How To Prepare Your Business For Hybrid Working

March 15, 2021

There’s a lot of debate at the moment about how much the COVID-19 pandemic has change working practices across the world. Depending on who you speak to, employees either want to work remotely full time, or they can’t wait to get back to the office to work among colleagues. 

Recently, Spotify introduces a ‘work from anywhere’ policy for its employees, whereas the head of Goldman Sachs said that remote working was ‘not a new normal. It’s an aberration that we’re going to correct as soon as possible.’

The truth is, many companies will likely fall somewhere in the middle of those two viewpoints and adopt a ‘hybrid’ model where people have the flexibility to work remotely while still having the option of coming into the office. 

How can you make a hybrid working policy work for your business? 

Ask your team

It’s easy to make assumptions, but how do your employees actually want to work? Would they like the option to work from home a few days a week or would they prefer flexible start and finish times? 

Adjust your office space

Having fewer people in the office every day is going to have an impact on the space your need and how you use it. You can choose to downsize your office space or utilize the space more creatively. Invest in some better office furniture from Southern Office Furniture to make hot-desking more comfortable. Rather than having all of your space filled with office desk and chairs, you can transform some of that space into a gym or chill out room for onsite staff. Look at it as a chance to enhance the experience for people when they do come into the office. 

Be clear with your working policies

You need to be clear on how your hybrid policy will work. Will the expectation be that people work remotely with occasional trips to the office, or vice versa. 

Find ways for employees to connect

There are lots of potential upsides to remote working for employees. They save money commuting back and forth, buying lunch or buying work clothes. They also gain precious hours back to improve their work-life balance. Yet you can’t deny that they will miss out on some of the upsides to working in an office too, such as the interaction with colleagues. Meeting, chatting and socialising with co-workers virtually disappears when people start working remotely, which is why you need to get creative and find ways to get your team involved

There are many initiatives such as regular company retreats, virtually happy hours or Zoom quizzes. It may take some trial and error for you to find the right ways to engage your employees, but it is well worth the effort in order to foster that connection between co-workers, no matter where in the world they are. 

Conclusion

It looks like remote working is here to stay, so why not a role with it and prepare your company to not only adapt to this method of working but thrive too? You aren’t going to perfect your hybrid working model overnight, you need to have patience, but the more effort you put into making it work, the bigger the benefits.

Mark Asquith

That British podcast guy, Mark is co-founder of Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast host. A Harvard, TEDx, Podcast Movement and Podfest speaker (amongst many more!), he's a wildly approachable Brit and Star Wars/DC Comics geek.

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