Since the Covid-19 pandemic, business and work habits have underwent a significant change. Before the pandemic, the idea of working from home was relatively niche, compared to the more traditional and widely accepted notion that work should take place in a company office. That notion has been broken down now, though, and increasing numbers of businesses are now looking to implement hybrid work arrangements, which allows individuals to work both in the office and from their home.
Lots of companies since 2020 have decided to go fully remote. One such company was TechQuarters, a provider of business IT support London companies relied on a lot during the pandemic. TechQuarters helped their clients go remote, and now they are helping their clients go hybrid; so we asked them what the process of introducing hybrid working looks like.
Steps to Hybrid Working
- Decide Whether Hybrid Working is the Right Option
Firstly, it is worth acknowledging that hybrid working might not be the right option for every organisation. To get an idea of whether it is right for you, says TechQuarters, look at how your company dealt with fully remote working during the pandemic. For them, it was an overwhelming success – so much so, in fact, that they got rid of their office. However, it is just as likely that a business will have struggled while working remotely.
- Communicate with the Company
It is important that all stakeholders – particularly employees – understand the intention of the company. As the ones who will be most affected by the change in work patterns, employees need to be made clear on exactly what changes are to be made, and when they will happen. Additionally, the organisational leaders also need to listen to the feedback of employees.
- Think About What Type of Hybrid Working is Best
Let’s say that you, as a business, have decided that hybrid working is a good option – all your employees have responded positively to the idea. But, hybrid working can look like a lot of different things. For example, will it be a split of people spending all their hours in the office, while others spend all their hours at home? Will more people work from home than in the office? Will people split their time between the office and their home? Understanding what every stakeholder’s preference is will make forming a strategy for implementation – and establishing goals and expectations – much easier.
- Make All Technology Accessible
The important thing about transitioning to hybrid working, according to TechQuarters, is making sure that the change is smooth – which involves ensuring all technology is accessible to stakeholders. Having problems with IT during a period of change can make the process all the more frustrating. As providers of Office 365 consultancy, TechQuarters pointed out that cloud-based solutions like the Microsoft stack are already inherently accessible, regardless of where the user is based. Thus, an organisation may also need to consider adopting new technologies that are better suited to remote and hybrid working.
- Keep Your Workforce Connected
Tying in with the previous point, the key to successful hybrid working is ensuring that all employees remain connected. This means that if there are individuals spending all their time working from home, they need to be able to collaborate with, and have easy communication with their colleagues working in the office (or even from their respective homes). Solutions like videoconferencing, internet telephony, and instant messaging have all proven to be very useful in this respect – for instance, TechQuarters used Microsoft Teams for all three of these types of business communication. Furthermore, the company culture needs to also support remote interactions and socialisation – because lack of socialisation can cause strain of workplace relations, which is bad for productivity.
