Change is voluntary for the businesses willing to make the sacrifice, but it might become inevitable soon, as we’ve seen with most top organizations. Whether in the pharmaceutical niche, the technology niche or academia, you need to embrace hybrid work systems to stay relevant in today’s world.
Before COVID-19, most businesses granted their employees the liberty to work from home, and when the lockdown was implemented, the culture continued, and business transactions were still made from different parts of the world.
Most businesses have found the idea of a hybrid work model appealing. Studies have shown that the hybrid work model enhances employees’ productivity and allows a great load of innovation.
This work model, however, has its cons, and we can’t but help to provide solutions to the challenges.
Challenges Of Hybrid Work
1. Misalignment Between Employees
As much as many businesses want to switch to a remote working model fully, there is still a need for a physical office, which shows that some employees will be needed on ground at the office. This will undoubtedly cause misalignment, and since the goal of hybrid is to promote collaboration at work, then what could possibly be done to avoid this rift?
Solution: You can opt to bring all your employees to the office on some specific days and make sure to make that day’s work focus on collaboration, while other days when your employees work from home can be used for autonomous work.
2. Maintenance Cost
The very moment you decide to adopt the hybrid work model, then you need to find alternatives to cut costs. Truly, you might need a physical space for some important reason, but keeping your initial big office space might not be a smart move.
Let’s say you own a large office where you pay a substantial amount for rent, and you decide to adopt the hybrid work model since most employees will start working from home; it is necessary to evacuate that office space to save cost. How do you get your employees on ground then?
Solution: Renting a coworking space can be the best decision for you since all the equipment and facilities you need to function as a business will be provided to you at a reduced cost; you share the bills with other businesses that are renting the space.
3. Transfer Of Large Files
With the hybrid work model, the days of using hardcopies are over; every document is transferred via emails and other virtual methods. Internet connection plays a major role in ensuring a large shared file gets to the recipient on time. In case of an emergency, how do you get an important file across to your hybrid?
Solution: Opt for massive for your file management and large file sharing to ensure your information is secured and the recipient receives the file in due time.
4. Communication
For most remote employees, they work at their own pace, which means some may choose to work in the morning while some may choose to work in the evening/night. This causes epileptic communication between the in-office employees and remote employees.
Solution: Proper communication channels should be provided for both teams of employees; the use of social media platforms like Trello, Slack or you collaborate with an application developer to create an application strictly for your team.
5. Hiring
Recruitment is another major challenge facing hybrid work model. As a business situated in a particular country and needs talent in different parts of the world, you might need to establish an entity all around the world to employ the talents, but that is not feasible.
Solution: Collaborating with an employer of record or EOR to help hire hybrid teams will also go a long way in making that possible. This employer of record (EOR) will serve as a physical entity for your business.
Conclusion
The challenges facing hybrid work models are still the reason why many businesses are yet to adopt them, but with the solution provided above, your business will be on the right track and increase the productivity of your hybrid team in no time.
Conclusively, a hybrid work model is inevitable. The earlier businesses understand this and start working to put it into practice, the better for them.
