Since the pandemic, a lot of offices have turned to a hybrid work model i.e. they allow employees to work at home some of the time. During the pandemic, of course, this was necessary in order to prevent the spread of COVID but now, it’s simply more convenient for employees and prevents them from having to commute to work which can often take up a lot of time. Saving that time keeps employees happy and actually makes them more productive. Here are some things to keep in mind when you’re turning to a hybrid work model:
- Degree of Hybridity: The first thing you may need to decide is exactly how much time the employee needs to spend in the office and how much time they need to spend at home. For some employees, it may be necessary to come into the office more often, if they are working closely with other employees or if they need to set up meetings with clients. For others, who don’t have to meet with clients/other employees, working from home most of the time might be possible.
- Modes of Communication: Even when an employee is working at home, they do need to stay in touch with their supervisors/other employees. So it’s a good idea to define exactly how this is going to happen. Should they mostly use emails, text messages or phone calls in order to communicate with each other? This is something which should be uniform throughout the company because if certain employees are using text messages while the rest are using emails, then it’s likely that some communications are not going to reach their intended audience.
- Being Accountable: When you work within a hybrid model, it’s necessary for employees who are working from home to make sure that they are accountable for the work that needs to get done. When you don’t have a supervisor checking up on you every so often and when you’re not surrounded by other people who are also working, then it might be tempting to take it easy and slack off. It helps if employees and supervisors stay in touch with each other at various points throughout the day to make sure that everything is going as scheduled.
A hybrid work model is one that appeals to most employees, but employers might have some reservations about how it’s going to work. It’s a good idea to try it out for a limited period of time and allow employees to really settle into it before deciding whether it’s working or not. Sometimes, tweaking the modes of communication is really all that’s needed to get this model off its feet.
