How to Create a Hybrid Work Model for Your Business

Businesses were forced to switch to a remote working model in 2020. Most people never thought that this will happen. However, companies were still forced to make the transition. The new hybrid work model is working for most companies. The pandemic restrictions are easing with time. More people are getting the vaccine. Thus, businesses need to think about their next step. They have to choose between remote working, hybrid, and usual working models. The hybrid model will help you in saving a lot of money. Also, it will ensure that you are ready for the next pandemic. In this article, we are going to discuss how you can create a hybrid work model.

Definition of Hybrid Work Model:

A hybrid work model will allow some of your employees to work from their homes while others will work from your office. You can have different departments and teams in this structure. For example, your marketing team might be working from off-site. However, your sales crew needs to come to your office. Your developers can also work from their homes. But, your IT support guy needs to work from your office.

This model will help you in combining remote work with in-office work. It will provide a lot of freedom to your employees. Your employees can also complete their work remotely. This will provide a lot of flexibility to your employees.

Organizations now understand the advantages of a hybrid work model. It can help you in increasing your employee’s productivity. You can also boost employees engagement by employing a hybrid work model.

Benefits of Hybrid Work Model

1. Hire incredible talent: If you have a hybrid work model, then you can open your positions to global candidates. This will help you in building a team with extraordinary skills. Your team members might be working from different locations. This will provide round-the-clock coverage to your business.
2. Improved Productivity: If some of your employees like working from home, then they can complete their work from home. Similarly, if your employees working from the office, then they can work from your office. This will provide a lot of flexibility to your employees. Your employees can work according to their abilities.
3. Lower Overhead: You can save a lot of money on office expenses if your employees are working from the office. If you are opening your office only once a week for meetings, then your office costs will go down by 80%. This will help you in lowering overhead costs.
4. Decrease health exposure risks: The coronavirus is still mutating and changing with time. Thus, you should still focus on protecting your employees. Fewer in-house employees will help you in lowering the chances of COVID spreading.

Disadvantages of a Hybrid Work Model

Some of the main disadvantages of a hybrid work model are:

1. Remote employees can feel left out: Your remote employees will be working from their home. Thus, they might feel isolated. Your remote employees can’t meet other employees. Also, they will miss out on perks like happy hours, parties, and lunches. You can fix this by sending gifts to your remote employees.
2. Time difference: If your remote and in-house employees are working from different areas, then time difference can be a big issue for you. Your employees might need to wait hours before getting a reply.
3. Communication is difficult: The only way to communicate with your remote employees is by using messenger apps like emails, Teams, video calls, and Slack. This will require extraordinary communication skills from both your in-house and remote employees. If your remote employees don’t have good communication skills, then communication will be an issue for you.
4. Distractions: Your remote employees need to deal with frequent distractions. This is not a huge problem if your remote employees are dedicated. However, sometimes your remote employee’s productivity can decrease due to distractions.
5. In-house employees sometimes receive better treatments: This happens because the managers can directly talk with the in-house employees. They can check what your in-house employees are doing. Thus, they might think that the in-house employees are working hard. Remote workers won’t get much facetime with their managers.

How to make a hybrid work model

The hybrid work model will differ from organization to organization. Your employees can work from your office and from their homes. You should focus on creating policies that will help both your in-house and remote employees.

The best way to do this is by putting yourself in the place of your employees. You should focus on creating a positive work environment for your employees. This will ensure that your employees will actually feel appreciated. You can also directly ask your employees. These steps will help you in creating a good hybrid work model:

1. Create equal advantages for your employees

The main problem with the hybrid work model is that some employees think that other employees are treated better. Thus, you should reconfigure the benefits that you are offering to your employees. Your main goal is to separate the employee’s perks but at the same time ensure that your employee perks are equal. This will ensure that both of your teams will feel appreciated.

You can send goodie bags to your remote employees. Your in-house employees will get free snacks and lunches in your office. Thus, you should try to offer a similar experience to your remote employees. Make sure that you are regularly mailing them gift baskets or birthday gifts. You should also conduct virtual happy hours. This will ensure that WFH and in-house teams can engage virtually.

2. Create a virtual community

Most teams are using virtual communication tools and project management tools for staying in touch. These tools are great for increasing your employee’s productivity. But, you should also focus on creating a virtual community for your workforce.

