Hybrid working, as the name suggests, refers to a “hybrid” and in other words a mixed working model. This new working trend came into our lives with the pandemic and has continued to do so ever since.
In this working model, employees can work from the office or from home on certain days of the week or perhaps the month.
The hybrid working model has already gained widespread acceptance in the business world, streamlining and simplifying business processes. To thrive in a digital age of the business world, it seems crucial to keep up with new working patterns and models.
Either this working arrangement can be established by the company that the employee works for, or the employee can propose to their employer that they can embrace such a working model.
Depending on the decision, the days on which the employee will work in the office and on which days the employee will work remotely are determined under the hybrid working model.
What are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Hybrid Working?
The number of employees and companies adopting this working model has consequently increased with an unexpected event such as a global pandemic taking place in our lives.
As with every working model, there are advantages and disadvantages that each model offers to the employee or employer. Considering these advantages and challenges, what could be the reasons for employees or employers to adopt the hybrid working model?
To better understand the reasons for this decision, let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of the hybrid work model.
Achieving Work-Life Balance: The Key Advantages of Hybrid Working
The hybrid working model stands out as a more diverse working model as compared to the conventional office working model and the remote working model which has recently come to the agenda. This hybrid working model offers its own advantages, as well.
We can highlight a few of them;
- It increases the efficiency and productivity of the employee in task fulfillment processes.
- It helps the employee to achieve a work-life balance.
- It enables companies and employees to reduce expenses and increase savings.
- It transforms and improves team-working practices.
- It reduces disease transmission risk and prevents the spread of them.
Increases Efficiency and Productivity
In a hybrid working environment, flexible working hours and a comfortable working environment are among the key factors that contribute to the productivity and efficiency of the employees.
These favorable conditions may also help to reduce the stress levels of the employees in a traditional office-based working system.
Based on pre-set schedules, they have the option of either going to the office or working from home. It can be said that having such an opportunity might be a factor that may help the employee to maintain a balance between work and personal life.
Helps to Achieve Work-Life Balance
As mentioned in the previous section, one of the advantages of a hybrid working pattern is its assistance in achieving a work-life balance. With the convenience of flexible working hours, the employees can customize their working hours to perform their duties.
The employee who establishes his/her own routine can be more satisfied allowing him/her to focus more on the task at hand. Mutually, this may help to increase productivity.
Reduces Expenses and Increases Savings
From many perspectives, the hybrid working model is a much more cost effective approach to working for both the company and the employee.
The transportation costs that both employers and employees spend to get to their workplaces – their offices – are almost halved in the hybrid working model. For example, if a person drives to work using their own car, they can significantly save on fuel costs.
On the other hand, for companies, having fewer employees physically in the office will also help to reduce costs within the workplace. Expenditures on things like office supplies and other tools will also be reduced and savings will be ensured.
Transforms Team-Working Practices
The hybrid working model also changes the way teams do business. Part of the team can work in the office while the other part can work from their homes.
Typically, it can be difficult to determine the appropriate time and place for each employee, but with online work execution options in the hybrid working model, these limitations can be eliminated, allowing work to be carried out in a way that is convenient for each person.
Reduces Disease Transmission Risk
Offices are collective environments because of their structure, so many employees and individuals can access this environment and spend hours in it.
This means that people who have, or are at risk, of infectious diseases have the possibility of transmitting that risk to people they are in the same environment with.
In a hybrid working model, however, this risk is less likely to be a problem, as the employee has neither the chance of contracting nor transmitting a disease while working in his or her own safe environment.
Grass Is Not Always Greener On the Other Side: Disadvantages of Hybrid Working
Alongside the advantages mentioned above, the hybrid working model also has some disadvantages of its own.
We can highlight a few of them;
- It causes the employee to have a sense of isolation and feel detached from the team.
- It may bring disorganization to work execution processes, and make task management more difficult.
- It can make time and space management challenging for the employees.
- It challenges the availability of particular tools for business execution processes.
The Lonely Side of Work Flexibility: Feeling Isolated in Hybrid Work
Employees following a hybrid working model do not have access to the same social environment at home as they do in the office. They can only contact their coworkers through online platforms in a digital form.
During working hours, they often feel isolated and alone at home. Since they focus on work during the working process, they cannot establish the same social atmosphere that they would have in the working environment during the day.
Brings Disorganization
The employees have to maintain the hybrid working model in a particular routine, working some days in the office and some days from their own home. This duality can sometimes be quite tiring and confusing.
It can also be challenging for companies and recruiters to keep track of which employees work in the office on which days.
Challenges Time and Space Management
In a hybrid working pattern, covering both working in the office and working remotely at home, the employee may be distracted by the conditions at home on the days and during the period of time they are working at home.
