Key Takeaways

  • The hybrid work model is drastically gaining popularity, especially after the pandemic. In this article, we will explain the hybrid work model in detail.

  • We will tap into how managers can create an effective hybrid work model. For this, we will round off some essential points, such as new policy formulation, ensuring optimal communications, etc.

Hybrid working is the combination of remote and office based work. Most models are built around at least one day in the office per week. Even before the pandemic, most people preferred a hybrid or work-from-home model.

According to a survey conducted by Global Workplace Analytics in 2019, employees would be happier (83%), feel more trusted (82%), have a better work/life balance (81%), and be more likely to recommend their organisation to a friend (81%) if they worked in a hybrid workplace.

Furthermore, according to a CIPD survey, 40% of businesses anticipate that more than half of their employees will work frequently from home in the future.

After a year of working from home, Microsoft conducted a poll of 30,000 individuals and found that 70% of respondents expected remote work to continue into the future. According to LeadershipIQ’s survey, most employees would want to work from home 3-4 days (39%) or 1-2 days per week (29%).

These stats speak volumes about the power of a hybrid work environment. Work-from-home and remote jobs are a big draw, however, with in-person team time, access to office supplies, and fast internet, there’s still a need for office space access for many. The answer? Hybrid working.

What is Hybrid Working?

The hybrid work model is a flexible working approach that combines remote working with an office space presence.

It creates a fluid in-between by combining work from home with office space access, allowing employees to determine where and how they work. In essence, staff go into the office when it provides a better environment for specific tasks (faster internet, meeting rooms, specific equipment) and work from home when not.

Employers and employees can both benefit from hybrid working and increase productivity.

Employers may be able to cut down company overheads by downsizing the office and diverting these savings to raise employee salaries, invest in business growth or return profit to shareholders.

Employees can have a more personalised work-life balance which will lead to increased well-being.

Moreover, having time in the office makes it easier for HR and management to maintain a collaborative team spirit.

Understanding Hybrid Working Arrangements

Transitioning to a hybrid work company culture is not easy. After all, most companies in the world have been tuned to work in offices for decades.

What An Employer Can Expect From Hybrid Work Arrangements?

  • When implementing hybrid work schedules, businesses should strive to establish a secure and productive environment both remotely and on-site.
  • This will require the creation of appropriate policies and procedures to ensure that hybrid teams can continue working. (We’ll talk about this later.)
  • Businesses must enable their staff to work at their best at home or in the office so it is essential that employees are provided with portable devices or a virtual workspace that can be logged into from either location.
  • When adopting a hybrid working policy, employers will be expected to entrust their workers who work remotely with completing and monitoring their workload.
  • The business will also be held responsible for ensuring employees’ concerns are always considered.

Create A Clear Policy And Procedure

Create policies and routines to help your hybrid workers make the transition to a hybrid work environment smoothly as possible.

This might imply starting from the ground up or modifying an existing flexible working policy for employees that work remotely or employees that work on-site.

Points To Consider For Policy Formulation

  • Describe the type of hybrid work model that will be implemented and how it will function.
  • If the company doesn’t provide a blanket policy, explain to workers how they can request hybrid working and who is qualified for remote work.
  • Ensure that all employees are aware of their new hybrid model roles and responsibilities.
  • Some existing corporate rules may not be suitable. Update current corporate rules to reflect how hybrid working operates, keeping in mind that different cultures will have varying opinions about it.
  • To illustrate, provide a plan for appraisals, complaints, performance, and absences for hybrid or remote workers. Many of these will need to be adjusted in order to include personnel from outside the on-site office.

Consider The Legal Ramifications Of Integrating Work And Life

Legal issues are a concern for businesses that employ hybrid workers. The adoption of this method may require making amendments to employment contracts.

To accommodate for this, new employment contracts should state the workplace’s address and those working from home should have their house address listed as their workplace.

Ensure that employees are aware that if they move, it is critical that they notify their landlord, mortgage provider, and house insurer so that their policies and terms of the agreement may be affected.

There are also some tax advantages for those who work from home that their remote workers may take advantage of. Make sure they’re aware!

