The pandemic has prompted the adoption of the remote working model across a wide scale of organizations.
The unexpected disruption of activities and lockdown imposed everywhere, forced the enterprising world to see a remarkable shift in the working culture. For more than a year, the workforce across the globe has acquired a productive habit of working from their personal space. And, the results have been positive so far.
Yet the unexpected shift of working has its challenges.
Several enterprises think that remote working makes team management goes difficult and productivity level goes down.
Therefore, it is important to experiment with the hybrid working model to see the split between office work & working from home.
Here, we will be looking at the increasing inclination towards the Hybrid Operational Model by several companies.
In December 2020, Google announced that its company’s employees would work at least 3-day a week from the office. Microsoft proposed the idea of allowing the workforce to do work from home at least 50% of their time. Even Citigroup looking for the same hybrid working model with employees working in the office in a 50% split proportion.
Cut down to 2021, several organizations thinking to adopt the Hybrid Operational Model. It is because companies need to become active participants of both worlds i.e. working from the office and working from home. Most importantly, there is no way running backwards.
What is a Hybrid Working Model?
A Hybrid Working Model is an amalgamation of working processes from office, remote, and on a semi-remote basis. It gives employees the autonomy to choose the desired working process as per their profile.
Just like professionals involved more in research & development and require specialized tools, need to come to the office. Whereas, if your profile, simply requires an internet connection, then you deem it fit for remote or a semi-remote working model.
The regular work from home concept of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) easily blend with the hybrid model. It is due to giving an equal choice of flexibility to employees choosing their device while working from the office or home.
Different Types of Hybrid Operational Model to Go for
As per the recent survey of Gartner, 80% of the company’s wanted to continue working from home in 2020. Now, this year 47% of the workforce likes to continue working from the flexible environment of the home. While the remaining ones long to meet their co-workers and escape the loneliness of home surroundings.
By looking at the unprecedented shift in different working approaches. The hybrid model takes the front and is divided into the following types:
* The at-will Model: This Hybrid working model allows employees to choose the work arrangement as per their will. They can come to the office to work in a professional setup, meet colleagues, or require a quiet place to work. Numerous enterprises have already adopted the model of “Work From Office (WFO)”. With special hygiene and social distancing arrangements being made.
* The split-week Model: The highly acquired hybrid operational mode is the split week. In this work mode, employees can work 2-3 days a week from home and rest from the office. It enables companies to maintain the office culture and allow teams to get in touch with each other.
* Shift Work: The third model is the shift work that enables your company’s employees to do a morning shift from home & evening on site. It’s a rather difficult hybrid mode of working as compared to the previous ones.
* Week-by-Week Model: This is an alternative model of working. It allows employees to work for one week from home and the next week from the office. The week-by-week model ensures all the professionals experience the same office culture and maintain personal working space at home as well.
Key Benefits of Adopting Hybrid Working Model
Now, that you are familiar with the Hybrid operational model and know its difference from remote working. Next is to look at the favorable benefits of this model for your enterprise.
1. Increase Work Productivity
At the time, the coronavirus pandemic struck the work, companies started adopting the remote-based model. The studies suggested that remote working helps to increase productivity level. It is due to major reasons like greater flexibility, reduced absenteeism, and increased focus on work.
On top of that, a remote-based setup helps to avoid distractions of the busy office setup, interruptions from coworkers, and more.
Despite all the above benefits, still, remote working is not feasible for the long term. It could be due to not having a dedicated working space, several distractions at home, and other reasons.
The hybrid model can provide an amalgamation of both the office and home working setup. Especially, at the office, workers can still use technically advanced video conferencing and other tools to attend meetings and stay connected. While stick to their dedicated work desk to avoid any kind of distraction and still run high on productivity.
2. Improved Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is a crucial aspect for companies to maintain a healthy and productive working environment. Creating this balance is important to prevent work stress and burnouts that could result in hypertension & several diseases.
A hybrid model of working is a perfect approach to maintain a seamless work-life balance. It provides employees with an option to work both from the office and home at scheduled intervals. Thus, it helps the workforce to maintain a perfect balance between job responsibilities and personal life. People can meet their colleagues and be a part of the energetic office culture. While on the other side, professionals can meet their personal obligations as well and work at the same time.
3. Improved Level of Employer-Employees Trust
One of the important parts of a healthy and productive working environment is trust between employers & employees.
By adopting the new-age hybrid working model, you can maintain that trust factor in the following few manners:
* The flexibility of the hybrid operational model increases staff loyalty to work on their terms & maintain a work-life balance.
* Employees no longer feel the pressure of being constantly watched by their superiors. Thus, focus on enhancing work productivity to an optimum level.
* Employees showcase greater trust factor for the organization allowing them to choose the work model as per preference.
Final Note
The remote working decision happened overnight to maintain swift healthy standards and continue operations during the pandemic. Several companies have implemented flexible working conditions to improve work-life balance, maintain social distancing, and adhere to safety standards.
Now, the world is reopening to all and enterprises can offer a new-age hybrid working models to employees. By combining work from home and work from office modes of working, enterprises can still maintain a flexible work environment. Most importantly, employees will experience a more positive view towards the company, showcase productivity, & mental health at work.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is Hybrid Working Model Necessary to Implement?
Looking at the present circumstances of still a majority of professionals working from home since 2020 and companies are started to call out them. It will be a strategic decision to adopt the flexible hybrid working model to find attendance in the office and employee’s flexibility to continue at least 2 days of working from home.
2. What Things are Required to Implement the Hybrid Working Process?
From the technical standpoint, there is a list of things required to enable the hybrid working model at your workplace.
* Application Tracking System
* Collaboration Tools
* Communication Platform
* Document Management System
* Project Management System
* Human Capital Management
* Office Capacity Management Tools
3. How Much Time Does it Take to Enable the Functionalities of a Hybrid Working Model?
The time duration depends on the enterprise requirements, strategic hybrid working tools, resources required, and functionalities to create. At first, a plan is created keeping your business success model in mind to define a particular timeline.
