As organizations juggle productivity, employee satisfaction, and costs, the hybrid-remote work model is turning out to be an effective solution. While at first, hybrid remote work was a stop-gap arrangement to eventually plan a return for employees back to the office, after two years of remote working from homes, organizations realize that hybrid isn’t just about the flexibility of location.

The Meaning of Hybrid Remote Work

Despite becoming one of the most highly adopted work styles by organizations of all sizes, hybrid remote work remains a challenging concept at its core because stakeholders often view it as a policy that only benefits employees. However, this is only partially true.

Of course, most employees prefer to have a hybrid-remote work arrangement for optimum work-life balance. At the same time, hybrid arrangements that do not offer flexibility to employees about choosing when to come into the office are not truly hybrid remote work.

This is because the true meaning of hybrid remote work is to create a cultural shift. Organizations need to go from having control of where and how employees work to a democratic work environment wherein passion and purpose define the hybrid remote work adoption.

For instance, organizations with a one-size-fits-all approach – wherein employees must work in the office three days a week – are not the best representatives of a thriving hybrid remote work arrangement. On the other hand, organizations that set the broad guidelines for effective engagement, collaboration, productivity, and work satisfaction – while allowing individuals and team leaders to create fluid schedules – are paving the way forward.

The Key Characteristics of Hybrid Remote Work

A successful hybrid remote work arrangement has the following traits:

High engagement and affinity

An important trait of hybrid remote work is that, unlike 100% remote work, it offers the opportunity to build high engagement and affinity within teams and across the organization. It makes employees feel more connected to organizational goals and team pursuits, upping work satisfaction levels. The flexibility of geography, location, and hours creates a sense of affinity in employees and drives staff retention. Technology-enabled tools are integral to such an integrated work environment.

Flexibility for optimum output

Employers should give flexibility in where and when employees work, focusing instead on ensuring output meets expectations.

Moreover, organizations must have a training culture that handholds employees in defining their professional and personal goals. It must also help them understand the nature of flexibility that best works to arrive at their goals.

Secure and scalable

Finally, no sustainable hybrid remote work environment can exist without heightened data and systems security. Investing in the right ecosystems and tools that offer maximum security and safety are critical to high-performing hybrid remote work environments. Organizations must invest in technology that allows them to scale integrated work ecosystems rapidly to leverage the best of hybrid in terms of OPEX costs and business growth.

Best Practices for Hybrid Remote Work in 2022 and Beyond

While it is for each organization to discover what works best for its own business and organizational goals, some best practices can help:

Look for ways to cut down silos

One of the most prominent organizational challenges in the post-pandemic economy is teams and individuals working in silos. The hybrid remote model is the “sweet spot,” where silos are supposed to be minimized. But for this to happen, the right mix of a collaborative culture and communication-first tools and technology is critical.

Try, test, launch 

When making decisions related to hybrid remote work policies and systems, it is best to go slow and scale. Doing this ensures that any negative impact is identified in time and course correction can occur. So, whether one is introducing a new tool or a fresh KPI measurement approach, it is best to go beta and implement the solution depending on the performance.

Track, measure, evolve

It is important to remember that hybrid remote is a work in progress. Given how new it is as a concept, there will be a lot of learnings. For instance, while location flexibility may not impact collaboration and engagement, time flexibility beyond certain hours may do so. However, this could be different for different teams as well as organizations. Therefore, one must remain agile and course-correct based on data.

The Bottom Line

Hybrid remote work is a model that allows immense flexibility and agility at all levels – employees, teams, and organizations. It facilitates regular shifts across the entire hybrid spectrum – work from the office on defined days, work from office basis project and collaboration demands, work from the office from a traditional location and work from the office from co-working spaces. Of course, such a model also challenges everything we have associated with offices, work cultures, and work styles in the past. And therein, lies the need to truly explore the true nature of this approach.

 

 



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