It is time to understand that the days of working strictly from the office are over. It is largely believed that things were headed in that direction regardless, and the introduction of the COVID-19 virus on the scene sent the concept of hybrid working into overdrive. If they aren’t already, now is the time for companies to get real about hybrid workplaces.
What Does “Hybrid Working” Mean?
Many people are working in hybrid jobs these days, but many others are not quite sure what that term means and what would qualify as hybrid work. Here is what you need to know. Hybrid working best practices typically dictate that an employee be able to:
- Work from their own home at least a few days per week
- Work in the office at times as needed (or on a particular schedule)
- Have greater flexibility in terms of exactly where they work
If you need hybrid working guidance, those three points are a good place to start. These simply define the way that hybrid work tends to work, and it is a useful way for business owners and managers to think about what the future of hybrid work may look like for their employees.
Pros and Cons of Hybrid Working
Since it is plain to see that there is a hybrid working future ahead of us, it is a good idea to also think about the hybrid working pros and cons that are worthy of consideration as well.
After all, it only makes sense to look at the various ways that this type of work may come into play for the people who do it regularly and how they may benefit from it or not.
If you were to do a hybrid working survey among employees who work in this way, you would likely hear back from them that the hybrid working benefits outweigh the drawbacks from their point of view.
After all, they get to work from home at least some of the time, and most people prefer to have to get out the door and get to a physical office every day. As such, employees tend to like this, but do the hybrid working upsides outweigh the downsides overall?
Upsides
- Hybrid working productivity
- Hybrid working mental health
- New connections with other teams
Hybrid working productivity – One of the things that most business owners/managers care about the most is exactly how productive their employees are going to be when they are working at least in part from their home. There are a lot of people who worry that people will not be all that productive when they are able to do their work from home.
Hybrid working mental health – Many employees say that the time that they have gotten back by working from home has helped improve their mental health in many ways. They are very pleased to not have to get dressed up and get out the door every single day like they might have to in a traditional work environment.
This gives many employees the chance to spend more time with their families and get more things done around the house while still getting a lot of work done. Hybrid working statistics suggest that these workers may get MORE done than those stuck in the office.
New connections with other teams – Some workers state that they are able to form new connections with people from other teams within the organization that they might not have been in contact with otherwise. This means that they are able to connect more deeply with people across various elements of the business, and that is incredibly important to get a lot done.
Downsides
- Lack of direct communication
- Motivation may drop
Lack of direct communication – One of the biggest downsides to the hybrid working environment is the fact that sometimes it is challenging to have the face-to-face interactions that we all need at times. If we are not careful about this, we may end up missing out on some of the most important aspects of the work that we do.
Motivation may drop – Some employees say that their motivation does drop when they are faced with working from home. This is not largely true for all workers, but there are some who benefit a lot more from having constant monitoring of the work that they do. Fortunately, not everyone feels this way, but it is something to keep in mind when considering making the transition to hybrid work.
The Urgency of Hybrid Work Today
Now that you have some hybrid working examples of how things can go right and how they can go wrong, you can clearly see why it is so important that all people at least have the opportunity to decide for themselves which way they would like to go about getting their work done. This is to say that there are many people who have big decisions to make about allowing for hybrid work or not.
The reality is that hybrid work will probably need to be offered for many positions in the future. Why? Because there is a major labor shortage at this time, and people need to be offered all of the benefits that they can possibly get in order to take one kind of job over another.
Hybrid work is a major incentive to offer someone to come to work for you. In fact, employees largely have the upper hand at the moment in the jobs market, and some will turn down a job that does not offer them the flexibility that hybrid work jobs do.
Companies need to rethink the way that they get work done and cater to their employee’s needs in more ways than they have in the past. It is time to make a difference in the lives of those employees, and a fantastic way to do so is to focus on what hybrid work can provide to them. It seems like this is the best way forward for many employees and employers alike.
Hybrid Working: The Future is Now
When people used to think about hybrid working options, they often thought about some distant time in the future. The assumption for many years was that it was impossible for a massive number of people to work from somewhere other than an office or service industry job.
However, it is now quite common to hear about people applying for jobs from a hybrid office that may not even offer any other option. This is because companies and employees are both seeing the benefits of hybrid work from home and the office.
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