Tips for managing hybrid work models
In times of pandemic, the home office has established itself as a sensible counterpart to the office presence. Managers must therefore put it on their agenda as an indispensable element of future work organization. The five most important prerequisites for hybrid work models.
A hybrid model is emerging for the work organization of the future, in which office work, working from home and mobile work stand side by side and with each other on an equal footing and are meaningfully networked. Companies and, above all, managers must adapt to this new situation and lay the foundations for it at various levels. The global technology company Zoho shows the most important fields of action:
- Create the right infrastructure. An important prerequisite for the hybrid work model is an appropriate technical infrastructure. It must ensure data integration on the back end and create a consistent and uniform work experience for employees on the front end, regardless of where they are working from. In this way, customers can also be offered an excellent customer experience.
- Adapt corporate culture. In order for hybrid work models to find acceptance throughout the organization, the internal culture of the company must also change. Managers have the task of adapting internal structures, security guidelines, compliance and safety requirements and ensuring that they are adhered to. At the same time, they must actively get employees on board, inform them comprehensively about all changes and give them the time they need to familiarize themselves with the new corporate culture.
- Protect employees. Not all employees cope equally well with the changing conditions of hybrid work models: some don't mind the lack of social contact at work, while others run the risk of feeling lonely and isolated. Managers therefore need to protect their employees emotionally. To ensure the emotional well-being of the entire workforce, regular exchanges should take place at both the team and individual levels. This helps to assess whether structural changes are necessary. Managers also have a duty of care with regard to data protection in the home office. The prerequisite for this is the central regulation of the use of tools, applications and hardware to ensure that both the employees' and the company's data are reliably protected.
- Promote communication and motivation. The partial elimination of physical presence in the office has an impact on internal communication and employee motivation. The use of modern collaboration and communication tools helps to compensate for this and ensure a consistently high level of employee commitment. Here too, regular discussions with each and every individual play an important role in identifying signs of demotivation at an early stage and taking countermeasures if necessary.
- Use for Recruitment. Due to the flexibility of hybrid work models, work is becoming increasingly independent of time and place. Rigid structures are a thing of the past. Achieving goals and results is becoming more and more important, and it often doesn't matter whether this happens during traditional working hours. While some regular core working hours may be required for business reasons, hybrid working allows a large part of the working day to be chosen to suit individual lifestyles. This also opens up new opportunities for recruiting employees who would not have been available in the old working models.
"Hybrid working models have proven their worth in the pandemic in many places," says Sridhar Iyengar, Managing Director, Zoho Europe. "The challenge now is to recognise and exploit the opportunities they present. Leaders who are willing to adopt new strategies and explore new avenues will be best placed to future-proof their companies. Those, however, who rigidly stick to old practices may fall behind."
