Workplaces have transformed as we embrace flexible working practices. Here’s a quick introduction to hybrid work model and a few things to consider when transitioning.
Prior to the pandemic, hybrid work model has somehow started. Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) data showed that approximately 8% of employees had a formal work-from-home arrangement in 2019, and around 5% worked from home in a 2016 Census data.
Back then, technology to support work-from-home arrangements had already existed but for a small proportion of workers, mainly ‘knowledge workers’ earning higher incomes, and those administrative and clerical positions that had lower educational requirements and earnings potential, which could be done from home. Many employers were reluctant to make investments and take the risks of potential security breaches and staff misconduct.
But in 2020, the unforeseen outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced stay-at-home restrictions on office workers around the world. 47% of Australian employees self-reported that they teleworked during the 2020 lockdown.
Workplaces have transformed in a matter of weeks as Australian employers embrace flexible working practices. Consequently, many businesses and organisations have found themselves navigating from the traditional office-first, 9–5 structure to a hybrid work model.
What is a Hybrid Work Model?
According to a Fair Work Commission report, roughly 4.3 million Australian workers were working from home in May 2020. Despite working remotely, productivity and collaboration continued seamlessly. The “death of the office” was in the narrative until restrictions and work-from-home directions were lifted. While some people thrive in a work-from-home environment and have a better work-life balance, others suffer from burnout. Concerns over disconnection, productivity, reduced opportunities for collaboration, networking, and face-to-face interaction have started to emerge.
The Hybrid Work model is the best of both worlds. It is a work style that enables employees to blend working from different locations: home, on the go, or in the office. “Work from anywhere” is a variation of the hybrid model, where workers can work from any location in the world, but with an expectation of some office time for events like work conferences. More so, the hybrid work model encourages flexibility, autonomy, and collaboration, leading to positive work relationships, effective work habits, high performance, and greater retention.
Hybrid work is indeed a flexible approach, but a complex new model that can present challenges for the future of work. So, if you want to move your business towards a hybrid work environment, here are the challenges and concerns that you must address.
The Challenges of Hybrid Work
- Overhead and labour costs – office and remote space
- Employee choice of hybrid schedule
- Well-designed, hybrid-ready physical office space
- BYOD
- Secure and seamless connectivity
- Security risks and vulnerabilities with multiple apps, devices, and networks
- Remote employee workspace, devices, apps and support
- Team management, communication and collaboration
- Balance between autonomy and collaboration
- Better work-life balance
- Overall employee wellbeing – mental and physical health
- Positive workplace culture
These challenges are mostly borne out of the need to ensure that the pros and cons are carefully thought-out before diving into the hybrid work model, and at the same time, introduce you to the reality of hybrid working.
Navigating a successful transition to hybrid work model
Certainly, more challenges and opportunities will emerge around hybrid work as the COVID-19 pandemic is slowly winding down. The ICT industry has been working on these challenges since day one so that every business and organisation can transition to hybrid working successfully and adapt to any work model in the future.
The key to success for any hybrid work model depends on many factors, like your business’ leadership commitment, technology readiness, employee preferences, customer adaptability, company culture, and values.
To make this transition successful, businesses need a strategy to effectively design a hybrid work arrangement with individual employee concerns in mind. This necessitates an organisation approaching the challenge of adopting hybrid work from various perspectives, such as jobs and tasks; employee preferences; connectivity; security; and workflow; and remote employee inclusion and fairness. Here are a few important things to consider when moving to a hybrid work model that is tailored to your business.
1. Assessing your organisation’s willingness to transition.
Is your company ready to become a hybrid workplace? Are your employees hybrid-work-ready? Pushing for a transition when your workplace is not hybrid-ready and your employees don’t support hybrid work, the transition will only result in failure. No two organisations are the same or will have the same hybrid work model and solutions. That’s why changes in work policies or plans to invest in new collaboration tools should be carefully evaluated to ensure that your business case and strategy are tailored to your business’ desired outcomes and employee strengths and weaknesses.
2. Mapping out employee workflow.
Define the jobs and tasks of each employee and identify what needs to get done in and out of the office. By doing so, you’ll have an idea of your employees’ work arrangements and the right tools to get their job done. For example, you can easily collaborate with remote employees with the right video conferencing and audio-visual solutions tailored to your organisation’s needs.
3. Crafting a Solid IT Budget from the top down.
Identify which services and tools are subscription-based and which need to be bought or rented. You need to increase your investment in tech, videoconferencing, digital, and collaboration tools that will maintain and secure communication, strengthen employee engagement, and support remote workers.
4. Investing in the right technology.
The right technology will help you transition into a great hybrid workplace and allow hybrid teams to collaborate effectively. Mapping out employee workflows will also allow you to see what existing tools you have that you can leverage and/or integrate with your new collaboration and communication tools. Hexicor’s Cloud services allow your team to consolidate your most important data and communications into one secure and accessible place.
5. Putting in place the necessary infrastructure, systems, and software to support flexibility.
The future of work is now taking place in a hybrid office, home, cafe, or anywhere in between. By adopting the right infrastructure, systems, and software, every remote and office-based employee is connected and gets work done faster, more autonomously, and more securely. With work expectations in place, communication is clear and coming to the office is less of a burden.
6. Creating a trusting and autonomous culture.
Hybrid work has reinvented the physical workplace. Invest in a company culture that supports employee wellbeing and embraces diversity and inclusion to cater to the many forms of hybrid working and achieve flexibility among your employees across different locations and time zones. Build a culture of trust and autonomy as workers manage their own workloads instead of micromanaging them.
7. Providing appropriate training and career development opportunities for all employees.
Training and career development efforts drop due to the increase of remote work. While hybrid employees may not come on-site every day, setting up virtual training sessions and even virtual lunches assures your remote employees they receive the same recognition and career opportunities as your in-office employees. Training supervisors on how to manage remote or hybrid workers is a must in creating a great hybrid workplace experience for remote workers.
The hybrid work model is no longer an alternative style of work. As more and more businesses are adopting the technology of hybrid work, employees are seeing the advantages of more flexibility at work. Hybrid work is indeed here to stay. It is becoming the new norm for workplaces across Australia. So, if you want to move your business towards a hybrid work environment, it is important to know the challenges ahead of you. Hence, you will be able to find the best hybrid work solutions unique to your workers coming back to the office, those who are working remotely, and those in-between.
Interested in hybrid work model but not really sure what you need to do or where to start your transition?
Migration to a hybrid environment requires a solid foundation to support office, remote, and hybrid workers. It demands only the best hybrid work solutions that are efficient, well designed, and provide multiple features and functions. See how Hexicor can help your business successfully move to hybrid work and equip your leaders with the necessary skills for your hybrid team!
