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For more than two years, organizations were forced to operate virtually, and professionals worldwide resorted to working remotely. The COVID-19 crisis disrupted the traditional work culture and introduced new trends to survive in a market brimming with competition. Once the crisis was on the verge of subsiding, organizations started limping back to normalcy and reopening doors to their offices. However, not every employee was willing to stop working remotely and resume on-premise work. This is what led to the emergence of hybrid work.

What Does Hybrid Work Mean?

‘Hybrid work’, as the term suggests, is a model that involves a mix of remote and on-premise employees. Based on the needs and preferences of the employees and the management, hybrid work provides employees with a flexible way of work. A hybrid workplace may have dedicated on-premise and remote employees or have the same employees work on-site and remotely on selective days.

The primary goal of hybrid work is to provide employees with the best of both worlds. While some employees have gotten used to working from the comfort of their homes, the others were dying to get back to their offices. A hybrid workplace caters to the requirements of both groups.

Why Is Hybrid Work Needed?

Hybrid work has revolutionized how organizations operate and manage their day-to-day operations. As per the statistics of Zippia, around 74% of US organizations are using hybrid models of work or planning to do so in the near future. Here are some essential reasons why this change is required for organizations to function effectively:

• Remote Work Is Not Going Away Looking at the acceptance of the trend of working remotely over the last two years, it is safe to say that it is not going away anytime soon. Although several professionals hesitated during the initial days, they slowly got accustomed to working remotely.  Even as companies resume on-site operations, employees are unwilling to return to offices. The reluctance to switch to on-site work is one of the significant reasons behind the phenomenon ‘Great Resignation’. It is, therefore, important for organizations around the world to understand that it is not possible to get rid of remote work entirely in the post-COVID world.
  
  
• The Need For Managers To Have Physical Interactions Despite all the benefits of remote work, managers and team leaders should interact physically with the employees. No matter how effective your online collaborative platform is, the impromptu encounters in the office and in-person meetings can never be replaced.  Even if the organizations are unwilling to start full-time on-site operations, hybrid work allows the leaders to interact with their team physically.
  
  
• Remote Work Leading To Exhaustion And Burnout Employees working remotely often tend to stretch their work hours. As they practically live with the work all day, remote work tends to exhaust the employees over time. This is likely to take a toll on the professionals' mental health. With hybrid work, you can make your employees work for dedicated hours by calling them to your office. Even if they are called on selective days, making your employees work on-premise would provide them with a much-needed change of mind.
  
  

Enhancing The Shift To Hybrid Work

Along with making the shift to hybrid work, organizations are equally important to enhance the shift. Ensure that the management is equipped to bring about the change in the best way possible. Here are some crucial ways in which you can enhance your shift to hybrid work:

• Be Prepared To Tackle Friction When you keep remote and on-site employees together in a single team, there will likely be some friction between the team members. While remote employees may feel that they are not given attention, the on-site employees may feel that they are not as free as others. Make sure you understand the friction between the two groups and try making amends. Establish effective communication, clearly define what “flexibility” stands for within your organization, and organize team gatherings beyond work hours. Taking such measures would help you instill a cordial work environment in a hybrid workplace.  Relevant Article: How to effective employee communication can create a frictionless work culture?
  
  
• Implement The Right Collaborative Platform Online collaborative platforms are the backbone of a hybrid workplace. They help all your employees communicate and collaborate, irrespective of the location they work from. Implementing the right collaborative platform helps you ensure that everyone is on the same page and provides the management with a centralized platform for keeping track of work.
  
  
• Lay Emphasis On Mental Health Whether your employees work on-premise or remotely, it is always important to cater to their mental health as you set up a hybrid workplace. While remote employees tend to get overburdened with work, on-site employees face complications while meeting office deadlines. To enhance your hybrid workplace, ensure that your on-site employees do not take their work home and the remote employees do not stretch their work hours.
  
  
• Have A Homogenous Schedule When you are dealing with both remote and on-site employees, it is always advisable to have a consistent schedule in place. Unless it is essential, never have different schedules for different employees. This is likely to create a rift between employees, ultimately reducing engagement and productivity.
  
  
• Implement Modern Employee Service Desks The traditional employee service desks will not help you provide personalized support to your employees working in a hybrid workplace. Implement modern AI-based service desks for providing quick, automated, and tailor-made support to your employees. These service desks use AI chatbots to streamline the support provided to your employees and reduce dependence on support agents. Modern service desks also allow users to automate creating support tickets and routing them to suitable agents.
  
  
• Focus On Employee Recognition Irrespective of the location they work from, every employee needs appreciation for their work. As you set up your hybrid workplace, make sure that the management takes the initiative to acknowledge the contributions made by your employees towards the success of your organization. This would make them feel special and provide them with a much-needed morale boost.
  
  

Conclusion

The latest survey conducted by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) found that more than 70% of companies consider the hybrid work model a viable option beyond the pandemic. The survey also states that around 40% of employees would like to work from their office for only three days a week and prefer to work remotely for the rest of the days. Thus, it is true that the trend of hybrid work is here to stay.

In order to stay in sync with the evolving work trends around the world, make sure that you switch to a hybrid workplace as soon and as effectively as possible.