The Benefits of Hybrid Work — and How to Reap The Rewards
Since 2021, at least 63 percent of high-growth companies have adopted a hybrid work model, according to a study on the future of work published in 2022. The arrangement has become popular and desired by both companies and employees for offering the best of both worlds: in-person and remote work benefits.
Companies design a workplace format that serves their productivity, collaboration, efficiency needs and most face the same challenges when running a hybrid team. Managers are being questioned about the inclusion of remote staff, the best physical space usage and how to overcome communication gaps. Offering flexibility, rotating teams’ schedules and using project management software with a remote-first mentality like Hive are some actions leaders can take to reduce these challenges.
The truth is that the benefits of hybrid work far outweigh the obstacles, which we will cover in this article. Get ready!
1. Flexibility
Choosing the best time to perform specific tasks at home and which others to do at the office is one of the top benefits of the hybrid work model. “Our capacity to operate at peak productivity and performance varies dramatically according to our personal preferences,” comments Lynda Gratton, professor at London Business School in an article published by the Harvard Business Review.
Gratton, who is also the founder of HSM, the future-of-work research consultancy, adds that “…[when] designing hybrid work, [managers need to] consider the preferences of your employees—and enable others to understand and accommodate those preferences.” It’s key that companies include employees in the discussion to put in place structures that guarantee inclusion and fairness among the staff. A Stanford study revealed that 32 percent of employees with young kids who live in the suburbs prefer to work from home permanently. In comparison, 21 percent of employees, often young, single employees or empty nesters in city-center apartments, favor working at the office. Another report shows that 60 percent of women who work in hybrid environments feel excluded from important meetings.
Pro-tip:
Hive Forms is an excellent resource for companies trying to create a democratic work environment in a hybrid format. The feature allows management teams to run opinion polls and gain visibility on calendars of outages and PTO requests across your organization. Hive also lets you exclude company and national holidays from your task and project scheduler; this way, no one gets a job assigned to them on holidays!
2. Optimize your productivity
One of the advantages of a hybrid model is the opportunity to increase productivity by working smarter. Scheduling brainstorming and cross-team meetings with more than ten people as in-person meetings can reduce the inconveniences of virtual meetings, such as asking participants to mute and unmute themselves or facing technical difficulties due to internet connection issues. Assigning tasks that require individual focus and concentration to be performed at home could translate into better performance for some employees. A study published in July 2022 by the National Bureau of Economic Research revealed an 8 percent increase in lines of code written by the “at-home” group compared to in-office employees, a significant measure of productivity for IT engineers.
Pro-tip:
Hive’s focus mode allows users to mute pop-up notifications and determine a specific task or set of tasks they would like to concentrate on. Unlike other project management tools, where notifications go to an inbox, Hive’s notifications appear as a pop-up — which can be extremely useful when trying to get the immediate attention of remote employees.
3. Collaborate with global teams
A flexible and hybrid work environment broadens an organization’s outreach, making it more attractive and giving it the opportunity to hire from a more global and diverse talent pool of highly skilled professionals.
Pro-tip:
Scheduling company meetings when employees are in different locations can be a nightmare. Luckily tools such as World Meeting Planner and Hive can make the task smoother. Hive Notes allows thorough documentation of meetings, keeping everyone (in the office or at home) on the same page. Hive also integrates with your Zoom account. And you can also set up recurring meetings using Hive.
4. Reduce attrition rates and improve communication
A hybrid-work environment can have a positive impact on a team’s communication, as people tend to be more purposeful in delivery and diligent in the documentation. According to a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, this work model reduced attrition rates at a large technology firm by 35 percent. The research revealed that hybrid teams not only need but communicate more.
There was an increase in individual messaging and group video call communication among employees working from home, even in the office. As for individual messaging, many companies have started using WhatsApp for business to manage both internal and external communication.
Pro-tip:
Hive is a tool that can be tailored to fit any hybrid team’s needs and offers features such as Native chat with both direct and group messaging as well as Hive Voice.
5. Reduces operating costs
One of the indirect financial incentives for companies to adopt a hybrid work arrangement is the possibility of reducing costs in a traditional brick-and-mortar office space, consequently saving on office equipment, electricity, water, cleaning services and other operating expenses. The use of physical spaces by hybrid teams needs to be closely coordinated by management to avoid scheduling conflicts and shortages of equipment.
Pro-tip:
Using a resource management platform such as Hive can help managers to coordinate assets and activities. With Hive, resources can be planned, tasked and even laid out with over six different layouts from Gantt, Calendar, Kanban, Portfolio, Table and Label view.
6. Improve employee satisfaction and overall wellbeing
The flexibility of a hybrid environment facilitates better work-life balance, contributing to overall employee satisfaction and retention rates. An adjustable schedule reduces absenteeism; people tend to take less time off work when their schedules are malleable.
Pro-tip:
With Hive, you can assign a vacation status, assign coworkers to high-priority tasks and enable Hive Focus mode whenever you go on vacation or take stress leave.
7. Increase self-development and learning time
Companies that offer leadership and mentoring programs can help to reduce the feeling of isolation and issues in networking and professional development sometimes caused by hybrid work models. The improvement in performance and productivity in a hybrid workplace allows people to devote more time to pursuing higher training and education.
Pro-tip:
If your company uses Hive, you can attend Hive University and improve your knowledge of the platform with several courses, training and webinars.
8. Less environmental impact
Hybrid work reduces work-related costs to employers and employees, such as gas, after-school care, work clothing and work meals. Fewer people going to the office daily represents less commuting and a reduction in air pollutants and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Paperless offices cut down expenses and reduce carbon footprint.
A 2015 study by Corp! Magazine, showed that U.S. businesses waste $8 billion annually just managing paper. With more work being done remotely, specific industries have been printing fewer documents and preferring digital contracts, which helps to explain a steady drop in printer sales.
Pro-tip:
Utilizing PRiSM methodology can also help minimize the environmental impact of your projects.