If the employee lives with his/her family, the noise, disturbance or lack of private space in the home may adversely affect the employee’s working from home process.
Also, the office working hours may not apply when working from home, which may cause the employee to have difficulty in balancing work and private life during the day.
Without proper time management and a practical work schedule, the work that would have been done during working hours may lead to sacrificing time in one’s personal life.
Requires Certain Conditions
For the best execution of business processes, it is very important to have the necessary tools and equipment in the office. This equipment facilitates and accelerates the processes.
In the hybrid working model, however, the employee’s access to these tools is severely restricted during the period of working from home.
Moreover, if the employee does not have these equipment in the home environment or if these tools are not provided to the employee by the company, the employee may have difficulty in fulfilling their duties.
How Should the Hybrid Working Model be Implemented in the Business World?
The hybrid working model entered our lives during the pandemic as a necessity, but later on, it continued to maintain its place as a preferred model thanks to the advantages it offers to companies, employers and employees.
However, a number of companies and businesses have faced some challenges in trying to implement this working model into their current working practices.
It is important for companies to consider the advantages and disadvantages of the hybrid working model and decide whether it is a suitable working model for their businesses.
Then, they should assess how they will adapt this model to their own operations, such as whether they will operate on an office-based or remote based business model. Several aspects such as these should be taken into account when reaching this decision.
Choosing the Appropriate Work Model for the Business
Companies need to take into account their place in the business world, their purpose and mission, and make a decision based on the industry in which they are in.
In accordance with their business processes, if there are more operations to be carried out in the office, it may be the right option to choose a hybrid working model where office-based work is predominant.
On the other hand, if business processes where individual work is at the forefront are operated, a remote or home-based business execution system can be created.
Keeping Up with Asynchronous Working
Conventional business models suggest that synchronous working is the most efficient and productive way to work.
However, new working model trends such as hybrid working or remote working prove that working in asynchronous working can be just as productive as synchronous working. Companies need to realize that they don’t have to run their business processes simultaneously.
Especially in the hybrid working model, team meetings should be organized online and work processes should be tracked at regular time intervals.
The responsibilities and duties of employees in the hybrid working model should be clearly defined and stated. Lack of communication due to not being in an office environment should not be reflected on work-making processes.
Moreover, executives should develop different methods to ensure the motivation of employees, particularly those working in a hybrid work model.
Creating a Hybrid Friendly Work Environment
The hybrid working model requires relatively limited time in the office compared to the traditional office-based working model. In office working, employees spend almost all of their working hours in this office environment.
However, these workplaces should not only be seen as a place where employees complete their work and leave. These co-working spaces are environments that allow managers, employees and people in general to be all together.
Co-working spaces can be created in the office area. Regardless of the position or status of the employees in the workplace, an all-inclusive office environment can be created away from hierarchy.
In the hybrid working model, employees may seek these social interactions that they experience in the office environment for their own working routine. This is an important detail for the employee to maintain motivation and productivity.
It is very important for companies to create favorable conditions for their employees for the hybrid working model which will likely remain its presence in the future.
Companies should pay attention to these aspects in order to adapt to the future in their business processes.
How to Create an Efficient Hybrid Work Environment?
The fact that the hybrid working model is not fully comprehended brings with it question marks about how companies and their managers are to conduct the work process.
Companies which are going to adopt the hybrid working method need to draw a roadmap for both themselves and their employees on how they should organize their work, in order to increase their work productivity.
There are several tips to create the efficient working environment that is needed to improve and accelerate the work-making processes in the hybrid working model. Below are three key strategies:
Prioritize Communication
A key element of success in a hybrid working system is the issue of communication. It is very important to create a working environment where there is open communication.
Whether working in the office or remotely from home, each employee needs to know that they can always contact their teammates and executives to consult them about their work.
Likewise, it should be kept in mind that the employee working with the hybrid working model is involved in the business processes in the office during the remote working period.
The employee has the opportunity to express ideas about these processes as well, and that these ideas are valued.
In order to communicate with these employees in a hybrid working system, text, audio and video communication methods can be utilized. Daily or weekly meetings will facilitate the work follow-up processes of both employees and managers.
Through video conferencing applications that can provide these meetings, presentation of business processes, information and file sharing can be realized easily.
On the other hand, employees need to have the necessary communication equipment to access the information they need about their work whenever they need it.
Being able to access information in an organized manner will increase the productivity and efficiency of employees.
Provide the Essential Tools
In conventional working models, it is important that the equipment required for business processes in the office environment is available within the reach of the employee.
