The hybrid work model, what you should think about and everything you need to know

Hybird is the future but what is hybrid and how do you do it in the best way possible? We’ve collected tips, tricks and best practises when going hybrid. Everything so that you’ll find that this new normal is actually a better and evolved version of the old normal. Welcome to the (hybrid) future!

This guide will contain the following:

• What is hybrid work?
• Is the future of work hybrid?
• Reasons to go hybrid
• The ultimate checklist
• Conclusions

What Is Hybrid Work?

Hybrid work is a workmodel where you and your team are neither full time in the office nor full time remote. How this works can be different depending on your and your team’s needs, which is the beauty of going hybrid – it can be whatever you need it to be.

Hybrid working is a flexible working model where employees are offered the opportunity to be flexible, normally with the hours they work and the location they work from. Its popularity is a result of the Covid-19 pandemic when many companies were forced to go part-time or fully remote. As many organisations are no longer forced to be remote full time, hybrid is still the preferred model of work for most workers as 83% claim they don’t want to go back to being in a physical office full-time according to research made by Slack.

There’s also room in the model for different types of flexibility for different employees. For example you might have a fully remote editorial or engineering team, while your sales team is in the office full time, and the rest of you employees might have the flexibility to be in the office when they want to.

Is the future of work hybrid?

Even though we can’t look into the future the easy answer indeed seems to be yes, the future is hybrid in some way, shape, or form. On the other hand this heavily depends on what industry you’re in and what your employee’s set of tasks are. As it seems though flexibility for employees will likely increase after the pandemic compared to before the pandemic for industries and workplaces where lockdown meant you could work from home. Workers don’t want to leave their new found freedom behind and the pandemic proved to many that it is possible to leave 9–5 office work behind. We’re going to move on to reasons to go hybrid and you might understand more in detail why the future most likely is hybrid.

Reasons to go hybrid

There are many things suggesting that hybrid is the future, one of them being, as stated above, that it is what most workers want. There’s been talk about ‘The Great Resignation’ as a result of the pandemic where workers quit because of the way they’ve been treated during the pandemic or because the pandemic offered them a shift in perspective. We can’t predict the future (unfortunately) but recent developments have spotlighted something that’s always been the truth – that we need to tend to employee’s needs in order to reduce labour turnover.

Other companies are offering a hybrid work model, and to stay attractive to job seekers out there you have to keep up. It seems as if hybrid is what the Friday beers were at companies ten years ago, but with that said there’s no need to scrap any team beers yet (or ever). This is one of the many perks of the hybrid workplace – we don’t need to choose, drinks with the team doesn’t have to compete with the flexibility of avoiding peak hour. Why have one or the other when you can have both?

Another good reason to go hybrid is the fact that you’ve probably already done all the hard work. If you went remote during the pandemic most of your employees will already be setup with the right equipment and there’s no reason to let all that hard work go to waste. Take this chance to get the best of both worlds instead of the opposite.

In conclusion it’s a good idea to go hybrid if you:

• Want to reduce labour turnover
• Want to stay attractive to job seekers
• Don’t want to let the money you spent on going remote go to waste
• Want to give employees what they want

Moving on to the ultimate checklist on how to go hybrid!

The ultimate checklist when going hybrid and the services that will ease the process

Here it is, the ultimate checklist for going hybrid and what tools you might want to use to make them happen. But most importantly: remember to talk to and listen to your employees, they likely already know what they want and need from the new workplace.

1. Get the environment right

In the new workplace it’s not one size fits all and if you want to tend to all of your employee’s needs you need flexibility when it comes to the environment where they work. This is of course easier said than done but we’d like to recommend services such as Hubble where you and your team can get access to 100s of workspaces all over the globe. Solutions like this is the ultimate happy medium as it still gives your employees the opportunity to meet in person and connect, yet maintains the flexibility that is what workers enjoy most about remote working. The pass can also be combined with having a smaller office, that way you’re not paying for any more space than what you need yet still have a HQ to call yours.

Having a full-time office seems to be a thing of the past and moving forward you might want to think outside the box when it comes to hitting just the right spot regarding what environment you and your team want to work in. Let all your creative juices flow here – why not have a brainstorming session with your employees to find out how they want to make use of space?

2. Get the right equipment

In order to do hybrid right it’s essential to make sure you have the right equipment. To get this one right you need knowledge of your team and you need to understand their individual needs. Different people will need different equipment and a perfect solution is Hofy where you can tailor all your remote working equipment needs in one place. Hofy helps you rent all the equipment you need in one place and within your own budget.

If you don’t think you need new equipment this is a good opportunity to take a look at all the equipment your employees might already have, if they need something else, and if there are things they’re not currently using. We’re not in crisis mode anymore (regarding how to work remotely at least) and it’s high time we start acting at home in this new normality – if you haven’t already it’s time you make sure all remote workers have what they need in their own home.

3. Hire abroad but don’t waste time on the admin

On the one hand: Congratulations! You’ve just opened the door to hiring talent from all over the world without it actually having to mean you have to deal with visas and the admin that comes as a result of it.

On the other hand: You’ve just been handed new admin as you have to know the laws of and open an entity in every country you have an employee in.

It might not seem worth it but luckily Deel has the solution. Deel owns entities in 60+ countries and can hire your workers for you so you don’t have to worry about admin, laws or fees. On their website you can also see information about what laws and regulations apply in the different countries where they can help you hire so you can have a think about what costs might look like for different employees.

4. Take the time to connect

We’ve been talking a lot about remote work so far but this is what we’re all about – to keep connecting and seeing each other in person because a lot of the time that’s where the magic happens. More than a quarter (26%) of employees said they’d consider leaving their job if work socials were cancelled and we think that’s proof enough that work socials and events are still an important part of working life. It might even be more important than ever as everyday socialising is swapped for occasional valuable time together. This means we have to make the most of it and we can help you find the perfect location to get together and make it extra special. Fill out our Venue Finder and we’ll help you find the perfect fit for you and your team.

5. Make events hybrid

Not only work can be hybrid – events can too! We think everyone that’s been attending events during the pandemic knows that there’s fluctuating quality when it comes to streamed events and rarely they live up to the in-person experience. Luckily Hopin solves your problem as they’re an all-in-one event management platform where you can plan, produce, and relive experiences both on- and offline all with one tool. Whether it’s external or internal events that you’re planning they might more often than not have to be hybrid for the full audience to join. Luckily this opens the door to new exciting audiences and Hopin helps you get the tools you need to reach all of them efficiently.

Conclusions

The future of work is hybrid and in order to adjust to the new normal you need to listen to your team, think about the environment that suits them best, make sure you have the right equipment, take into account legal costs of employees working from abroad, remember to still meet in person when possible, and finally make it hybrid even when you do actually meet.

We hope this guide helped you better understand what the future of work might look like and how you best can implement it in your organisation.