The Reality of Hybrid and Remote Work
We live in accelerated digitization that offers us new ways of living, influencing the way we work and communicate. This has forced them to adapt to new business strategies; which positioned, for example, the option of hybrid work.
We know and understand that the face-to-face work modality, until a few years ago, was the most common, and the one that we all probably knew about. However, this has been mutating and today there are new modalities that are fully standardized.
The first concept and modality is the one that most office jobs had to adopt due to the health crisis: the home office or teleworking. This had to be implemented as a business strategy to continue operations on a mandatory basis in many sectors, due to quarantines and social isolation measures; and it is here to stay because of the comfort and effectiveness that it meant for many industries.
The workplace is flexible, since they can have a separate location from their home, or they can work full time there. Although everything depends on the needs of the company, it may even be possible to work from another country.
They interact with others through emails, video conferences, calls, messaging applications such as WhatsApp, company chats, or other platforms and tools that meet these requirements but do not have face-to-face contact with colleagues and clients.
What is hybrid work?
The second option is the mixture of the two worlds, between face-to-face and remote work, with the option of hybrid work.
The effectiveness of this has to do with giving enough space to the face-to-face part, which contributes to maintaining the feeling of belonging and alignment to the work; as well as the remote part, which often contributes to the flexibility that each worker may require to combine their personal and work lives.
What does hybrid work mean?
They are people who spend time working in the office, and other time in some other place, which can be the house or any other space.
How to work the hybrid model? Highlight that hybrid employees can, in many cases, choose to work where they want or need to be, and where they are most productive. They use a combination of face-to-face meetings and teamwork, as well as video calls and messaging tools to communicate with colleagues.
There are many expectations for hybrid work, but it has been shown that it is positioned as the ideal due to the flexibility it gives in the face of the new mentality of workers as well as the effectiveness of thinking about times and workplaces. They can select the days on which it is convenient for them to be in the office, and on which it is better to work from home, while in some cases the companies define the days based on the coordination of the teams.
At the same time, companies can optimize resources by having fewer physical facilities, considering that there would only be a percentage of their employees on a daily basis.
Finally, this already known modality, and until recently the traditional one, refers to those who work only from the office and interact face-to-face with people.
Although on specific and required occasions, they could use calls and video calls to interact with others on work-related topics, it is always necessary for the collaborator to be physically at the company's workplace.
Benefits of hybrid work for your company and your workers
Hybrid work companies
A study carried out by WeWork, a platform for flexible workspaces indicates that 88% of Chileans prefer the hybrid work modality, while 8% are virtually and only 4% are in-person.
These are exciting numbers, and they vary by company size, but also by the generational groups of those surveyed by WeWork. For example, in companies with 501 to 1,000 employees, 100% of workers prefer the hybrid modality, while in small companies with a maximum of 10 employees, 90% prefer this modality.
Regarding age, workers between 46 and 55 years old are the ones who like hybrid work the most, with 94%, while for the rest of the generations, the percentages are lower.
As we can see, hybrid work is here to stay, not only because of the reality in which we live but also because of some benefits that give it plus points.
The advantages
Better balance of personal life and work, since by reducing travel times and others, the time to carry out activities of personal taste increases.
On many occasions, employees will be able to manage their time based on results or deliverables, which will translate into greater efficiency for the company. It wins on both sides.
It also means cost savings for workers, since they will not have to pay for public transport, gasoline or other means to get to work every day.
For the company, as we mentioned before, installation costs will be reduced.
Considering these advantages, the tools have been developed based on these new modalities, where, for example, Google Workspace is made to help the hybrid modality and teleworking, and the organization that means and the customization that you need for your business.
In that sense, have you wondered how you can implement hybrid work in your company? Here are some tips that will surely help you.
5 tips to start hybrid work in your company
Use flexible desks: this means that each morning the workers who go to work in the office must choose a desk when they arrive. In this way, resources can be maximized, since you can reduce the amount of equipment needed.
Use wayfinding modalities: in Spanish, we could talk about “finding the way” or simply orientation. They are information systems that aim to guide people through physical environments, thereby enhancing their understanding and experience. In this case, hybrid workers will be able to use resources efficiently, so they can see the desks and rooms available for their use.
Invest in collaboration tools and internet connection: so, when workers are not in the office, work can be more efficient and employees can have direct communication with each other, regardless of where they are.
Carry out a progressive migration: The pandemic left most workers with the feeling that the sudden change from face-to-face work to home office was very strong, and they did not give time, in most cases, to make the necessary adaptations both in the company and in the workers' homes. To avoid this negative impact, make the migration progressive. Start by giving one or two home office days a week, and then move on to those you consider optimal. It generates instances so that the workers themselves are the ones to agree on which days they will take home and which days in the office, always considering that hopefully there are no complete areas without someone in the office daily, alternating shifts between them.
Delivery alternatives: We are not all the same, and we do not all live the same realities. It is always possible that someone prefers to stay in the "traditional" mode of work for their own personal reality. In those cases, be open to listening and to the possibility that those who may need it stay in the office.
You can see that the hybrid work modality is becoming a trend and many more companies are using it in their business strategies. Now, it is clear that it works and generates multiple benefits for everyone.
For the same reason, we invite you to question your company's work modality, whether it is face-to-face, hybrid or remote; the important thing is that it fits your reality.
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