How to Make Hybrid Work a Success
Tags: Coworking, Future Of Work, Hybrid, Hybrid Work, Home Office

What does the future ideal workplace look like? Will we stay forever in our home office or can we someday finally meet our beloved colleagues again in person? All these are questions probably everybody is asking at the moment. In this story, we explore the perks and downsides of working from home, an office or remotely from wherever you are atm. Additionally, we want to introduce you to the concept of flexible offices and show the benefits it can have.

Having said that — sit back, be inspired and have fun learning about how to best build a hybrid workplace model to join the current trend about the future of work!

When it comes to work locations, the recent pandemic (ugh — not again this topic!) has faced us with boundaries and opportunities at the same time. Home office has replaced the daily visit to our offices for many, our cats, dogs and hamsters are annoyed of our constant presence and we learned: it’s a delight for some, wormwood for others! But as time passed by, we (and probably our furry flat mates as well) realised that there are perks and downsides to both — going to the office on a daily basis and working from home. Thus, we strongly believe that the future of work is going to be hybrid, combining the benefits from both sides!

What is a hybrid work model?

But starting from the roots: What exactly is behind the modern, fancy term “hybrid work model”?

A hybrid work model (aka flexible work concepts) consists of a combination of working in the company office and remote. Btw, remote can be from home, from the café down the street or from one of the nicest coworking spaces ever (ckeck out our 9 favorite workspaces around the world here).

There are innumerable variations of combining these concepts, way too many to list here. Therefore, if you’re interested in this topic feel free to read our blog post about the most common hybrid work archetypes.

One of the most prevalent combination is working in the office for 3 days a week and spending the remaining two days a week at home with our pets (famous example is Amazon). However, this might totally depend on factors like the circumstances, your industry as well as company culture and everyone’s personal preferences, to name only a few.

Offices should be accordingly equipped

At its core, a hybrid workplace model tries to capture all the benefits different work locations may offer whilst reducing disadvantages to a minimum.

Offices, to begin with, are the most traditional work location for many of us. Meeting colleagues for some social interaction (and if it’s only for drinking a coffee together and talk about the upcoming vacation), team work, sharing creative ideas, learning from others, and also last but definitely not least, allowing us to clearly start and finish our work day. Multiple studies have proven the benefits of home office, such as increased productivity (no more in-person coffee dates!), less stress, better compatibility of job and family as well as the famous work-life balance, time gain due to the shorter way to one’s workplace. Nevertheless, as mentioned above, working from home makes it more difficult to distinct between job and private life hard, as one is literally living at the workplace (who doesn’t know the situation of “just checking one more mail”). In addition, employees report missing social interactions and the exchange with their colleagues.

Summarised: Neither the office nor one’s desk at home are ideal in the long-run.

deskbird: One of our favourite coworking spaces

Next to home office, working in coliving or coworking spaces is becoming more popular. It’s another possibility for everyone who is missing social interaction either while drinking a coffee together or simply being motivated by sitting next to somebody who seems to be productive as well. Further advantages of those options are huge flexibility and cost savings to benefitting from the coworking or -living community to increase one’s network and to collaborate with like-minded people.

As we can see, there are advantages and disadvantages to probably every location. Thus, hybrid workplace models can combine all the perks and try to reduce the downsides. More concretely, employers allow their employees to work from several locations for different periods of time.

Overview of the advantages of hybrid work models:

Meet the needs of each of your employees

One thing is for sure: each employee has different preferences and needs, which all should be tried to be met. Thus, no static workplace model, which might have worked for thousands of other companies, will make your workers equally happy. Hybrid workplace models are great, because they can provide you with the most important aspect: individual solutions, tailored to everyone’s needs and wishes whilst providing a framework and tool for supervision. A happier and satisfied workforce

Which is probably the most important advantage, since we all know: Having happy employees is fundamental for a company’s success. Given that every employee can choose a work location however she or he wants to is bound to increase the productivity for your company. Employer competitive advantage

Every employer knows how difficult it is to find motivated, passioned employees for new positions. Therefore, being an attractive employer and both retaining existing employees and attracting new talents is crucial. By implementing a hybrid workplace model, companies can improve their desirability as well as differentiate from other competitors. Lower office costs

By optimising your work location use, you can save on office costs and manage occupancy, work satisfaction and much more! Some tools even feature very easy ways to see how much you can save. Ever wondered how much money you could save by introducing a hybrid model to your company? Easily calculate it here, it takes only 1 minute. Added value for all parties

Both employees and employers can benefit from a hybrid workplace concept. Whilst employees get the opportunity to be more flexible and satisfied, employers enjoy increased productivity and efficiency.

Having talked now a lot about the hybrid workplace model: Do you need help to set up your own, individual, amazing hybrid workspace?

We are here for you. Book a demo to see, whether deskbird is the intuitive, people-centric workplace management solution your employees will love.