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Owing to the dynamic changes in the work culture across the world, we have moved past the conventional 9-to-5 approach to work where employees are required to be at their desks throughout the day. The advent of remote working has revolutionized modern workspaces by introducing the hybrid culture of working.  

Essentially, a hybrid workplace is a workplace where there is no standard and uniform style of working. It does not involve all the employees working from the office and reporting to work on-premise all working days of the week. A hybrid workplace includes a mix of employees working on-premise and remotely.  

When a pandemic hit the world, organizations had no other option but to function virtually. This led to employees working from their homes and staying connected through collaborative platforms. Now that the COVID-19 situation is easing down and organizations have started reopening their doors for on-premise work, some employees are still willing to work remotely. Also, several organizations worldwide have claimed to have witnessed an increase in productivity with their employees working remotely!  

This has given rise to a complicated but flexible system of a hybrid workplace. In a hybrid workplace, despite the lack of uniformity in the presence of employees, everyone is connected through a centralized platform without letting the work gets affected.  

Operating in a hybrid workplace has its share of pros and cons.  

Key Benefits Of A Hybrid Workplace

1. High flexibility
   
   A hybrid workplace is less stringent regarding the location from which the employees are required to work. It allows employees to work according to their convenience and preferences. If an employee is willing to work on-premise, they can resort to the conventional approach of going to work every day. On the other hand, if an employee is willing to work from the comfort of their home, they can do so and stay connected with the employees working on-premise.
   
   
2. Lower Management Costs
   
   As a hybrid workplace does not require every employee to work from the office, it saves significant management costs. If a company permanently adopts the hybrid workplace culture, it can shift to a smaller office and work effectively, saving a good amount of money that can be used for productive purposes.
   
   
3. Better Work-Life Balance
   
   A hybrid workplace allows its employees to choose between going to the office and working from their homes. This lifts the burden of going to work and staying there all day off the employees' shoulders. Whenever employees feel like being around their loved ones at home, they can choose to work from home, leading to a better work-life balance. 
   
   

Major Drawbacks Of A Hybrid Workplace

1. Risk Of Cybersecurity Threats
   
   In a hybrid workplace, the employees working from home are not connected to the common network and endpoint security controls as they use their computers for work. This increases the risk of cybersecurity threats to the shared data stored and managed by the organization.
   
   
2. Difficulty In Onboarding
   
   As there is no uniformity in the approach to work, HR managers often find it difficult to onboard employees in a hybrid workplace. With some employees being physically present at work and others working remotely, the onboarding process is likely to have inconsistencies in catering to all the employees.
   
   
3. Leadership Challenges
   
   As the trend of working in a hybrid workplace is fairly new, managers at most organizations are not capable enough to keep track of the tasks undertaken by both on-premise and remote employees. In such cases, poor leadership can result in a decrease in employee engagement and productivity. 
   
   

Modernizing Your IT Service Desk To Support A Hybrid Workplace

Traditional IT service desks are not equipped to cater to employees working in a hybrid workplace. They are designed to provide support to on-premise employees. Moreover, the IT support provided by traditional service desks is generic and does not cater to the specific needs of all the employees working in an organization.  

This makes it essential for an organization to modernize its IT service desk in order to streamline its support processes in a hybrid workplace. Modern service desks are equipped with technologies like AI and machine learning to tailor the support according to the specific needs and preferences of the employees.

Here are some of the most important and productive ways in which you can modernize your IT service desk to support a hybrid workplace:  

1. Integrating With Your Collaborative Platform
   
   Hybrid workplaces are incomplete without the use of collaborative platforms. These platforms allow on-premise and remote employees to communicate and collaborate on a centralized platform. It also helps managers and team leaders to reach out to all employees and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
   
   By integrating your IT service desk with your collaborative platform, you can centralize your employee support. This allows all your employees to obtain seamless support on the same platform they use for work. Whenever in need, all they need to do is open a tab in from their respective accounts and raise an issue they are facing. This prevents your employees from switching to a different platform to obtain personalized support, whether they are working remotely or on-premise.
   
   
2. Using AI Chatbots
   
   You can further improve the IT support provided to your employees in a hybrid workplace by using AI chatbots. These virtual assistants interact with your employees like human beings, understand the context of their issues, and provide them with personalized solutions.
   
   The use of AI chatbots helps you reduce the dependence on support agents. Here, all cases are not directly routed to the support agents. Instead, the primary support (L1) is provided by the chatbots within seconds. All you need to do is ensure that relevant data is added to your enterprise knowledge base. When an employee asks for help, the chatbots can scan the knowledge base and return with a solution tailored specifically for the concerned employee.
   
   
3. Automating The Ticketing System
   
   Traditional IT service desks often made it challenging to create support tickets for employees working on-premise and those working remotely. The manual ticketing system left non-technical employees clueless and confused while seeking IT support.
   
   To modernize your IT service desk, it is always advisable to automate your ticketing system to provide better support to your employees. If your service desk is integrated with your collaborative platform, your employees can create a ticket simply by chatting with the AI chatbots from their respective accounts. This would automatically create their support tickets and route them to a dedicated support agent.
   
   Along with the case, a modern IT service desk sends all necessary information about the concerned employee to help the agent provide a holistic solution. Once the agent is ready with the solution, the chatbot carries the same to the concerned employees on the collaborative platform. If the employee is satisfied with the assistance, the ticket is automatically closed, and the details are recorded in the knowledge base for the AI platform to learn and grow.
   
   
4. Automating Password Changes And Resets
   
   The IT professionals in an organization are often occupied with handling the repetitive requests of changing and resetting employees' passwords. This tends to distract them from working on more pressing issues for the company. While modernizing your IT service desk for a hybrid workplace, it is advisable to automate such repetitive tasks.
   
   A modern IT service desk integrated with your collaborative platform can directly connect the request for password change/reset with the back-end, authenticate the identity of the concerned employee, and get the changes made immediately without any human interference. This relieves your IT team from spending their time and effort in handling these repetitive processes.
   
   
5. Sending Automated Notifications
   
   In a hybrid workplace, all the employees need to be on the same page. With a modern IT service desk, you can automate the notifications to the employees whenever you need to alert them about specific matters. Whether you want to notify your employees about system outages, important dates, deadlines, schedules, or anything they need to know, a modern service desk helps you alert them about the same in real-time.
   
   
6. Streamlining Change Management
   
   It is often difficult for an organization to implement change within a hybrid workplace as they cannot undertake solely on-premise processes. A modern IT service desk allows you to provide all relevant resources and materials about the change to be implemented through a centralized platform. Moreover, by feeding your knowledge base with necessary data regarding the change to be implemented, you can provide quick answers to the questions asked by any employee working in the hybrid workplace.
   
   

The Final Word  

These were some of the most important and beneficial ways to modernize your IT service desk for a hybrid workplace. Always remember that the key to sustaining a hybrid workplace is to have consistency in processes and to ensure that the entire team is on the same page at any point in time.