Hybrid model of working has become
a very common term since March 2020 when the global lockdowns were enforced.
For the next couple of months while companies were contemplating to open-up,
the employees continued to work from home to support clients. The reference here is to those industries
that typically provide services such as software companies, consultants, some
segment of the financial sectors and employees of companies who were engaged in
office related or desk jobs. Slowly as
lockdowns became more prolonged these mode of working transformed into what we
call today as a hybrid work model. Depending upon the scale and size of
operations these models have taken different shape. Let us typically look at 2
different hybrid work examples today. Once is for large organizations and
another for small and medium sized organizations.
Large
companies
Large companies have taken the
first step towards a hybrid work model. As of now what they have done is to
completely make the process of employee interaction online. Right from the
hiring process till the time the employee starts delivering and the exit
process, everything has been made seamless. If we speak of recruitment, the
candidates are interviewed using a Video conference tool such as Xoom or Google
Meet and follow it up with the appointment letter, login and passwords to the
network, VPN for the projects and delivery of the laptops through delivery
partners. As a result after some initial hiccups they were able to take the
entire delivery process online. As we
are moving towards the end of the pandemic, there are talks about slowly
bringing employees back to work. This is where the hybrid model will come in.
For example we can have a few key resources come back to office in a cyclical
fashion to test the efficacy of the model. This model can have a long term
implication on the way we work. If a company has a 1000 seater place in a city
and feels that the utilization rate of the set-up is only 50%, they can as well
have a 650 seater place, leaving aside 150 seater as a buffer. However, such decisions can only
be taken once there is adequate data on the utilization of space, employee
productivity, client feedback among others. There is also a possibility that
due to sudden influx of large assignments there may be requirements of large
resource pools and such on-boarding processes may not be possible in a hybrid
model in real time.
It is not sufficient for companies
to only check the utilization of space. If clients are unsatisfied and if the
reason points to employees not delivering effectively then the hybrid model is
a failure. Such issues and many more such as data security will ultimately
decide on whether the hybrid model is a stop gap arrangement or can it be made
mainstream in the long run.
Small
and Medium Size organizations
Small and medium sized
organizations have their own set of challenges. Many of these companies used to
have desktop computers at their locations. Therefore when the pandemic set in
they had to temporarily halt operations before delegating work to certain
employees who would do the work from home using their own systems. It was not
possible to provide company laptops, VPN’s , firewalls to all employees. There was also a fair amount of retrenchment
at the initial point of the lockdown. Companies based upon workload resorted to
using part-time workers or freelancers who did the work on a project-to-project
basis. As we move towards the end of the
pandemic, small and medium enterprises will face more challenges to a hybrid
work model. With their infrastructure intact they may want to move to an office
environment as soon as possible.
Some of the key factors that will determine the hybrid policy
are amount of in-person collaboration required in a role to accomplish goals, the
level of information data security required for tasks, need for special
infrastructure to get the job done. When more specialized infrastructure is
required, the more likely the person must work in an office. Modern technology
has removed most of these constraints but more data is required to get a clear
idea on the subject. Since many companies have expanded their workforce during
the pandemic, they have also reserved space for their staff. This is because
once the pandemic is over, most companies want to have all of its employees
back on the premises, which is important for collaboration, idea generation and
productivity.
The question of whether to bring back staff to work will need
to be taken by respective managers of the teams following corporate directions.
When employees want to return, they have to inform the facilities team to
reserve a workstation, since many companies have done away with the concept of
fixed desks. It suffices to say that the new workplace will be a changed one in
the foreseeable future with touchless entrances, sanitization, automated cafeteria
service and much more. The hybrid model will surely lead us to the office of
future where face-to-face meetings, employee interactions, office parties and
other such activities will no longer be a common norm.
If
you belong to an organization that is thinking to implement a hybrid office
function we can help you with analyzing the requirements of such a system. Write
to us at info@intelligentq.co.in
COMMENT(S)
LEAVE A REPLY