Plan Now for a Hybrid Remote/Office Workforce and Workplace Tomorrow

Do you remember your first day at a new job and all the overwhelming firsts, from navigating an unfamiliar building to learning your coworkers’ names and where they sit, what positions they were in, etc.? With some recent hires now starting remotely and never setting foot in the office, the need to learn the basics of where resources are located and who to ask for help remain.

Having to rise to this challenge has become more common. Currently, more than two-thirds of people around the world work away from the office at least once a week. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend, and it is clear the shift to working remotely is here to stay.

A Gartner survey reported in July 2020 revealed that 82 percent of organizational leaders are planning to let employees work remotely for some of the time. By December 2020, a survey conducted by Willis Towers Watson revealed that 52 percent of employees believed they would continue working from home more often than they did before the pandemic. The lesson for human resources is that an easing of social distancing measures probably will not ensure a rush back to the office.

The ability to work from home and the emergence of digital office services have also changed attitudes around where people should work and whether they should stick to the traditional 9-to-5 workday. The result is that many employers are opting for hybrid remote/office workforces and workplaces in which workers are distributed and the office functions as a business center.

Staying Remote

Employees increasingly welcome these changes. According to a study by the webinar, videoconferencing and online meeting platform developer ClickMeeting, 46 percent of workers view the hybrid office/remote model as the ideal working environment and as one that increases productivity and trust among employees. Conversely, only 16 percent of survey respondents expressed a strong preference for working exclusively in an office.

Establishing and maintaining a hybrid workplace presents some challenges, however. Questions that demand evolving answers include how employers should manage working conditions amid uncertainty and how an organization can prepare for and optimize the hybrid working model of tomorrow, in which fully in-person and fully remote work will represent two ends of a fluid spectrum of options.

As employers make the transition, they recognize the need for a solid IT infrastructure that includes dependable personal devices for employees, strong cybersecurity software and education, and tech support that is even more on-call than previously. Plus, there is the perpetual challenge of onboarding new employees. If you were serving as the person in charge of managing new hires’ first day in the office this time last year, you likely became accustomed to having the experience run efficiently. Now, you have probably found it increasingly common for new employees to feel out of the loop from the very beginning.

Specific concerns about remote work identified by the ClickMeeting survey were whether employees could efficiency complete tasks while working from their homes and whether the computer infrastructure was good enough. Some employers scrambled to ensure employees had dependable high-speed internet connections, headsets, webcams and printers. These worries decreased after the first phase of the pandemic, with 50 percent of employees confirming that they had everything sorted out in terms of equipment.

Technology will only continue to evolve to meet the needs of employers and employees. Beyond collaboration software, the other tools that remain central for employee productivity in hybrid work environments include laptops, noise-canceling headphones and high-resolution video monitors.

Keeping the Office Open

In the office, employers may need to create a touchless environment in which employees use collaboration technology to minimize physical interactions. Workspaces could revert from open floorplans to cubicles, and videoconferences could substitute for team huddles even when coworkers are just in the next room. Equipping employees with laptops will makes it easier and more convenient to move between the office and a coffee shop, home or anywhere in between. Employers might also find it beneficial to supply or reimburse employees for purchasing products for home offices, up to and including standing desks and ergonomic desk chairs.

For IT departments, it will be vital to invest in infrastructure that enables technicians to meet the needs of on-site and remote workers. Essential steps could include increasing cloud data storage, doubling up on cybersecurity solutions and implementing processes for troubleshooting employees’ tech issues from afar.

While a hybrid model may not fit every organization, it is clear that the office as we have long known it cannot exist for much longer. Working from anywhere has quickly become the norm, and employers’ real estate requirements are shrinking. Employees will expect flexibility, and meeting that expectation will demand much more from employers. Over the coming years, the most successful organizations will be those whose leaders planned carefully to create a sustainable, efficient hybrid remote/office workforce and workplace.