When we look back, we can see that 2020 was a year that changed our lives. Everything that has happened to us in 2020 has had consequences that drastically changed our living habits.
One of these results will be a change that will affect the future of businesses: the transition to the hybrid working model. So how did we get to this point?
Office work was before considered the standard for nearly every business model. While filling out the job applications, there was no question in our minds about which working system we would be working in.
With the pandemic, this situation has changed. All workplaces have entirely switched to the remote working model due to necessity. This sudden transition has shaken our life order to the root and forced us to keep up with the new model.
We kept up. Working from home has become a regular part of everyone’s life.
But with the increased speed of vaccination, we started to ‘normalize’. There were rumors everywhere that employees are returning the work. But there was a problem. We were so used to our work environment, how would we go back to the office?
The hybrid working model emerges as an answer to this question. According to the report prepared jointly by Digital Turkey Platform and KPMG Turkey, 39% of the employees will continue in the hybrid working model within two years.
What is the Hybrid Work Model?
Hybrid work; A model where employees work from the office on certain days of the week and from home on certain days. Although there are versions divided into weeks or shifts, we can say that the most common version is the model in which the week is divided into days.
In this model, the working model of the employees is determined according to their wishes or by the company.
Let’s imagine a workplace that works five days a week. Employees working from the office had to go to the office on all five days. Waking up very early in the morning to avoid traffic, getting ready; Then the employees went to work by shuttle, public transport, or private vehicle. Time, one of the most valuable assets, was wasted just to get to work.
The workplace has completely switched to the remote working model at the beginning of the pandemic. Although the work-from-home model has no time wasted on the road, it has some disadvantages. For example, employees could find it challenging to focus on work in their comfort zone.
Another minus was the lost working hours. When you work from the office, you don’t have to work after you leave the office. But when you work remotely; It is considered normal for your manager to make a business request from you at any time of the day.
The goal of the hybrid model is to minimize the adverse effects of these two models on employees. Aware that increasing productivity is a prerequisite for growing businesses, companies switch to this model to improve their efficiency by increasing employees’ satisfaction with their jobs.
Why Businesses Prefer Hybrid Work?
To understand why some companies have switched to a hybrid working model and why most companies will switch to hybrid working in the coming period, we first need to examine the disadvantages of ‘working from the office’ and ‘working from home’, which are other business models.
Disadvantages of Working from the Office
- For employees accustomed to working remotely and face-to-face, noisy office space can be a distracting factor.
- Long hours spent on the road to commute waste a vital resource.
- Most employees do not have their rooms, making some feel insecure because they do not have private spaces.
Working in the office took up almost the entirety of business life until last year. The pandemic made us away from the offices. That made us see the disadvantages of the system.
The hybrid working model has opportunities to eliminate these disadvantages.
Hybrid working can solve the noise problem with more companies’ employees shifting to the model. For example, the human resources department may come to the office on Tuesdays and Fridays, while the marketing and sales departments may use Monday and Wednesday. That can solve the noise problem by reducing the number of people in the office at a given moment.
With the same method, employees can get their own rooms. With the decrease in the number of people in the office, rooms can be divided according to the days so that more employees can have their rooms. That increases the productivity of employees who need private space.
With its nature that allows you to go to the office only on certain days, the hybrid working model already saves you from the problem of time lost on the road a few days a week.
For some industries, such as the service industry, it may be necessary to work in the field, to go to work every day. But there are certainly some industries that can shift to fully remote or hybrid work.
The increase in the number of companies working with the hybrid working model in the future will mean fewer people on the roads. That can mean a reduction in traffic problems. With the hybrid working model, even on days when we go to the office, employees may have more time to spare due to decreased traffic.
Disadvantages of Remote Working
- Remote workers may feel lonely and isolated because they work alone and do not have co-workers around.
- Again, because of working alone, employees can experience problems of not establishing and developing relationships with colleagues.
- Since home life and work-life can confuse, most of the employees have problems focusing on work.
- The concept of working hours may disappear, leading to a deterioration in the work-private life balance.
It is a fact that working remotely has great advantages, such as increasing the individual’s freedom and allowing the employee to choose their work area. But to achieve maximum efficiency, companies need to find a solution to the above problems.
The hybrid work can provide this solution.
It can solve problems such as loneliness and feel isolated by bringing people to the office more often. Employees who spend certain days of the week in the office can better perform essential activities such as socializing with their colleagues and spending time with them.
Employees need to spend time with each other outside of work. With the help of hybrid work, they can form better relationships and hang out when they do not come to the office.
The inability to focus, which is one of the biggest problems of working from home, arises when the staff is working from the comfort zone. Some days of the week, or going to the office when the employee prefers, can contribute to the solution of this problem.
The hybrid working business model offers solutions to many problems, including the main problems of working from the office, long journey times, and the social isolation of remote working. By taking advantage of both business models, it aims to maximize the efficiency of companies and the happiness of employees.
The hybrid work may not be able to reverse these disadvantages for all situations. But the main focus here is; the hybrid working system aims to identify the inefficient aspects of the remote working and home working model and try to overcome them.
Digital Transformation Needed for Hybrid Work
The hybrid working transformation will not be painless. We are more experienced than before, but we still need tools and strategies to help us with this transformation.
The primary need of the teams is the communication tools that they can use to ensure effective communication between them. Tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams can help everyone in this regard.
SaaS services will assist in all areas of this digital transformation. Distant channel management is one of the essential tools that can help companies in this transformation.
Distant channel management allows you to make your customer calls that you need to do physically through a single video conferencing platform; It may be the SaaS solution you are looking for to monitor your business channels remotely.
You can easily organize your online business meetings with OctaMeet while working in a hybrid model in your business processes. For more information about OctaMeet, please contact us or schedule a demo meeting with our product team.
