How the hybrid workforce will drive the future of work?

A tiring commute to the workplace, sitting in the office cubicles right next to your colleagues, and quick interactions near the coffee machine has become a thing of the past. No one ever had foresight about this sudden and massive shift from physical in-office workspace to remote work life. Fast forward to today, for organizations and the employees, the workplace experience might have transformed entirely.

However, this was not the case with a top-notch company like Infosys. For example, in one of their conferences, they mentioned that their teams were into remote work long before the pandemic struck the businesses. Thus, it was easy for them to transition its 2, 40,000 employees across locations. In addition, the company announced that they will prefer a flexible hybrid work model in view of any unprecedented times.

Businesses will need to match the needs of this post-pandemic scenario in every aspect. How will everything look like, you ask? The answer is simple. Establishing a seamless model of hybrid workforce management where employees can work remotely and in-office simultaneously. Sounds interesting? Let’s move ahead.

What is a hybrid work model?

First, we will understand the concept of the hybrid work model and how does it actually work? Through a hybrid work approach, organizations can facilitate flexibility in working from anywhere without interruptions such as strict Government restrictions on people gatherings in offices. Employees, supervisors, agents, or team leaders, all can have the opportunity of working from home or on-premises as per their duty demands. Enterprises can save on extra operational expenditures by reducing the count of people at the office and make them accountable for their tasks during remote work. When necessary, employees can come to the office to work on bigger projects with their respective teams. The complete process even in remote work stays functional if there are the right tools in place and strategies are well-planned.

The new normal: hybrid work solution

 

Hybrid workforce management is not a simple process to consider and implement altogether. It needs time, effective supporting tools, and a smart workforce for better workflow. The hybrid work model comes with its own set of challenges that organizations can overcome with impactful strategies. Take a glance at some of them mentioned below:

• Securing crucial data especially when employees work remotely on different VPNs (Virtual Private Network). 
• Enabling limited access to certain employees and deploying multi-factor authentication to prevent any network breach or data theft.
• Having efficient video conferencing platforms for better communication as constant phone calls without end results can take a toll on employee productivity and hamper time.
• Establishing effortless collaboration between team members so that they can understand each other’s perspectives even when working across different locations.
• Managing employees’ tasks and time they had put in work no matter if it is remote work or in-office one. 
• Tracing day-to-day task progress and deadlines as managers adhere to weekly worksheets.
• Training new employees on-board related to the organizational environment and how certain things work.

Organizations understand the need to streamline the tasks that remote and in-office teams have to perform, albeit, they need effective technology to make it happen. If we peep into today’s scenario, manually streamlining workflow and handling remote meetings will take much effort and will eventually lead to zero benefits. There, a hybrid work solution like employee monitoring software comes as a savior. The employee monitoring software sector is booming and for some good reasons. The features inculcated in work from anywhere solution like employee monitoring software assist organizations to monitor employees within periods, restrict unauthorized access, empower remote team collaborations, secures data and prevent it from any cyber threats. 

A study reveals that as employers move towards hybrid models, 61% of business leaders have implemented more frequent check-ins where only 13% have voiced concerns for sustaining productivity.

For bridging the gap between the remote and in-office experiences, it is essential to think about concrete ways so that new-age businesses can seamlessly adjust to a hybrid work model. To make that happen, create policies that are beneficial to both working from home and in-office employees. As complex or tricky it might sound, think about the ways where employees feel appreciated and support you in driving the hybrid model of work effortlessly. You can also implement some practices like:

Build work hours flexibility

 

Remote workers may stay inside their houses. However, that does not mean they do not have other responsibilities. An efficient hybrid work model never demands everyone to work at the same hours and pace. Productivity cannot come out of the similar pressure on everyone in a team working remotely or on-premise. Communication transparency is a critical aspect of this. Also, the end goal should only be task achievement. Hybrid work solutions like employee monitoring software can help organizations to watch the teams closely and assign tasks accordingly with better time management.

Switch to virtual communication 

 

When team members understand each other better, the work results will also be better. Choose a hybrid work solution that works for everyone. Instead of relying only on those tools with a mere time-tracking facility, go for ultra-modern video conferencing platforms. Not only this work from anywhere solution will help employees to interact with each other but will make them able to understand each other’s way of thinking and talking. This way, remote work teams would not feel isolated and feel being part of their on-premises team.

Redefine the team collaboration

 

Your team members do not respond right away? Well, they don’t have to either; unless necessary. The goal is to gather the task information and status. Give them the freedom to collaborate effectively and they will run on time. As employees in a hybrid work model do not need the same physical space to brainstorm or collaborate on projects, they can always have remote collaboration tools for support. These tools can help employees to have updates on time while giving all employees to work confidently without the fear of staying connected all the time.

 

Final thoughts

 

Try to make the work-life hybrid rather than harmful for any employee as an organization. You reflected upon the strategies, made effective policies, and opted for a hybrid work solution. Now, you have all the ingredients to make your hybrid work model recipe successful. There is no denying the fact that employees have been as productive while working from home as they would have been in the office. With employee monitoring software, organizations can add more to the employee productivity level. All in all, businesses can save on operational costs, physical space and invest in technology while building stronger hybrid work models.