A recent study found that 27% of employees would prefer to work remotely full time, and 62% would prefer to work in a hybrid arrangement. Many businesses have listened to employee feedback and have spent the last few months planning how a hybrid work model can be introduced. The move to hybrid aims to offer all the benefits of working in the office and working from home, such as collaboration, ease of communication and a stronger organisational culture. It is also possible to significantly increase productivity whilst hybrid working, this can also lead to a better work-life balance and increased employee satisfaction. We have compiled a list of 4 ways to increase productivity whilst hybrid working below…..

After 18 months of online meetings, most employees have found an effective and productive way to run meetings. Starting to work from the office will require a change in the way meetings are run, especially when some members are in the office and others are working from home.

Two methods of running an effective hybrid meeting are having all members using Teams, or office workers all using a single computer, talking to remote workers on Teams. The former enables the experience to be the same for all attendees and may be a better solution for some businesses. The latter can aid in collaboration; however it is important to ensure that remote workers are included and the audio and video equipment used are sufficient. It will take some time to adjust to the new method of meetings, but from trial-and-error businesses will find the most effective way to run hybrid meetings to increase productivity.

For some employees, whilst working from home they find it easier to close their laptop at the end of a day and finish on time, whereas others struggle to set clear boundaries between work time and home time. Similarly, some employees find it difficult to leave the office on time, especially when there is more work to do. Spending more time working may seem like it would increase the amount of work completed, however, in the long run this leads to a poor work-life balance and puts employees at the risk of burnout which will greatly decrease productivity.

It is important that regardless of where employees are working, they stick to their start and finish times. When working at home a way to ensure this is to set and alarm for when it is time to finish work, and turn off all work related notifications on mobile phones. In the office if there are multiple employees that finish at the same time colleagues should encourage each other to leave at the same time to ensure no one is forming an unhealthy habit of prioritising work over home life.

For many that have become acclimatised to working from home with few distractions, going back to the office may be difficult to manage the distractions. This can decrease productivity and make work more stressful and leave employees feeling less motivated. In the office a great way to decrease distractions is by setting aside time that will be focus time and let colleagues know that during these times you should not be disturbed. It is also beneficial to set aside time dedicated to checking and replying to emails, rather than replying to all emails as soon as they arrive.  

When working from home it is typically easier to avoid distractions, however having meetings too often can cause distractions that decrease productivity and can lead to an unhealthy work-life balance. In Microsoft MyAnalytics it is possible to view how much of a week is dedicated to meetings and automatically set times in your calendar that is dedicated to focusing without distractions.

One of the more prominent struggles with working from home has been how to effectively collaborate on projects. Having effective collaboration can drive innovation, efficiency and productivity and is significantly easier to do in person. For this reason, it is important to, where possible, take advantage of working in an office for collaboration on tasks and using other employees’ knowledge and skills to drive productivity and business growth.

Similarly, it is important to maintain communication when working from home and include those who may be remote only. One way to ensure this is to hold short meetings with all members of a department throughout the week to keep all employees in the loop. Effective communication increases productivity as it enables employees to better understand each other and increases morale.

As the workplace is fundamentally changing employees and businesses need to consider what changes need to be made to ensure the move to hybrid is seamless and all the benefits of the model are realised. If you want to find out more about hybrid working productivity, or how technology can be used to increase productivity, get in touch today!

A recent study has shown that 70% of employees are wanting flexible work options to continue once restrictions ease, and 65% are craving more in-person time with their teams. This combination of statistics show that business leaders would be wise to listen to employees and start planning for a hybrid work model.  A move to a hybrid workplace has many of the potential benefits of both remote working and a full-time return to the office. However, this decision should not be taken lightly as there are many factors that must be considered to ensure that this move is effective and sets employees up for success.

One of the key considerations for an effective hybrid workplace strategy is a focus on employee wellbeing. If managed correctly a flexible hybrid working model should increase employee wellbeing through better work-life balance, reduce commuting time and costs and increase motivation and communication. Although there are potentially many wellbeing benefits of hybrid working, business leaders must consider for some employees it will be a difficult adjustment period as many employees will not have been in the office for over a year. A sudden change to their place of work may be stressful and tiring due to a return to commuting, significantly more social contact, and the challenges of a new work-life balance. For business leaders, the best way to manage employee wellbeing is through communication and flexibility. Employees should be involved in the decision of when and how a return to the office will work and specific concerns and anxieties should be addressed.

Technology has played a pivotal role in the move to remote working and will continue to if hybrid working is implemented. The difference will be that technology will have to support a seamless experience regardless of where employees are working. From a hardware perspective this may be using a laptop with a dock in the office so employees can easily carry their device between work and home and not have to unplug cables each time. From a software perspective it is important to utilise Microsoft Teams to its full ability for communication and collaboration. This is especially important if there will be employees working in the same team but in the office on different days to ensure they do not feel disconnected from the rest of the team. It is also important to provide training and support with hybrid working technology as all employees will be relying heavily on these features to enable productivity in the workplace.

In March 2020, when the first lockdown was announced, the move to working from home was abrupt and this led to poor security procedures for many companies. Cybercriminals took advantage of this, with cybercrimes increasing by 72% in the first month of lockdown. After a year of working from home many companies have now implemented security policies and procedures to ensure that employees are working securely on their own networks. As there is more time to plan a hybrid workplace security needs to be considered from the start. This may include deploying multi-factor authentication, Windows Virtual Desktops and data not being stored locally so employees stay secure and productive, regardless of where they are working.

Business leaders need to be thoughtful with their implementation of a hybrid working model and consider the research as well as their own employees’ opinions to form a comprehensive framework to set employees up for success. With this being said, just as remote work was a new experience for many over a year ago, hybrid work will be the same, and there will be an adjustment period and issues that require the model to be adjusted to suit each company and individual. Although this adjustment period may be not ideal, business leaders must constantly review and make changes to their hybrid working model to work best for all employees.

The move from remote working to hybrid working if managed correctly has a plethora of benefits and can be the best of both worlds for employees and business leaders alike. To ensure the hybrid workplace works effectively business leaders need to have open communication with employees and ensure that their technology is leveraged to make this move as simple as possible. If you want to find out more on how to optimise your hybrid workplace model or manage your IT and technology strategy to suit hybrid working – get in touch today!