Is Hybrid Workplace the new future?

Covid-19 has posed several challenges to the corporate world. One of the challenges was a forced decision of employees working from home.?

Organizations are searching for new ways of continuing work and being productive with the prolonged pandemic. While a few are operating with work from home, work from anywhere or work from office or even further adopting a hybrid workplace. ?

A hybrid workplace is an arrangement where employees work from the office occasionally or a few days a week and work from home (anywhere) the rest of the days based on their convenience.?

While there have been numerous discussions on this, let me explain more in detail with a few pros and cons:

Pros:

• Reducing the cost of operations: Organizations need not spend on huge facilities to accommodate employees. They can have small offices to accommodate employees who have to work mandatorily from the office.?
• Flexible work: Employees can choose their timings of work, workplace.
• Helps employees financially: Employees need not spend money to commute to the work location. In some cases, employees can save on rent as well.?
• More diversified and inclusive talent: With every crisis, there is an opportunity. Opportunities for hiring talent from diversified backgrounds have opened. Organizations are hiring people who took a break in their careers for various reasons, etc.?
• More productivity: Employees feel more comfortable with flexible work timings and the workplace. It helps to plan their work more wisely resulting in higher productivity.?

?Cons:

• Communication & Team Building: While technology is helping us to be in communication at any time, what is missing is in-person team meetings and team activities which help in team bonding.?
• Work-Life Balance: Before the pandemic, it was work-life balance. Now that employees are working from home, it’s all about work-life-family balance. Employees have to decide and manage their time between office work, family, friends, and themselves.?
• Productivity: A few say that a Hybrid workplace is the worst arrangement. Employees will face challenges in adjusting to this resulting low productivity.?
• Cost of Infrastructure: There is a threat of increased infrastructure cost provided there is no proper planning. Organizations might have to shell more money to provide office infrastructure both at the office and at home.?

The success of any workplace arrangement would be on the execution of it. Let’s see how we can make this arrangement a workable solution.

• Revisiting the policies: Being agile in the new mantra. Policies may have to be visited based on the need. It may be continuous and dynamic.?
• Investing in the latest technology: Today, we have a lot of tools and technology available. It is on the organization to invest in the right technologies suitable for their need.?
• Providing office infrastructure at home: Organizations to support employees on buying office infrastructure to be more productive.
• Engaging employees: Well, this is one of the biggest challenges. Employee engagement was much easier when employees were working from an office.?We need to be more innovative and creative to create a great employee engagement experience.
• Creating communities and satellite offices: Creating oneness is a challenge. To create oneness among employees, the key is to engage. HR needs to be more creative. One of the ways is to form communities based on - geographical locations or departments or a function, encourage them to meet in person at regular intervals, and sponsor the cost. Satellite Offices would be like a small office(s) in various cities to accommodate team meetings at regular intervals.?
• Helping employees cope with the arrangement: Providing support to employees to cope in terms of managing their work, work timings, family, friends, and themselves. Helping them on wellness – physical or mental.?

Disclaimer: Views are personal and are based on the experiences of the author working in various modes of working - working from an office, working from home, and working from anywhere.