Making Communication Easier

Communication inside and across departments will have a significant impact on the successful implementation of a hybrid work model.

The ideal solution is to use an approach of asynchronous communication, which allows employees working to communicate without the requirement for immediate responses. It will also boost employee engagement.

You’ll inform workers of all they need to know about the assignment and enable them to complete it in the allocated time.

Employees can submit inquiries or updates regarding their status without team members having to be present all day if there are any difficulties.

Workplace instant-messaging applications such as Slack, Microsoft Teams Chat, or Google Chat can be helpful for keeping teams connected.

In A Hybrid Working Model, Teach And Develop Your Remote Workers

Hybrid working will impose new demands on employees, presenting them with unfamiliar difficulties. Develop your organisation’s learning and development to ensure that its workers are as productive as possible, on-site and remotely.

This might require:

  • Creating a list of suggested tools and how to use them.
  • Ensure that appropriate security measures are in place to help secure data.
  • Assessing the office’s and employees’ existing IT equipment to see whether it will enable hybrid working.

Ensure That Your Staff Has Access To The Proper Tools And Technology To Achieve Their Goals.

Whatever hybrid environment you pick, your staff should be able to seamlessly go from home to the office.

Those who work from home require the appropriate tools to be productive. They also require access to a workspace that is easy to move into.

Examine your office’s layout. Convert ‘set spaces’ into hot desks and establish an online booking system for office usage, among other things.

Look at innovative solutions that improve collaborative working opportunities for employees working at home.

Gather Continuous Feedback About Hybrid Work

Lastly, we have the most crucial point. It is very important to obtain feedback from employees about the hybrid work model. This applies to both aspects, when employees go into the office and when employees work from home.

It will enable you to understand where you stand in a hybrid work model. This way, you will be able to work on things that might not be suitable for a hybrid work model.

Final Thoughts On Hybrid Work

As more workers desire flexibility, hybrid work will become increasingly prevalent.
Businesses must satisfy the demands of their employees or risk losing talent to competitors that do.

Key Takeaways

  • The hybrid work model is drastically gaining popularity, especially after the pandemic. In this article, we will explain the hybrid work model in detail.

  • We will tap into how managers can create an effective hybrid work model. For this, we will round off some essential points, such as new policy formulation, ensuring optimal communications, etc.

Hybrid working is the combination of remote and office based work. Most models are built around at least one day in the office per week. Even before the pandemic, most people preferred a hybrid or work-from-home model.

According to a survey conducted by Global Workplace Analytics in 2019, employees would be happier (83%), feel more trusted (82%), have a better work/life balance (81%), and be more likely to recommend their organisation to a friend (81%) if they worked in a hybrid workplace.

Furthermore, according to a CIPD survey, 40% of businesses anticipate that more than half of their employees will work frequently from home in the future.

After a year of working from home, Microsoft conducted a poll of 30,000 individuals and found that 70% of respondents expected remote work to continue into the future. According to LeadershipIQ’s survey, most employees would want to work from home 3-4 days (39%) or 1-2 days per week (29%).

These stats speak volumes about the power of a hybrid work environment. Work-from-home and remote jobs are a big draw, however, with in-person team time, access to office supplies, and fast internet, there’s still a need for office space access for many. The answer? Hybrid working.

What is Hybrid Working?

The hybrid work model is a flexible working approach that combines remote working with an office space presence.

It creates a fluid in-between by combining work from home with office space access, allowing employees to determine where and how they work. In essence, staff go into the office when it provides a better environment for specific tasks (faster internet, meeting rooms, specific equipment) and work from home when not.

Employers and employees can both benefit from hybrid working and increase productivity.

Employers may be able to cut down company overheads by downsizing the office and diverting these savings to raise employee salaries, invest in business growth or return profit to shareholders.

Employees can have a more personalised work-life balance which will lead to increased well-being.

Moreover, having time in the office makes it easier for HR and management to maintain a collaborative team spirit.

Understanding Hybrid Working Arrangements

Transitioning to a hybrid work company culture is not easy. After all, most companies in the world have been tuned to work in offices for decades.