Your remote team members won’t feel isolated as they will regularly communicate with other members. Also, your in-house employees won’t think that the remote employees are getting extra benefits. This will help you in increasing the productivity of your employees.

You can easily do this by creating a group chat for your employees. Make sure that your employees are talking about non-work-related stuff in this group. They might be talking about their hobbies or sharing favorite memes. This will ensure that your remote and in-house employees will have a great relationship.

3. Figure out your employee’s preferences

Most employees never thought about working from home before this pandemic. However, this pandemic has changed them. More than 52% of the employees now want a hybrid solution. Many employees are not going back to work because their employers are not offering hybrid solutions.

You should figure out ways which will help you in keeping your employees productivity. If your employees are already doing good work from home, then you should focus on improving their experience. This will help you in increasing your employee’s productivity. You should ask out your employee’s preferences.

4. Create new policies that support the WFH Hybrid model

Organizations need policies for governing their daily operations. These policies were used to keep the employees in check. However, you should focus on creating new policies now. If you want to transition to a WFH hybrid model, then you should create new policies. You can’t support your employee’s productivity by using old policies.

Your hybrid work model policy should address important issues. It should address the office attendance issue. Make sure that you know when office attendance is going to be necessary. You should be ready to incorporate remote teams.

5. Go for Asynchronous communication

You can use technology for switching to asynchronous communication. Asynchronous communication simply means that you will communicate with your team members. However, your team members don’t need to respond to you immediately. You will provide all the details to your team members. Your team members will complete their tasks and report back to you.

Employees can ask questions whenever they need more details. You don’t need to worry about being connected 24/7 to the internet. Your employees can send you daily updates after completing their daily tasks.

This will help both your in-house and remote employees. It will ensure that your employees can work interrupted. They don’t need to worry about staying connected with your server all the time. Your employees will also work better as they will already know all the things that they have to do.

6. Meetings

If you are switching to asynchronous communication, then you don’t need to worry about conducting meetings every day. Your employees can directly update their managers. All these tasks can be achieved by using project management software.

However, you still need to conduct pivot meetings with your employees. You should schedule these meetings in advance. Your employees might be working from different time zones. Thus, you should schedule all the meetings in advance. Also, you should conduct virtual meetings. This will ensure that both your on-site and remote employees are involved in the meeting.

7. Redesign your office

If you are switching to a hybrid work model, then various things in your office will be useless. Thus, you need to adjust some things before shifting to a hybrid work model. For example, you might have some old computers or desks in your office. You can remove them from your office if you are going to have fewer in-house employees. Make sure that you are involving your employees in this process. Don’t remove the things that your employees need. Also, you should consult the experts before changing your offices.

These adjustments will help you in saving a lot of money. You can create separate collaboration zones for your employees. Also, you can set up dedicated desks for your employees.

8. Provide the best tools to your employees

If your employees are working remotely, then you need to provide the right set of tools to them. This will ensure that your remote employees will stay productive. Your remote employees should have access to internet access and portable computers. They should have access to remote working tools like MS Teams and Slack. This will ensure that your remote employees can do their work without any interruption.

9. Reimagine your expectations

2020 was a tough year for most businesses. The effect of this year is going to be evident for years to come. For example, a lot of people have actually moved out from areas like NYC and San Francisco due to high living costs. They are going to work remotely from their home.

You should ensure that you are treating both your in-house and remote employees equally. Start by eliminating the work location from pay considerations and performance evaluations. 2020 has already proven that most work can be done from home. Your developers can manage your entire project from their homes. If your employees are getting the job done, then let them make their own decisions regarding their location. Let them work from a remote location if they can get the job done.

Your young employees are going to struggle more. Thus, you should look for ways to ease their pressure. Make sure that you are helping your young employees. It is difficult to mentor your junior employees without meeting them. However, proper planning will help you in solving this problem.

How Bleuwire can help your business?

The hybrid work model is going to become the new norm. Thus, you should focus on transitioning from a normal work model to a hybrid work model. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire can help you in this transition. They will help you in providing the right support to your remote and in-house employees. You don’t need to worry about hiring an IT support team for your business. Bleuwire will provide IT support to your business. They will also help you in moving your data to the cloud. This is very important as you can’t achieve a hybrid work model without moving your data and applications to the cloud. Bleuwire will help you in managing your cloud server and cloud security. They will ensure that your data and applications are secure. If you need more information regarding IT services, then you can contact Bleuwire.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™  services and solutions in how we can help your business.