site or at home?
- If you had the option to work from home, would you take it?
- At what times are you most productive?
- How long is your commute to work?
- Do you prefer meetings face-to-face or online?
- How many days a week would you like to come to the office?
- If there were an office closer to your home, would you use it instead of commuting to the main office?
Once you have evaluated the survey results, you will know the demand for hybrid work in your company. This will help you identify which flexible work arrangements are most appealing to employees and allow you to adjust your work model accordingly.
Remember, work models that work for other companies are not the norm and may not be suitable for you. Therefore, it is essential to consider where your company was before the pandemic, where it stands now, and where you want it to be in the future.
Conduct an inventory of what is feasible and what is not. This will be the starting point for your hybrid work plan. Keep in mind that adjustments may be needed initially.
Hybrid Working: Finding the Right Tools
At andys, remote work was implemented for all employees from the beginning. Various digital tools are used to support this, facilitating internal communication and efficiently coordinating cross-functional tasks. We primarily use Teams for internal communication and other tools like Wrike or Confluence for coordinating tasks and documenting information.
Accommodating Hybrid Work
First and foremost, analyze the solutions implemented over the past two years due to the challenges. Did these solutions bring the desired success, or were there better alternatives?
The goal is to connect on-site environments with remote locations so employees can collaborate seamlessly and achieve a perfect mix of office and remote work – a concept known as "work-life blending."
It is essential for employees to utilize digital technologies. An investment in communication tools and/or video conferencing systems may be necessary. It is crucial to think long-term with this decision, as the initial investment can be costly but can ensure employee satisfaction in the long run.
Define best practices for company communication and encourage team leaders to set clear expectations for employees. These goals should be tailored to employees so that they are individually achievable. This may result in an asynchronous communication style, as some prefer daily goals while others prefer weekly goals.
With hybrid work, it is also possible to hire employees from different time zones and accommodate their working hours. This way, other colleagues are not bound to a specific location or core working hours. The key is to find the right tools for optimal communication among team members.
To support team spirit, it is crucial to hold regular meetings where everyone can meet either in person or virtually.
Andys holds monthly team meetings where some are present on-site, and others join virtually. This flexibility is supported by high-quality digital technology, with meeting rooms equipped with good webcams to create the optimal meeting atmosphere.
This flexibility allows team members to decide whether the office or home is the best place for productive work. Personal tasks, such as childcare or studying, are easier and less stressful to manage as well.
Reduce Your Office Space
As part of implementing hybrid work, you should reevaluate your real estate needs. If only a few employees use the office, it might be time to move to a smaller office or a coworking space.
In this case, the Hub and Spoke model can be considered. Here, companies have a small headquarters and grant their employees access to a cluster of coworking spaces near their homes.
One significant advantage of switching to a coworking center is that there are usually multiple locations, reducing the need for employees to commute and providing quick access to office infrastructure.
On one hand, the company can reduce its CO2 footprint, and on the other hand, this approach aligns with the concept of the 15-minute city, a city planning concept where people can live and work within a 15-minute radius of their homes.
Additionally, this model increases employee satisfaction and reduces additional costs and operational tasks, as most coworking centers offer an all-in service.
The Office Experience in Hybrid Work
Last but not least, the hybrid work model reduces the waste of resources for a large office that most employees no longer use. It's all about being as agile as possible.
Create a Good Workplace Experience
Ensure that the workplace experience is not lost. Even if not all employees are on-site every day, seeing and coordinating with each other virtually, it is still important for them to meet in person occasionally.
This is especially important for new employees who only know the new way of working and probably only collaborate virtually with their department. It is a good opportunity for them to get to know other colleagues. It is crucial to make on-site work attractive to strengthen the team community.
For example, you could introduce regular breakfast meetings or after-work drinks. It is essential to tailor these meetings to the preferences of employees to spark their interest.
Get ideas from your employees to ensure everyone participates and enjoys these meetings. If the on-site work experience is poor, more employees may prefer to work from home. Monotony in the workplace can also drive those who regularly come to work from home, leading to wasted resources and investments on-site, contradicting the goal of a hybrid work model.
Cooperation in Hybrid Working
The andys team motivates each other to meet regularly in the office through after-work drinks or a shared meal cooked by a team member. Another fixed point is a weekly coffee talk via Teams.
In these coffee talks, the focus is on personal topics to foster mutual interest and engagement in each other's private lives. Of course, fun is never missing.
For the andys team, it is essential to continually discuss and evaluate what works and what doesn't. And naturally, adaptations sometimes take time to show their effect because Rome wasn't built in a day.
Create a Good Workplace Experience
On the path to a hybrid work environment that is optimally tailored to your company, you should always gather feedback from your employees. Ensure that your employees have more than one way to share their thoughts.
One example could be a constantly active Slack channel dedicated solely to employee feedback. Additionally, you could send out quarterly feedback surveys to your employees. This way, you can best evaluate how they are doing and what suggestions for improvement exist.
Subsequently, you should also obtain quarterly feedback from your team leaders to gather their recommendations on whether the concept works for your company or if adjustments are needed. A hybrid workplace is not implemented overnight but requires work and trust.
Conclusion
The hybrid model was once considered the last alternative work form. However, as more employees demand flexibility and it has been proven that working from home is possible, it is increasingly being incorporated and expanded.
Companies should respond to the needs of their workforce. Otherwise, they risk losing talent to other employers who already do this. This model also has many advantages for the company itself, as it is no longer geographically bound when looking for new talent. Thus, it is possible to attract the best talent worldwide without having to settle for the next best option.