What An Employer Can Expect From Hybrid Work Arrangements?

  • When implementing hybrid work schedules, businesses should strive to establish a secure and productive environment both remotely and on-site.
  • This will require the creation of appropriate policies and procedures to ensure that hybrid teams can continue working. (We’ll talk about this later.)
  • Businesses must enable their staff to work at their best at home or in the office so it is essential that employees are provided with portable devices or a virtual workspace that can be logged into from either location.
  • When adopting a hybrid working policy, employers will be expected to entrust their workers who work remotely with completing and monitoring their workload.
  • The business will also be held responsible for ensuring employees’ concerns are always considered.

Create A Clear Policy And Procedure

Create policies and routines to help your hybrid workers make the transition to a hybrid work environment smoothly as possible.

This might imply starting from the ground up or modifying an existing flexible working policy for employees that work remotely or employees that work on-site.

Points To Consider For Policy Formulation

  • Describe the type of hybrid work model that will be implemented and how it will function.
  • If the company doesn’t provide a blanket policy, explain to workers how they can request hybrid working and who is qualified for remote work.
  • Ensure that all employees are aware of their new hybrid model roles and responsibilities.
  • Some existing corporate rules may not be suitable. Update current corporate rules to reflect how hybrid working operates, keeping in mind that different cultures will have varying opinions about it.
  • To illustrate, provide a plan for appraisals, complaints, performance, and absences for hybrid or remote workers. Many of these will need to be adjusted in order to include personnel from outside the on-site office.

Consider The Legal Ramifications Of Integrating Work And Life

Legal issues are a concern for businesses that employ hybrid workers. The adoption of this method may require making amendments to employment contracts.

To accommodate for this, new employment contracts should state the workplace’s address and those working from home should have their house address listed as their workplace.

Ensure that employees are aware that if they move, it is critical that they notify their landlord, mortgage provider, and house insurer so that their policies and terms of the agreement may be affected.

There are also some tax advantages for those who work from home that their remote workers may take advantage of. Make sure they’re aware!

Making Communication Easier

Communication inside and across departments will have a significant impact on the successful implementation of a hybrid work model.

The ideal solution is to use an approach of asynchronous communication, which allows employees working to communicate without the requirement for immediate responses. It will also boost employee engagement.

You’ll inform workers of all they need to know about the assignment and enable them to complete it in the allocated time.

Employees can submit inquiries or updates regarding their status without team members having to be present all day if there are any difficulties.

Workplace instant-messaging applications such as Slack, Microsoft Teams Chat, or Google Chat can be helpful for keeping teams connected.

In A Hybrid Working Model, Teach And Develop Your Remote Workers

Hybrid working will impose new demands on employees, presenting them with unfamiliar difficulties. Develop your organisation’s learning and development to ensure that its workers are as productive as possible, on-site and remotely.

This might require:

  • Creating a list of suggested tools and how to use them.
  • Ensure that appropriate security measures are in place to help secure data.
  • Assessing the office’s and employees’ existing IT equipment to see whether it will enable hybrid working.

Ensure That Your Staff Has Access To The Proper Tools And Technology To Achieve Their Goals.

Whatever hybrid environment you pick, your staff should be able to seamlessly go from home to the office.

Those who work from home require the appropriate tools to be productive. They also require access to a workspace that is easy to move into.

Examine your office’s layout. Convert ‘set spaces’ into hot desks and establish an online booking system for office usage, among other things.

Look at innovative solutions that improve collaborative working opportunities for employees working at home.

Gather Continuous Feedback About Hybrid Work

Lastly, we have the most crucial point. It is very important to obtain feedback from employees about the hybrid work model. This applies to both aspects, when employees go into the office and when employees work from home.

It will enable you to understand where you stand in a hybrid work model. This way, you will be able to work on things that might not be suitable for a hybrid work model.

Final Thoughts On Hybrid Work

As more workers desire flexibility, hybrid work will become increasingly prevalent.
Businesses must satisfy the demands of their employees or risk losing talent to competitors that do.

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