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What to Consider When Moving to a Hybrid Work Model

It is clear that COVID-19 will have a geological impact on the world of work. The pandemic has permanently altered the way that many people conduct business. Whether it be employees, employers or consumers, the effects will be felt across all industries. One of the changes that has been most commonly adopted in the post-pandemic environment is a hybrid work model. After the pandemic forced nearly all industries into a remote modality for over a year, many employees worked from home exclusively for the first time. This allowed employees to prove they could be efficient and effective remotely, while also saving time on commuting. Research showed that workers overwhelmingly approved of the remote modality and the flexibility it allowed, and when it became safe to return to in-person work, they did not return to full-time, five days per week. Now that offices are re-opening to in-person work, the resulting shift in the way people think about work has led more and more companies to implement – or consider – a hybrid model that allows employees to split time between an office and remote location.

The Data

Consider the following, “Over half of employees (55%) would prefer to be remote at least three days a week once pandemic concerns recede.” That’s according to a PwC US return to work survey from January of 2021. Delving a little deeper, Shane McFeely, lead researcher at Quantum Workplace – a company focused on improving employee engagement – writes that as of, “June 2021, 30 percent of employees considered themselves hybrid employees and 35 percent of employees reported working remotely.”

Smartway2’s own Return to Work survey found that 98% of those surveyed preferred a hybrid model or remote model while only 2% of people wanted to return to working in the office full time moving forward.

Hybrid Benefits

Hybrid work environments thrive on flexibility, which is something that many workers now crave in the wake of being in a remote modality for over a year during the pandemic.

Ilkka Mäkitalo, CEO and co-founder of Howspace – which defines itself as an AI-powered digital collaboration tool – writing for The Enterprisers Project, an online publication and community helping CIOs and IT leaders, shares the following 5 advantages of hybrid work:

Increased productivity
Improved employee satisfaction and culture
More possibilities for continuous learning
Better collaboration and work relationships
Improved mental health

In addition, the ability to reduce or eliminate a commute, at least partially, was a tremendous benefit of working remotely, and one area regularly cited for people who prefer a hybrid model and dread returning to the daily grind of sitting in traffic.

One additional advantage of hybrid work that is not listed above but also is commonly referenced as a benefit to hybrid work, is the ability to work remotely when necessary because of illness. At a time when health and safety are the top priority of employees and employers , the chance to work remotely when you or another family member isn’t feeling well can go a long way towards keeping people healthy.

The Drawbacks

While hybrid work has become the preferred modality for the overwhelming majority of workers, obviously no work situation is without its flaws. And, in order to best succeed with a hybrid work model, you must first understand what the disadvantages are and how you can address them, before it is too late.

Ryan Carruthers, content marketing specialist at Together, a mentorship software company, provides helpful context in a post entitled, “Hybrid Workplaces: The Pros and Cons Organizations Need To Know.” Carruthers focused on what hybrid work means for both employees and organizations, which entails important differentiations, because if employees are not in the office Monday through Friday from 9-5, that means an organization needs to make adjustments.

According to Carruthers, downsides for Employees include the following:

Working remotely can stunt employees opportunities for promotions
Remote workers work longer hours which can lead to burnout
A disconnect between in-office employees and remote employees
Striking a balance between what days to have employees in-office and if there can be both fully in-office and fully remote employees

For Organizations, Carruthers lists these cons:

Managers may micro-manage their teams because they can’t “see” them working.
It will take intentional effort to build equitable and inclusive cultures that don’t favour in-house employees over remote ones.’
Making sure all employees have access to the right tools and technologies to do their jobs.
Redesigning the office space to accommodate both hybrid and in-office workers

17 Useful Apps You Might Not Know About

As Smartway2 has written, when making the switch to hybrid work, you definitely want to make sure that employees have all the resources they need to succeed. Fortunately, there are so many helpful apps in the marketplace to assist with a shift to hybrid work. Based on our research, weare sharing 17 apps we have found to be particularly helpful.

Michaela Rollings, Head of Brand and Content at project management platform Hive, breaks down remote work tool usage into the following statistics:

91% use video conferencing tools
62% use project management tools
61% use instant messaging tools

Number 1-6 on our list come from Alla Chernets, writing for Tmetric, a time tracking app. Disclaimer, their own product tops their list.