Yet, for companies and employees who adopt the hybrid working model, access to and use of such equipment is not always possible.
For instance, having a high-speed internet connection that facilitates business processes may not always be possible for a hybrid working employee.
Therefore, in order for people who adopt the hybrid working model not to have difficulties in business processes, similar conditions should be established in their own environment.
The managers might supply the equipment their employees need in order to ensure that they can perform their work in the most efficient way in this process. The productivity of employees working with the hybrid working model can be increased by facilitating their work.
Either by providing the company or the employee themselves, they should be able to perform their job in these conditions. The fact that employees cannot access this equipment because they are not in the office should not be a problem in the hybrid working model.
Embrace Flexible Hours
Along with the introduction of hybrid and remote working models into the business world, we have started to talk about flexible working hours rather than the typical 9 am to 5 pm working routine.
Accordingly, it has become very important for companies to offer their employees the opportunity to work in a flexible working order as part of the hybrid working model.
It is essential to allow employees to choose and adopt working hours that work for them, in accordance with their personal lives.
By doing so, the employee who gets to know themselves better will discover how efficient and productive they can be, exactly when and where.
This will also reflect the manager’s trust in the employee. An employee who realizes that they work in an environment where they are trusted and their decisions are respected will work with much more dedication.
On the other hand, flexible working hours can also cover not only the whole working day but also certain hours of it.
In the hybrid working model, the employee can be in the office at specific times of the day, while the rest of the day they can continue to work in a completely different working environment.
All of these aspects should be considered in the balance between the business objectives of the companies and the needs of the employees.
Flexible and supportive business models that aim to facilitate business processes will pave the way for the fulfillment of business goals.
How Hybrid Workers Can Track Workflow Through Apps?
Among the topics we discussed were the advantages and disadvantages of the hybrid working model, how this model can be successfully implemented in the business world, and how to create an efficient hybrid work environment in case it is adopted.
These topics were generally aimed at companies and company managers.
For hybrid working to be effective in the execution of business processes, it is essential that employees stay engaged and aware of their progress.
Here, we will try to address the question of how employees who adopt hybrid working can follow the workflow and which applications they can use in this process.
What are Workflow and Workflow Applications?
Workflow, as the name suggests, is the name given to the completion processes of business operations. It is based on the “flow” of a work in the process leading to finalization.
Also, workflow applications are software programs that facilitate the execution and tracking of tasks and processes within the company.
What is the Benefit of Workflow Applications for Hybrid Workers?
- Facilitates monitoring of workflow.
- Helps time management.
- Provides cooperation in team work.
- Ensures the protection and maintenance of corporate culture.
- Works integrated with other applications and facilitates the business processes.
- Increases efficiency and productivity by organizing the employee’s work-making processes.
Which Workflow Applications Do Hybrid Workers Prefer?
Workflow management applications improve productivity and increase efficiency whilst making the tasks of hybrid employees much easier. These applications operate in many business areas such as finance, marketing and IT.
We have listed a few of these applications that contribute to the digital transformation in the business world and regulate the way people who work with a hybrid working model do business:
- Asana
- Trello
- Jira
- OctaSales
- Smartsheet
- Microsoft SharePoint
Let’s take a brief look at some of these applications:
Asana
Asana enables team members to gather on a single platform. It assists in work tracking of the teams.
This application, which has the ability to work integrated with other tools, provides ease of use for hybrid employees. It simplifies both individual and team work processes.
Trello
Trello application serves as an aid for teams to plan their work processes and provides the opportunity to collaborate on projects. Moreover, it helps to organize workflows, allowing the follow-up of work processes to be carried out productively.
The progress of business processes can be monitored easily by employees and by the team on this application.
Jira
The Jira application allows businesses to manage various work processes such as task tracking, project management, and so on.
It enables work distribution and task assignments to be performed among the team through a single platform. It allows tasks and business processes to be closely tracked step by step.
OctaMeet
OctaMeet is a great opportunity for companies that have adopted or are considering adopting a hybrid working model. It offers the possibility to monitor all business processes to be carried out remotely through its video conferencing solutions.
OctaMeet enables teams to gather, organize meetings over video conferencing and allow more efficient management of workflow processes in the hybrid working model.
To try OctaMeet now for free, click here.
The hybrid working model, which aims to gain a permanent place in our lives, is increasing its prevalence day by day. It is preferred by many companies in many business sectors because of the advantages it provides.
These companies, trying to keep up with the digital age, are incorporating hybrid working models into their existing working systems.
Business processes are accelerating and at the same time, workflow monitoring is becoming much simpler. It is an undeniable fact that the hybrid working model is a step on the road to success in the business world in the digital age.
