Article posted on June 24, 2021
Are we really returning to the office? Businesses and organizations have begun to reopen in some capacity, but frankly, the future of work and what that actually looks like has been thrown into a state of ambiguity for managers, owners and stakeholders alike. It’s difficult to deny that COVID-19 has taught workers to re-calibrate, whether that means how we remain productive or how we communicate effectively to get the job done.
In the first part of our return-to-work series, we examined the foundations and organizational benefits of improving collaboration in this new work environment. In this blog, we zoom out to help companies determine how to execute the design and implementation of a hybrid future.
Here are four important questions to ask on the path to a future-proofed office:
1) In what ways will a hybrid work environment ensure business continuity?
Planning for a hybrid future is kind of a nebulous concept. When throwing around words like “hybrid office” and “remote work model,” it’s hard to grasp the true scope of transformation that’s necessary—but also quite exciting because of one new-found and almost universally embraced goal: flexibility. In every sense of the word, flexibility spans from being able to enhance the strengths and positive work habits of each employee, to establishing a sustainable workplace design with the proper resources whether individuals are operating at home, at the office, out on the field or a combination thereof.
After taking a step back and realizing how quickly and suddenly the workforce needed to adapt to a seemingly never-ending pandemic, one of the primary motives for implementing a hybrid work environment is to become future-proof. Essentially, a hybrid office doesn’t have to be as rigid with the same guardrails as the traditional workplace operated within. There needs to be a plan that establishes reliable connectivity and communication between internal and external employees, customers and other stakeholders.
Hybrid work means almost every meeting now includes remote participants, and it must enable a versatile working style that ebbs and flows with business needs in a stable way with repetitive user experience. With this in mind, in order to ensure business continuity, meeting spaces in the office should be set up with video conferencing and presentation capabilities that are extremely easy to connect to and offer professional-grade audio and video quality. Business continuity should mean minimizing distractions, including wasted time dealing with technical issues in meeting rooms and poor audio and video quality—all contributing to increasing costs associated with poor meetings.
What will be the next COVID?
2) How do businesses maximize productivity and collaboration in a hybrid work environment?
A hybrid approach to a refreshed return-to-work will offer the best of both worlds, blending the socialization and palpability of in-office work with the individualized benefits and flexibility of working remotely. Yet, companies need to ensure that their employees still have the ability to collaborate in ways that drive productivity and result in the exchange of innovative ideas; after all, that’s how businesses differentiate and stay competitive in the market.
Some may describe the solution to this by falling back on the buzzwords “unification” and “streamlining,” but I prefer to talk about hybrid collaboration as hassle-free and empowering.
Sharing ideas and content quickly and seamlessly is at the heart of this. Why stick with outdated technology that takes longer to troubleshoot than it does to conduct important meetings and share information without disruption? Staff need to be able to easily connect with their remote colleagues and vice versa, and the use of personal devices and video conferencing will continue to play a fundamental role today in workplace collaboration and productivity. Sometimes this will involve a BYOD (bring your own device) approach or creating a multipurpose meeting space, and companies often may want to enable the use of multiple devices to join a video call and share content wirelessly in one click or a single touch—and leave the hassle of cords behind.
3) What do employees need to be properly equipped for continued remote work?
Here’s another question: why should we take the “professional” out of the office just because it’s at home? In referring to the equipment and at-home technology, this is particularly germane. Think about it. As a business, if you have a fleet of gear in the company ecosystem at the office that is tracked and managed by IT staff, wouldn’t you want to develop the same policy and resources for remote employees?
In a hybrid work environment, individuals working from home at any given time should still have access to professional video conferencing equipment.
It’s easy to avoid low quality meetings, decreased productivity and poor engagement by simply eliminating the need for staff to supplement equipment gaps on their own by purchasing consumer-level technology just to “get by.” Some recommended considerations include:
4) What capabilities do hybrid meeting spaces need at the office?
The sweet spot is really identified and achieved through close consultation with a technology integrator that’s experienced in designing modern video conferencing and workplace meeting solutions of all sizes. The foundations of a hybrid meeting environment include a variety of technologies, features and capabilities:
Hybrid Work by Design
Overall, it’s hard to deny that the workforce will benefit from increased inclusivity and flexibility of a hybrid office. Some employees may simply need to come into the office more than others, some individuals may see increased productivity with a varied work week, and others may just work better from home. Why restrict options?
Reach out today to help define and plan for your post-pandemic workplace.
