Five tips for successful hybrid work

It is precisely because so many people have worked from home for a period of time - mandatory or not - that they have begun to look differently at what the function of the office means to them. Accenture, for example, finds that a majority of employees have a preference for hybrid working. For organizations, this development also offers an opportunity to take a critical look at their workplace and organizational culture. Some of the benefits include a better work-life balance, less commuting stress, a reduced carbon footprint and location independence.

Still, many questions remain open. For example, how do you manage employees in the new setting? How do you support people who work remotely in their needs, both in terms of their well-being and their productivity? Increasing pressure, isolation and more burnouts lie in wait. One of the challenges identified by consulting firm PWC is the phenomenon of back-to-back meetings. As soon as you leave one meeting and start another one the next moment, there is no room left to let everything sink in and come to rest. Another problem is the lack of personal connections and cohesion between colleagues and within teams. As is the objective assessment of people who are no longer always physically present in the office.

Tip 1: Manage the risks

The path to success is not to avoid risk, but rather to manage it well. Organizations that are now making the transition to a sustainable hybrid model must focus on maintaining their organizational culture, supporting their employees and constantly optimizing their approach to "the new normal”. To avoid the negative effects of hybrid working, experimentation is necessary in this process, argues management consulting firm McKinsey. Of the organizations where employees excel in productivity, 16 percent continuously test the current approach and adjust it where necessary. Within organizations that lag behind, this practice is completely absent.

Tip 2: Set up the office for hybrid working

A modern office facilitates employees in hybrid working. According to research by Frost & Sullivan, 36 percent of organizations are now investing more in meeting rooms. This is because the combination of working from home and from the office is making new demands. The use of video applications such as Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams alone has increased by 350 percent since the beginning of 2020. Meetings are therefore taking place in a variety of spaces, which go by names such as meeting pods, huddle rooms, phone boots and jump spaces.

Tip 3: Fast (fiber optic) connections are just the beginning

Working with data-intensive applications such as video conferencing and sharing large files is virtually impossible without reliable and fast Internet connections. But nowadays the range of requirements for an average working environment goes much further. Examples include anti-DDoS measures for incoming IP traffic and load sharing (a technological configuration that ensures that capacity remains available in various usage scenarios). Uncontended and non-overbooked access to the Internet is also essential in order to have continuous availability of the required bandwidth. A network must be designed with this in mind, with reliable and stable connections so that employees can work efficiently from any office location.

Tip 4: Connect directly to the most important clouds

As cloud services become more critical, the need to have reliable, scalable and secure connectivity to the cloud has grown. This is especially true for accessing key cloud platforms, which is usually done over the public Internet. By using private peering with the important cloud services, organizations increase the quality of their Internet traffic. This is done through direct connections and the resulting shorter connections and optimized latency with cloud vendors.

Tip 5: Align the collaboration between IT and HR

To overcome the various challenges of hybrid working, IT and HR will need to work well together to enable employees to work (collaborate) effectively both at home and in the office. Hybrid working is more than just an 'IT party', especially since it's not just about technology, but also about things like culture and engagement. Different departments are involved. HR looks at the terms of employment and it's up to IT to set up the digital infrastructure so that everyone can work hybrid to their satisfaction. In the coming year, many organizations will have to find the right balance between the benefits of working from home and the office as the place where 'it' happens: the place where you hear what your colleagues are doing, where you can quickly share ideas and where successes are immediately visible to everyone.