The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly accelerated the move toward remote workforces. While the pandemic was extremely challenging for businesses across the world, it meant that the technological infrastructure was laid and improved. Today’s businesses can choose to benefit.
Remote working turned out to be beneficial to employees and their employers for several reasons. However, not everyone is ready for remote working. Not everybody wants it. And some jobs might be performed better on-site.
The hybrid work model provides a balance between traditional office environments and remote work, offering people the flexibility and support they need to do their best work.
What Is the Hybrid Work Model?
The hybrid work model offers flexibility to employers and employees by combining on-site work with remote work, whether that means people working from home, in coworking spaces, or on the go.
The flexibility of hybrid work models varies. In one firm, employees might be able to decide which days they will work remotely. In another, these days will be assigned by the company.
In some organizations, all workers might be hybrid workers. Others might have a balance of hybrid workers and those who are on-site all the time.
The flexibility of hybrid work models also extends to the times of day that people are required to work. Hybrid workers might agree to work six hours per day, for example, with the flexibility to decide what time they perform their duties. Whatever the level of flexibility, a hybrid work option has several significant advantages for employers.
Top Benefits of the Hybrid Work Model
Save Money
Firms that use a hybrid work model tend to spend less in two main areas: real estate and equipment. With fewer people required on-site at any given time, smaller premises are required to accommodate business functions. This can add up to significant real estate savings.
Furthermore, remote workers typically use their own devices while they are working away from the office. This reduces the cost of maintenance and wear and tear on office IT assets. This can be even more significant when combined with a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, whereby workers use their own devices when they are in the office, too.
A disadvantage of having remote workers use their own devices is that all those personal devices are harder to secure from an information security perspective. Businesses can counteract this risk, however, with training in password hygiene and avoiding unsecured wifi networks, such as coffee shops. Multi-factor authentication, firewalls, and VPNs will also help remote workers keep networks secure.
Choose from a Wider Talent Pool
Not everyone can work from nine to five or whatever hours an individual business prefers. By being flexible about when and where people work, a business can choose from more people.
Many excellent candidates are restricted by difficulties commuting and childcare or other personal obligations. By allowing people to work off-site more often, a business can make the most of this previously underused talent.
Leadar can help businesses connect with candidates ready for a hybrid work model and demonstrates the effectiveness of searching for people without the restrictions of needing them to commit to a strict nine-to-five schedule.
Attract Candidates with a Meaningful Perk
Businesses are frequently seeking ways to entice candidates to work with them and to encourage them to stay longer. While financial incentives are popular, anything that promotes a healthy work-life balance is attractive to modern workers. Flexibility could be more of an incentive than monetary perks.
In particular, millennials seek a healthy balance between work and play. Many have seen their parents work themselves thin with little return, and so they want to spend more time with their friends and families.
Furthermore, millennials tend to appreciate a business that is aligned with their values and beliefs. Offering a hybrid work model demonstrates that a business cares about its employees, understands that everyone has different needs and abilities, and wants to facilitate their ability to have a healthy work-life balance.
Generate More Productivity
It’s true that some people perform better at different times of the day. Some people are owls and come to life at night. Others are more productive in the early hours of the morning. By offering a hybrid work model, a business can make the most of an employee’s preferred work times so that they can achieve peak performance.
Happier Employees
An organization that cares about its employees is likely to have happier employees who are proven to be more productive than miserable ones. Rather than offering perks such as vouchers, cinema tickets, or snacks, offering work-time flexibility can be much more meaningful and valuable, allowing employees to do what they need to do to have lives that are less stressful and potentially more joyful.
Keep Pace with Other Businesses
“If my business jumped off a cliff, would yours jump off, too?”
Peer pressure is not necessarily a good reason to do something. In this case, however, hybrid work has demonstrated a positive influence, increasing productivity, making production more efficient, and helping businesses benefit from more talent and cost savings. In this case, it’s okay to bow down to peer pressure and do as other businesses do.
Offering a hybrid work model can demonstrate that your organization is a modern business that doesn’t sacrifice its values or its workers for the sake of its customers but rather aims to find a balance so that it can provide a product or service that customers love and employees love to create.
Conclusion
The hybrid work model is a balanced way of supporting a workforce so that it can achieve a business’s objectives more effectively. It’s more than lip service, such as written policies about how a business cares about and respects its staff. It’s actual, demonstrable evidence that a business prioritizes its people.
Hybrid work can be a profitable move for businesses willing to embrace human-centric policies that give workers more autonomy. There are talented people out there who can not or do not wish to work traditional business hours and yet wish to make a difference to your organization. It makes sense to leverage the attitudes and technologies that help people and businesses work smarter.
