12 new year’s resolutions for collaboration and hybrid working in 2023

Tactics your company should embrace to stay competitive and support staff retention

Hybrid working isn’t going away. Increasingly employees are requesting that they choose their work location – whether at home, in the office, or a combination of both. And with quiet quitting and the Great Resignation still ringing in our ears, we know companies need to embrace this new way of working to retain their top talent and remain competitive. So, we’ve collected 12 New Year’s resolutions for collaboration and hybrid working in 2023 that your company can adopt right now to adapt and overcome in preparation for a profitable year.

1.????Tweak your social media strategy

With more people at home for longer, social media usage and the number of users are on the upswing. So, no matter what sector you’re in, it’s time to formalise your social media strategy to appeal to this increase in audience. Think about mixed media too. Capturing live video via conferencing and webinar tools, commissioning some animation or organising 3D photo shoots can offer more engaging content for users to consume than standard text-based and branded flat image formats.

2.???Support teams to manage screen time

Screen time increased during the pandemic and we’re still feeling the effects. Too much screen time can cause a range of problems including depression, insomnia, neck pain, obesity and more. But it’s not all doom-scrolling on TikTok, work apps are also included in this figure. So, one of the top New Year’s resolutions for collaboration and hybrid working in 2023 should be to support employees with healthy device use and put in place automated breaks and reminders for workplace software.

3.???Enable asynchronous working

According to Finances Online, the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab examined the psychological consequences of spending hours per day on video chat platforms and found that video conferencing has design flaws that tire the human mind and body. Cisco’s Hybrid Work Index for October 2021 found that 48% of meeting participants didn’t speak. To avoid fatigue, executives are now using asynchronous video tools. Cisco Webex is one of the many vendors offering this new environment and your implementation partner can help you choose the right product mix for your team.

4.??Define your hybrid working policies

9 to 5, Monday-Friday? Are these working practices a thing of the past? Probably. Most research pieces are showing that employees want to keep the benefits they realised during the lockdowns without any of the negatives (like loneliness). Your company can get ahead of this desire by formalising a flexible working policy that allows for a minimum of one day working from home and staggered start times. This will keep people from jumping ship in search of the better work-life balance they know is possible.

5.???Upgrade your cybercrime protection

As more businesses are increasingly online, this ramps up the opportunities for cybercriminals. Pre-pandemic, most of the access points into corporate networks would have been on-site or heavily encrypted, but with more at-home working; the risks have exponentially increased. Ensure remote workers have access to a secure VPN and follow robust data protection practices no matter where they’re working from. If you don’t have the know-how to roll out these policies in-house, talk to an expert cybersecurity partner.

6.???Commit to a password manager

Every shop, forum, news organisation and app need a password these days. And it’s really easy to fall into the trap of using the same one for everything. But that’s a huge security risk. So, one way to avoid remembering hundreds of passwords is to use a tool like LastPass or Google Password Manager to both suggest strong passwords and store your unique passwords for every website. Then, you only need to remember one password (the one for your password manager).

7.???Teach device cleanliness

With more people sharing desks and equipment as employers embrace hot desking and other hybrid practices; cleanliness is important. Viruses and bacteria can spread, even on non-porous surfaces. So, it’s important to teach your team members how to sanitise their equipment without causing any liquid damage. If your budget allows, you may even want to invest in a proven UV-C wand for the office.

8.??Invest in remote training

Upskilling is one of the most-talked-about trends for collaboration and hybrid working in 2023. But with teams in multiple locations and even different time zones, you’ll need to find a solution that allows for self-directed study. No matter what job your employees do right now, the shift towards technical skills is already happening with big players investing billions to create the future workforce today. Consider providing a learning environment where your employees already are with teaching practices like the one offered by LinkedIn.

9.???Reward teams for novel tool use

Chances are that your business deployed a wide range of tools in 2020 and beyond. And it’s likely that many of those resources aren’t fully utilised. So, make one of your New Year’s resolutions for collaboration and hybrid working in 2023 to invite your team to ideate outside-of-the-box use cases for software and equipment you already have. This will improve relations between staff and management while fostering increased collaboration and creativity.

10. Redesign the office for hybrid use

Bin your cubicles and amp up the meeting space. Offices of the future will focus less on work that can be done solo or remotely and more on collaboration. As such, the design of the offices themselves will change. Integrated conference room systems and other digital collaboration tools will take centre stage as we move away from siloed working. Your IT solutions expert can help you best optimise for more breakout spaces within your layout.

11.??Move to a fully cloud-based environment

Every part of your operation needs to benefit from a go-anywhere approach. Not only will this reduce downtime as workers can still log in to complete tasks no matter where they are, but it gives you a 360-degree view of your environment for productivity and security benefits. Talk to your implementation partner about how a full cloud solution could enable better collaboration and hybrid working in 2023. And should a team member decide to move on, you’ll have more control over that intellectual property and their access with a solution that accounts for remote working as standard.

12. Make wellness a focus

Culturally, this year, companies of all sizes need to focus on providing a good work-life balance, support for mental health and outlets for wellness for every team member. Forbes reports that according to the 2022 Employee Wellness Industry Trends Report by Wellable Labs, 76% of companies are investing more in stress management and resilience resources for their team members, all of which can be used for work situations as well as in their personal lives. ?So, it’s a clear focus. While there are hundreds of ways to do this from offering an on-site gym to providing counselling sessions, it’s obvious that today’s workers want employers to value the percentage of their lives given to the company by looking after their holistic health.

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And there you have it… 12 new year’s resolutions for collaboration and hybrid working in 2023. If you want support to roll out some of the more technical solutions on this list, our team of IT implementation experts are standing by to help you scope a more robust environment for your teams this year. Start the conversation now.