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The Flexible Future: How To Set Up A Hybrid-Remote Workplace

Forbes Human Resources Council

CEO at The Execu|Search Group, overseeing our mission to make the best possible match between people and companies. 

More Americans have worked remotely in the last year than ever before. While most non-essential employers had no choice but to implement a remote work plan, the past year has shown us that the change has been well received by many businesses and their employees. Not only has research found employees to be more productive when working from home, but according to our firm’s recent report, 78% of employees would choose to be partially or fully remote when it’s time to return to normalcy. With our research stating only 43% of employers currently have a long-term plan for remote work, it’s imperative to start thinking ­­about the future of your workplace.

This doesn’t mean you need to ditch your office entirely. In fact, a significant amount of those who would prefer working remotely would also like the option to be in the office. If you’re looking to build a hybrid-remote workplace, here are five areas to consider.

Infrastructure

Having been thrust into remote work at the beginning of 2020, a lot of employers made abrupt decisions and workarounds to get their businesses functioning remotely. This possibly involved short-term business contracts with technology companies; free software trials; renting items such as laptops, monitors and printers; and allowing employees to use personal technology and/or devices to get their jobs done. This is especially true since remote work originally seemed temporary.

Plans like these may have worked in the short term, but to build a permanent and secure setup for employees, you must make long-term changes across your organization. Some of these changes include:

• Investing in enterprise solutions: ­­While different teams within your organization may be working with many solutions to effectively collaborate and manage projects, consider permanently adopting these solutions at an enterprise level. This may look like enrolling your entire company in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace where all your employees can manage their content, emails, calendars, video calls and chat conversations in one place.

• Considering migrating your servers to the cloud: Having access to company files is crucial when you have employees collaborating from different places at different times. This can get tricky if employees aren’t saving all their work in the same place, such as on your company servers. Migrating to the cloud can make it easier for employees to collaborate and save their work in a centralized location, no matter where they are. This means in a hybrid-remote environment, content can’t get forgotten at home or in the office — it is always accessible.

• Investing in laptops/devices if you haven’t already: It’s important for your organization to remain organized and secure in the way that it works and handles data. While temporarily renting laptops or allowing employees to use their personal devices may have been fine in the case of an emergency, it’s not sustainable. By providing company-issued laptops, your IT department can have control over things such as software updates (and downloads) to ensure every employee has secure access to what they need.

Having the right infrastructure in place for a hybrid-remote workplace will also be attractive to new talent. It can help your organization gain a competitive edge among those also offering flexible work options.

Workspace Options

With the idea that all employees will not be in the office at the same time, you’ll need to consider how to make the best use of your workspace. PwC’s “2021 US Remote Work Survey” found 87% of executives expect to make changes to their real estate strategies over the next year.

Think about having current and future employees make a choice about how often they plan on being in the office. Depending on their choices, you can move forward with designating an assigned desk, allowing hot-desking or supporting an at-home setup.

Communication

With employees cycling through your office on different days of the week, it’s imperative to know when and where you can expect them to be. Ensure you set up a communication plan — or even a portal — where employees can log if they will be in the office, working remotely or using time off on specific days. This can be helpful for a few reasons:

• Setting up meetings: Impromptu meetings naturally happen in an office setting. When your team is split between being in the office and working remotely, some of them may miss key details that were discussed in an unplanned chat. Knowing for sure if a team member is out of office, coming in at a different time or working from home can help create a more inclusive environment for unplanned meetings. That being said, recording meetings should be something you think about as standard practice within your organization in order to be sure nothing is missed.

• Ensuring the safety of staff: In the event of an emergency, you should know if your employees were in the office or not.

Onboarding

When bringing in new hires to your hybrid-remote office, you’ll want to ensure they can get acclimated from anywhere. By adapting your onboarding to be virtual-first, your fully remote new hires won’t miss out on learning and networking opportunities. 

‘Office’ Perks And Company Culture

According to Deloitte, 70% of managers are concerned with maintaining company culture for their remote employees. Company culture is harder to instill in a hybrid-remote environment, but it’s not impossible. Perks should be flexible so that everyone can enjoy them.

While company outings and free snacks at the office will eventually be able to resume, it’s important to consider perks that will be beneficial to those working remotely or those only occasionally commuting to the office, such as:

• Meal delivery stipends

• Online discounts

• Digital subscriptions to health and wellness apps like Headspace, streaming services or virtual learning courses

As you work to tailor your workplace to the hybrid-remote work environment of the future, be sure to take these essential considerations into account.


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