Remote or office work? Try to make a hybrid model work
It’s been more than one year since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 an international emergency and mandatory lockdowns were enforced across the world.
Many companies that weren’t already accustomed to working remotely were forced to leave their offices and digitize their workforce and processes. Needless to say, hiring was majorly affected as well.
In a lot of ways, this March doesn’t feel too different compared to the year before.
However, as spring passes into summer, and vaccines become more and more readily available, companies are starting to plan how to best transition their teams back into the office, or if they should even transition back at all.
Here are some insights to consider when evaluating whether to transition your team back into the office:
Working from home is popular with employees
According to Talentlyft, despite a perceived opportunity coming up to return to offices, 25%-30% of the entire workforce will still be working from home most days of the week by the end of 2021.
This news demonstrates that:
- Perhaps we aren’t quite out of the pandemic-work era.
- The pandemic has firmly shifted the manner in which we get work done.
According to Newsweek, “54% of people want to continue to work from home even after the pandemic” solidifying that despite being forced to work from home for a year, more than half of respondents want it to remain this way.
Remote working: A challenge or an opportunity?
A lot of employees are happy with their new remote work arrangement, but what about the other half that would rather go back to the office?
The situation is both a challenge and an opportunity. In terms of a challenge, remote workers, when not properly engaged with the team or team goals, can cause employees to start to have lower levels of job satisfaction leading to productivity loss and eventually a decrease in retention.
If done correctly, an engaging and supportive remote setup, instead, can be seen as a business opportunity: when empowered and supported employees work from home, they can deliver superior business results, engage fully, and bring in high returns.
According to Talentlyft, success in remote working comes down to how engaged teams are. Here is their recipe for employee engagement while working remotely:
How to empower remote workers
- Maintain an emphasis on company culture.
- Continue to recognize and reward employees for their achievements.
- Work together and collaborate, even if it’s not in person.
- Give every employee equal access to knowledge and information. Don’t silo anyone.
Transitioning back to the office
The feasibility of continuing to operate in work from home protocol will determine the future of many companies’ working structures.
The fact is, some industries simply don’t support remote working environments as much as others do.
For those preparing to return back to the office, consider bringing in some habits from the “work from home era” such as:
1. Trust your employees
If there’s anything that the pandemic has demonstrated to us, it’s that managers have needed to become accustomed to not physically being in-person to oversee projects. They’ve needed to instead look to project completion as a determinant of hard work, rather than relying on in-office presence.
2. Communicate, communicate, communicate
Continue over-communicating and offering support once “things are back to normal” - you never know if a coworker might need extra help transitioning back to in-office life after being away from it for so long.
3.Consider a hybrid model
It’s true that a certain level of freedom is provided when employees are given the opportunity to work from home. Instead of taking that fully away from them, consider allowing a day or two out of the workweek for employees to work from home if they’d like to.
As long as the productivity levels remain the same, it shouldn’t cause too much of a difference for your company’s operations.
Besides, it may be beneficial to have in-person meetings and collaboration to take place in the office, and focused, independent work to be completed at home.
