The recent global pandemic made the corporate world sit up and take notice as their daily activities came to a grinding halt due to social distancing. However, they were quick to adapt to the ‘new normal’, thanks to the flexibility and adaptability provided by ‘remote’ and ‘hybrid’ work environments.
Hence, let us understand hybrid work meaning as well as what is hybrid work model with this blog. We will also check out what are some of the challenges in implementing a hybrid work model and share the benefits of deploying it. Similarly, we will also share some of the best practices in setting up hybrid workplace, to enable you to optimise your hybrid working model.
What is Hybrid Work?
Hybrid work is the concept of enabling employees to work from their office or their home. Utilizing the hybrid work arrangements of an organization, employees can choose to either work from their home location, visit their office for work, or even work on the go from any location of their choosing.
What is Hybrid Work Model?
The hybrid work model enables employees to work from their homes or any other remote location as well as from their offices. Due to the added flexibility of being able to work from anywhere, employees can choose to work from the location where they are the most productive, creating a solution where everyone benefits.
Additionally, the hybrid work model provides the employer with enhanced productivity since their staff can have a better work-life balance, leaving them more engaged with their organization. As a result, many organizations have enabled the hybrid work model as their default work model, since it ensures added output while helping the employees remain satisfied with their company.
Benefits of the Hybrid Work Model
There are various benefits to deploying a hybrid work model for both the organization and its staff members. While you can understand how flexible working benefits the employees, you need to look deeper to understand how it proves to be beneficial for the employer in the long run.
The major benefits of the hybrid work model include:
1. Attract Better Talent
As an employer, you will be able to attract better talent with a hybrid working model. Employees have started giving more importance to work-life, especially since the recent global pandemic, which has resulted in talented candidates resorting to either hybrid or completely remote jobs. Hence, a hybrid working model will prove useful to attract these candidates for your organization.
2. Enhance Employer Brand
Since hybrid working requires you to trust your employees with their work and timesheet management, it displays your trust in them to prospective candidates. It highlights that you are a forward-thinking company that values and prioritizes work and employee well-being over petty office politics. It also results in increased efficiency and an overall better work culture, resulting in enhanced employer branding for your organization.
3. Cost Savings
Another major benefit for the employer is the savings they can enjoy due to reduced utility bills, as well as lesser expenses for the employee since they need not commute to their offices every day. Additionally, you can downscale to a smaller office if you have employees who come on specific days in a week, which is additional money saved.
4. Wider Talent Reach
The hybrid working model also proves effective in recruiting from a wider talent pool since they need to visit the office every day. You can have employees who are working from the comfort of their homes every day, while requiring them to visit your office occasionally, for example, once a month.
5. Improved Productivity
It also results in increased productivity as the employees can work in their comfort. They have the flexibility to work whenever they feel – at least during the days they are not in the office – which results in better output. The hybrid work model also promotes autonomy, providing the employee with a better work-life balance, resulting in increased efficiency and productivity.
6. Increased Flexibility
It also allows increased flexibility since the employee can decide when and where to work from. It gives them increased independence over the completion of projects and tasks, which helps them undertake them with increased confidence and efficiency, based on their preferences. Such flexibility also helps many employees restart their careers such as someone having an infant or an old person at their home.
7. Better Work-life Balance
Having a hybrid work model also provides you with a better work-life balance, as you can undertake your work when you are the most productive in a day. Similarly, you can change your environment when you are distracted to ensure that you accomplish the delegated tasks on time. It leads to better work-life balance, resulting in overall job satisfaction.
Types of Hybrid Working
Since hybrid work is a mix between working in a traditional office and any remote workspace, it can be implemented in a variety of ways. While some companies require their staff to work from their office once a week, others may require them to visit their office only when their work requires it.
The most common types of hybrid working include:
➔ Flexible Hybrid Working
The flexible hybrid working model provides employees with maximum flexibility since they can decide whether to work from their office or remote locations. Depending on the task at hand, they can either work from their office or a coffee shop or visit their office, if the task requires them to collaborate with someone else from their office.
➔ Fixed Hybrid Working
In the fixed hybrid working model, the company decides the workdays when their employees should work from their office and when to switch to their remote or home location. It provides the employees with a fixed schedule, to ensure that they organize their tasks around their work location. For example, important meetings can be scheduled when the employees are in the office, while solo tasks can be performed from their homes.
➔ Remote-first Hybrid Working
The remote-first hybrid working model emphasizes the ‘remote-working’ aspect of the hybrid model since the employees are free to work from their remote location as long as they desire. They may be asked to visit their office once in a while such as annually or monthly, but there won’t be any shorter durations.
➔ Office-first Hybrid Working
In the office-first hybrid working model, employees are required to work from their office most of the time. They can ask to work remotely when required. However, for most of their work, they should attend their office. Similarly, they will have to complete tasks that require collaboration while they are in the office.
➔ Split-week Hybrid Working
The split-week hybrid working model provides the ideal balance between working from home and the office since the employees are required to work from their office for half of the week and from their home for the other half. While companies usually choose the set a fixed schedule for this work model, some may make it open to provide additional flexibility to their staff.