TMetric: “When setting a hybrid-remote environment, opting for TMetric time tracking for hybrid teams translates into keeping workflows productive and smooth by automating work time calculations for employees using hybrid workstations.”
Workast: “Workast is a completely customizable task management solution for teams in hybrid work settings, increasing employee productivity and efficiency with greater transparency within the organization.”
Teams: “Teams greatly facilitates communication, removes the necessity to be bogged in long email threads, and liberates employees in hybrid work settings by providing conditions for proactive participation.”
M-Files: “M-Files proved its high level of performance in more than 100 countries as it works best for hybrid teams in SMB and delivers reliability and high value in terms of management of business information.”
CloudApp: “It makes the best use of asynchronous communication and enhances the user experience in hybrid environment by personalizing it. This way, meetings can accommodate multiple participants but enable the host to take charge of the process.”
Calendar: “This tool prevents overlaps in scheduling while additionally, it provides detailed analysis of the time allocation on meetings and associated tasks.”

Numbers 7- 10 come from Ganttic, a resource planning software. Disclaimer, their own product is on their list.

Explain Everything: “Explain Everything is cloud-based collaborative software that lets you visually express your ideas. You can use it in a meeting or record a presentation and send it to anyone.”
Miro: “Miro helps you build and develop ideas across remote teams. Visually map out your team’s strategy on an infinitely zoomable canvas, in real-time or asynchronously.”
Ganttic: Online resource planning software that visualizes your resources, tasks, and projects through Gantt charts. Ganttic’s simple drag and drop capabilities means you can make schedules in no time. Then share it with everyone on your team.
Proofhub: “Online project planning software with loads of features. ProofHub offers Kanban boards, Gantt charts, proofing and collaborative abilities, project notes, calendars, and more. All organized in one central location.”

Numbers 11-13 come from Rebekah Carter writing for UCToday, an online publication for UC and collaboration news.

Trello: Widely regarded one of the best tools for workflow management, Trello for Microsoft Teams helps employees to work collaboratively, regardless of where you are. You can create boards with lists of tasks you need your team members to complete, assign “card” projects to different users, set due dates, and mark activities as complete.
Freehand: “Intended to improve the way everyone works in the new hybrid workplace, Freehand encourages creative thinking and brainstorming with a beautiful whiteboard where anyone can sketch ideas. Freehand is a simple and approachable shared whiteboard, where teams can plain, brainstorm and draw together during meetings and conversations.”
Decisions: “Struggling to make decisions in a world where your employees are distributed around the world? This Microsoft-awarded application can help. Decisions allows you to create meeting foundations with agendas within teams, complete with attachments and objectives. You can share agendas in the Teams channels of your choice and even track meeting time to keep everyone on the ball.”

Numbers 14-17 come from Hive. Their product is featured on their list.

Hive: “Hive is the flexible project management and remote work tool that powers fast moving teams at places like Google, Starbucks and Toyota. With Hive, you can open up the app in the morning and get everything done in one window. You can even start a Zoom meeting from Hive.”
TeamViewer: “TeamViewer is an application that introduces users to the world of remote desktop access. Employees can use TeamViewer as a remote work tool to access their own office computer while they work remote, while attending a meeting from afar, utilize it during meetings to demonstrate technical details to other attendees, and even navigate a presentation while dictating via video and audio. This could be one of the most critical remote work tools of them all.”
Every Time Zone: “Are you working with teams across the globe and want a better handle on everyone’s working hours? Look no further than Every Time Zone. This tool gives you perfect visibility into current times around the world, and you can set specific time zones you’d like to view based on team members.”
Xtensio: “Xtensio is a collaborative workspace and remote work tool where teams can easily create and share beautiful living documents — everything from PDFs, presentations, and web pages. Collaboration tools like Xtensio are ideal for remote work because it’s often hard to collaborate on creative documents when you’re not in the same room. With Xtensio, you don’t have to worry about accidentally deleting a colleagues changes or any other potential collaboration issues.”

Hybrid: A Popular Choice

The choice to transition to hybrid work quickly gained popularity during the pandemic for organizations both small and large. For example, Reddit and Twitter are two big companies that made the switch fairly early on to a hybrid model.

In an article published on WeWork’s website, journalist Steve Hogarty writes, “Reddit decided to permanently shift to a hybrid workplace model. The company’s employees now have the flexibility to work wherever they want—they can choose to do their job at the office, from home, or a mix of the two.”

Other companies to make the switch include Microsoft and Target, and if you are looking for a more comprehensive list, you can find one here, which was compiled by Build Remote, maker of remote operating systems.

To learn how to deliver a positive workplace experience amidst the pandemic, check out our recent webinars.