Hybrid work has become the new normal, whether you like it or not. It is not one of those fads that will go away once the pandemic is over. It is not going anywhere anytime soon. Hybrid work has its upsides and downsides. Employees love hybrid work because it gives them flexibility and helps them strike the perfect work-life balance.
From the organization’s standpoint, it can also be cost-effective too. Businesses can lower their operational expenses by saving up on utility expenses. What’s more, it also gives them access to a larger talent pool. Just like everything else, there are also some hurdles that you need to overcome in order to reap the real rewards of hybrid work. If you are interested in learning about the perks and challenges of hybrid work then, this article is for you.
In this article, AntiDos will tell you about common hybrid work challenges and how you can get over them to unlock the real benefits of hybrid work.
Advantages of Hybrid Work
Let’s look at some of the advantages of hybrid work in detail.
Expanding Your Talent Pool
With the great resignation negatively impacting businesses both in the US and around the globe, your businesses can also feel the heat. More and more employees are looking for a better opportunity and will switch jobs. That is not good news for businesses that are already fighting talent shortfall problems in the IT and cybersecurity industry. The situation is not much different in other industries either.
Hybrid work can help you expand your talent pool and attract top-tier talent from a wide range of different sources. By offering hybrid work, you are making your company more attractive for prospective candidates. With more employees prioritizing flexibility provided by hybrid work, it can work in your favor.
Performance Improvements
Every employee is different and has a different work style. This means that you can not apply the size fits all formula. By giving your employees a choice between two different options, you can cater to a wider range of employees. This can also help you speed up innovation and enhance the productivity of your employees especially when they are in their desired work environment.
Lower Employee Turnover Rate
One of the biggest advantages of adopting hybrid work is that it reduces your employee turnover rate. This makes it easy for you to retain your existing talent. According to hybrid work statistics, US companies that offer hybrid work facilities to their employees reduced their employee turnover rate by 25%. 54% of office workers are willing to resign from their current positions if they get a more flexible working option anywhere else. 41% of employees would resign from their jobs if they were forced to return to work against their will after remote work.
Test Case for Digital Transformation
One benefit of hybrid work most businesses tend to ignore is that it can also serve as a proving ground for your digital transformation. Let’s say, you want to migrate to the cloud for digital transformation, you can also test it for hybrid work as well.
Hybrid work can provide IT leaders with an opportunity to evaluate their digital transformation progress. This can also give you a better idea about your current standing and how good or bad you might fare at digital transformation. Companies who smoothly transition from a traditional work environment to a hybrid work environment are more likely to do a much better job at digital transformation as well.
Challenges of Hybrid Work
Now that we have covered some of the advantages of hybrid work, let’s look at some of the challenges you might face when adopting hybrid work.
Ensuring Organizational Agility
One of the first things you will notice when your team shifts from a traditional workplace environment to a hybrid work environment is that it is not easy to manage distributed teams. It can negatively impact the pace of innovation and could also impact agility. You will have to strike the right balance between organization agility and innovation.
You can overcome this issue by embracing DevOps. It not only ensures continuous delivery and faster deployment but also provides stability to your hybrid work environment. Additionally, it can also help you in improving the overall quality of your final product.
Communication and Collaboration
Another big issue that managers might encounter when transitioning to remote work is communication and collaboration. When your team works in a hybrid environment, you are only limited to written communication. In some cases, that won’t be enough to clearly communicate your point. Your hybrid workers might need more context and you need to change your tone to get the message across.
Yes, you can do a video call but that can not replace in-person physical interaction. It is imperative for managers to ensure that their messages are clearly understood by remote workers otherwise, this could create confusions, which can pave the way for errors. As a business, you don’t want that. You want to bring all your team members on the same page, working towards achieving a common goal.
Organization Culture
Another hurdle that most business leaders come across when they offer hybrid work facilities to their employees is to maintain the organization’s culture. Make sure all your remote workers align with your company goals and fulfills the expectations. To reinforce the organization’s culture, you need to develop that behavior that depicts your organization’s culture. Ensure transparency when interacting with your hybrid workers. Conduct one-to-one meetings and weekly staff meetings to ensure that everything is going according to the plan.
Maintaining Focus
Even though most employees are happy with hybrid work as it gives them flexibility, what they don’t realize is that frequently switching between traditional and remote work can negatively impact their ability to focus. This can also negatively impact your productivity and efficiency as an employee and might even lead to some missteps. Which is the biggest challenge you have faced during hybrid work and how did you overcome that? Share it with us in the comments section below.