Challenges in Hybrid Working
While there are multiple benefits of having a hybrid working model, there are various challenges too in implementing it successfully. If you are planning to deploy a successful hybrid model in your organization, you should be aware of these challenges and develop strategies to avoid or minimize the issues that can happen.
The major hybrid working challenges are:
1. Unconscious Bias
A major challenge with the hybrid working model is that the employees working remotely are often ignored in favour of the ones working from the office. Hence, it is essential to restructure your performance management system to make it more inclusive as employee appraisals should be based solely on their performance instead of their punch-in hours.
2. Cultural Challenges
When half of your staff members work remotely, it is difficult to establish a company culture. Hence, it is essential to clearly define the work culture of the organization and ensure that every employee is aware of it. Additionally, HR should also take initiatives to ensure that remote employees also feel included in the company’s activities.
3. Remote Wellbeing
Remotely managing employee well-being is also a challenge as many staff members may be hesitant to approach their HR team with mental well-being issues. Hence, it falls on HR to ensure that every employee feels secure enough to share their issues with them. HRs should check with their employees periodically for any issues, and provide solutions to them, to ensure that they remain productive and engaged with the organization.
4. Communication
Similarly, communication is another major challenge in a hybrid working model. While can use technology to resolve them, being social animals, human beings require face-to-face communication. Hence, it would be a good idea to undertake fun activities while the employees work from their office as it helps develop team bonding too.
5. Collaboration
Along with communication, collaboration on tasks can also become challenging in a hybrid setting. Once again, you can utilize modern technologies and software to dodge these challenges. However, you should also try to schedule collaborative tasks on days when you work from the office to ensure that they are completed efficiently.
Best Practices for Setting Up Hybrid Work Model
Now that we have understood the benefits, the challenges and the types of hybrid working models, you are in a position to understand the best practices for setting up a hybrid work model. These practices will not only provide you with a well-structured working model but also uplift the hybrid working model for your staff, resulting in engaged and satisfied employees.
The best practices for deploying a hybrid working model include:
➔ Set Clear Guidelines
While it may seem easy at the onset, setting clear guidelines is often easier said than done. HRs should draft clear policies on what is acceptable when the employees are working from remote locations, and ensure that everyone adheres to these policies. For example, managers should ensure that they are contacting their staff only during working hours.
➔ Stay Extremely Transparent
Similarly, since the staff members are working in a hybrid work model, you should ensure that any communication that you share is extremely well-put and avoids any kind of ambiguity. Additionally, staying transparent also helps the remote employees feel included in the organization, resulting in increased engagement.
➔ Utilize Technology Effectively
Modern technology has become advanced enough to support remotely working staff and help them undertake their tasks effectively. Hence, you should make complete use of such technologies which help your staff collaborate on projects and undertake tasks together. While the initial costs might seem high in deploying such technologies, the increased efficiency and productivity will provide you with excellent returns on your investment.
➔ Train Managers and Supervisors
It is also essential to train your managers and supervisors to adhere to the hybrid working protocols set by the organization. They should be trained in understanding the various challenges of remote work and tackling them successfully. Similarly, they should also have good knowledge of remote project management, new tools, etc.
➔ Gather Feedback
You should also evaluate the progress of the implementation of the hybrid work model and constantly make improvements to ensure that your employees can adapt to it. By gathering feedback regularly, you can understand what is working for your staff members and what needs to be changed.
Conclusion
The hybrid work model is here to stay, thanks to the multiple benefits that it provides the organization and the employees, as we observed above. Hence, you should understand the hybrid workplace meaning and implement the best practices while deploying any kind of hybrid working model within your company. While there are challenges in implementing it effectively, you can also strategize innovative solutions to provide your employees with the best experience.
FAQs on Hybrid Work
1. Is Hybrid better than WFH?
While employees may prefer one option over the other, neither is better than the other since there are various variables involved. Numerous factors decide which is ideal for an organization, such as the company culture, the business they undertake, the tasks they perform, etc.
2. Is Hybrid Work from home?
Hybrid is not completely Work From Home (WFH) since it requires the employee to visit their office occasionally; while a complete WFH doesn’t require the employee’s presence in the office at all. Hence, we can safely say that hybrid is not work from home.
3. Is Hybrid Working good?
Hybrid working is good for maintaining a healthy work-life balance since it provides the employees with added flexibility to undertake their tasks. Such flexibility also improves their productivity and enhances their job satisfaction, creating a win-win situation for both the employee and the employer.
4. What are the 5 C’s of a Hybrid Workplace?
The 5 C’s of a hybrid workplace are:
- Communication: Effective communication results in increased productivity.
- Collaboration: Through collaboration, one can create efficient synergies.
- Culture: With a robust work culture, companies can ensure job satisfaction.
- Connectivity: Utilizing technology ensures that the employees stay connected.
- Continuity: By continuously adapting to the business needs, the hybrid workplace remains successful.
5. What is the weakness of Hybrid Working?
There are a few weaknesses of hybrid working, such as:
- Ineffective training
- Unconscious bias
- Ineffective collaboration
- Technology dependence
- Inconsistent culture
- Not adaptable to all industries.
