What to consider when setting up a hybrid workflow and the benefits it brings to your workforce.
Remote and hybrid working is the way many businesses are going, not just because of the need to during the pandemic but because many are opening their eyes to the endless benefits it brings – especially when paired with Unified Communications and Collaboration tools that make the process easy for all.
Learn how you can create a hybrid working environment that helps your teams to thrive…
The Beauty of Unified Communications and Collaboration For IT Managers
For your IT department, hybrid working can open up a plethora of opportunities for your business that just wasn’t possible before. Now, with Unified Communications and Collaboration tools, the process is simple for users and IT Managers to use and implement.
From increasing the productivity of users and being able to hire beyond your geographic boundaries to being able to scale your operations up without costly hardware implications, UCC is a way to unlock the possibilities of remote and hybrid working, here are just a few ways your business will benefit and how to ensure your users have the perfect environment.
What You Need For A Hybrid Work Culture to Work
1. Engagement
When it comes to working away from the office there is a fear that workers could feel cut off and isolated from their teammates and their work goals. Make sure this doesn’t happen by continuing to have regular engagement with them.
Whether it’s a video call over Microsoft Teams, Google Meet or Zoom for a work project, or just to check in and see how they’re doing – engagement, at all levels, is important to make sure users feel respected and involved within the organisation.
2. Set Expectations
For hybrid working, as we mentioned, it’s always good to engage with colleagues when it comes to contact but also when it comes to ensuring they know what you expect from them.
Setting expectations ensures that your users know what the boundaries are when it comes to hybrid working is important. Make sure they understand what meetings they’re required to attend, when deadlines are for work or projects, and when they’re needed in the office or to contact clients.
Understanding the boundaries gives formal structure to employees and allows them to work to a level that you want them to.
3. Create A Great Work Culture
When it comes to ensuring that your remote teams work at their best you need to make sure you have a great work culture running through your entire team. Allow humour in your work environment, ensure you prioritise respect, diversity, inclusivity, and to help employees to reach their own goals.
A great work culture can’t be created in a day but over time if you can create one, you’ll reap the benefits as an organisation and allow for a positive hybrid working environment.
4. Provide The Best Software and Tools through UCC
Hybrid working can only be possible if users have the highest quality software and tools available to them through Unified Communications and Collaboration software
Being able to collaborate in the best way possible requires a Unified Communications solution that helps users to be as productive as possible. Not only will it help you as a business in various ways, it will transform how your people can work and enhance the quality they’re capable of achieving.
Giving your workers the tools that they need to perform while working from home or elsewhere, will help them to produce and be as productive as possible, great for your business and its clients.
5. Recruitment
A hybrid working environment doesn’t only allow you to create a culture that helps you to retain staff, by providing a flexible working environment that suits their needs but also one that allows you to attract the best ones. While your culture might be perfect, if you’re not operating remotely, you limit your talent pool because of your geography.
With hybrid working, in theory, you can hire the best talent to your organisations from across the globe. Allowing you to ensure that you have the best people for the best roles, giving your company the opportunity to grow beyond what you thought was possible.
Advice To Help Your Teams Optimise Their Hybrid Work Environment
1. Minimise Distractions
Distractions can occur anywhere, so help your users to minimise distractions so that they can focus on their work, no matter where they are. There are a number of ways they can do this, one way is to zone out by listening to music to block out external noises – and is particularly useful if they’re on the road, possibly when meeting with a client or working somewhere they normally don’t. It is also important to ensure that employees understand how to mute notifications, as even the best of us at times are distracted by them, no matter how hard we try.
Another option, especially when working from home and looking to focus on work, is to create a home office space that suits their needs…
2. Your Own Home Office Space
When working from home users need to ensure that they have a place set up to get into ‘work mode’. If some are lucky enough to be able to create a separate room or use a spare room in your home then they’re good to go.
However, if space is limited, they’ll need to think outside the box. Setting up a corner, or area of a room already in use could work, or even the kitchen table – you may just need to make sure you can have some alone time when focusing on work but having an ‘area’ will help you to get in the work zone when you need to.
3. Full Hardware Review
Home hardware will also need to be reviewed. While many people will have suitable tech, you may need to either provide them with equipment that is up to date with your requirements, upgrade, or increase security on existing hardware. A full review is always worth the time to mitigate potential future issues.
4. Staying Connected
Working away from the office doesn’t mean that you must be disconnected from your colleagues and clients. These days, hybrid working has many features which allow you to stay in touch.
Software like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet is changing the way we work every day, and all within a matter of clicks. It makes collaboration seamless and allows every member of your team to stay connected with each other, boosting productivity, and increasing your business’s ability to get the job done while staying in touch. Having all your systems and software working in harmony, will ensure that everything works more seamlessly and with fewer chances of errors. Even when issues do arise, you’ll spend less time fixing them, as software will be unified across multiple platforms, resulting in a unified approach for solutions.
Give Your Business Hybrid Happiness Today
Being able to provide your team with a hybrid remote working solution that allows them to collaborate and stay connected with teammates and clients will see your business thrive.
Your organisation will enjoy higher productivity for starters, but you’ll also enjoy reduced business costs as a result of lowering office costs. Remote working will also provide you with a wider talent pool when it comes to recruiting, as well as happier people in general. It’s an incredible way to supercharge the growth of your company.
Embrace the remote working culture by ensuring your organisation can work from home or anywhere. Make video conferencing, intuitive collaboration tools and so much more, become part of your work culture. Get in touch with us at Amtech and discover how hybrid working can take your organisation to the next level.
