The hybrid workplace - a context
The Covid-19 pandemic that thrust organizations across the world into adapting to new norms of social distancing, remote work, and virtual digital workplaces. Despite the unprecedented disruption to the status quo, employees and organizations globally responded with agility and resilience. Leaders and individual contributors embraced the power of digital technology to adapt and stabilize a new form of the workplace, wherein most day-to-day work activity could be done virtually, asynchronously, and successfully. As the pandemic continued to upend pre-existing norms, the workforce and business leaders began thriving in the digital workplace - creative solutions to old problems surfaced, barriers to communication and collaboration were overcome, innovation flourished, and productivity peaked.
As the world slowly came out from the epicenter of the pandemic - with the development of vaccines, a focus on cleanliness, health, and better lifestyles, and renewed hope for the future, companies began evaluating how best to design work and the workplace of the future. An understanding of workforce preferences to work flexibly in and out of physical and digital workplaces combined with the undeniable pros of technology-enabled work models has led to a more tech-enabled, flexible, and equitable structure for the workplace - We call this a hybrid workplace.
A definition of the hybrid workplace
A hybrid workplace is the flexible future of work that provides employees with the choice of where to work from, when to work, and how to deliver their best work. It is a powerful infrastructure of tools and processes that allows people autonomy to design their work and life in a structure that enables productivity, purpose, and happiness. The hybrid workplace essentially is location agnostic, providing an option to work from home offices, or company offices, or even coffee shops with processes in place to enable optimal collaboration, engagement, and business success.
In practice, the hybrid workplace takes one of few forms. While companies offer ongoing support for remote workers, they’re also planning and executing safe return-to-office schedules that are inherently flexible. This allows employees to go to an office space at will whenever needed, maybe to meet clients or to experience an office setting. Some organizations are also offering the flexibility to work a few days or a select few weeks from the office, depending on safety norms and social distancing measures.
Moving forward, future-ready organizations will offer intelligent workplace solutions that can seamlessly combine the progress made in fluid digital workplaces along with the stability and structure offered by physical offices.
Why build a hybrid workplace?
1. Productivity emphasized
A digital workplace that thrives is anchored on the principles of visibility - a viewpoint of what work happens in teams, who are contributing to the many aspects of a task, how people are working together, what processes and workflows lead to success, and where do bottlenecks occur. In this environment, where management cannot physically see employees work, the emphasis shifts to defining and monitoring productivity and success metrics that showcase work effort and contribution.
With the adoption of asynchronous work, employees are able to allocate focused attention time to core tasks, delivering uninterrupted value. A redefinition and refocus on productivity and a shift away from valuing presenteeism drives enhanced employee contribution to shared goals.
2. Connectedness redefined
A digital world removes the many barriers that archaic physical office spaces instituted. Meetings, brainstorming, communication, and collaboration can be location-agnostic, thanks to digital workplace tools. The transparency and accessibility combined with async communication practices allow synergies between dispersed individuals and teams, helping employees connect and collaborate more effectively.
3. Employee well-being centered
Work-life balance becomes easier to achieve in a digital workplace. The flexible nature of hybrid workplaces allows employees to allocate time for well-rounded and balanced lifestyles that show an impact on the overall physical and mental health statuses of the hybrid workforce. Additionally, with data from the digital exhaust to monitor health or burnout anomalies, managers in the digital workplace are able to better support their teams with better workload management, better-structured mentorship, and valuable 1:1 conversations.
4. Job satisfaction raised
A human resource study found that 65% of employees that could work in hybrid workplaces rated their job satisfaction on a high index. The sense of freedom that hybrid work provides, along with the tangible success of productive work outcomes helps employees to feel more satisfied at their jobs within hybrid workplaces.
As the world steps back to work amidst unprecedented disruptions, organizations and leaders that create sustainable, fair, and seamless work environments have the advantage of defining the paradigm of the future of work. In this monumental task, leaders should depend on data to guide their decision to move to a hybrid work model.
Hatica enables hybrid workplaces to maximize their potential. Our work analytics platform helps companies identify trends of workforce productivity while also providing visibility into employee engagement and well-being. Our data-driven view of workforce effort allows an enlightened viewpoint of your hybrid team management. Visit Hatica for more!
Originally published here
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