Technology & Data Vital For A Successful Hybrid Workplace

Creating an optimal strategy that benefits both executives and employees

It’s no secret that many businesses are going hybrid now that people can see each other in person again. After all, 70 percent of workers want flexible, remote work options to continue. And major companies such as Target, Ford, and Citigroup have embraced this model. Things will no longer be fully remote, but they won’t be fully in person either. That means businesses have been coming up with many different strategies to properly combine the two work worlds, but many will have to adjust and adapt on the fly.

There are plenty of ways to create a hybrid workspace with collaboration technologies like Zoom, Slack, or Teams, but it’s more complicated than one would think, since it’s an evolving process. An effective hybrid workplace requires the synthesis of technology and data to figure out how to create the optimal strategy that benefits both executives and employees.

The best way to ensure a company’s hybrid work plan is a success is to create a hybrid tech stack. TechTarget highlights what tools will be important for the future of work.

If offices are going hybrid, then having software to track progress on team projects is a must. From cloud storage to file sharing, collaborative technology provides team members access, visibility, and the opportunity for remote meetings in order to know what everyone else is working on.

If employees won’t all be in the same location to talk to each other, then there must be an easy way for everyone to communicate. Many businesses use tools like Microsoft Teams or Slack. And any business that wants to implement a hybrid work model should have a way for people to talk to each other freely, share information, and work together on projects.

With employees working remotely, asset management tools are more important than ever. Companies will want to have tools in place to easily access and safeguard company assets and documents so these don’t fall into the wrong hands, and only the right people within the company can access them.

When people first start going back to the office, it may not be everyone together. There may have to be a schedule. Thus, it’s important to have a system or a software where employees can reserve seats in the office on certain days.

Employers will have to keep in mind the user experience when it comes to having an efficient system in place for reserving seats. The proper system will ensure it’s easy and not burdensome for employees to use the tools provided i.e. when making desk reservations or booking a time to return to the office for collaboration or in-person meeting.

People using their personal computers away from the office could potentially pose a vulnerability to the organization, so companies must have a way to strengthen security measures, such as a VPN or zero-trust network access.

These are just a few of the areas to consider when planning a hybrid work model, but it emphasizes how much goes into such plans and how they can easily fail.

If companies wish to properly implement a hybrid work strategy, they will require data to test it and see what works and what doesn’t.

Companies will want to embrace technology and tools that can deliver intelligence on workspace usage, employee preferences for working remotely versus in-office, and even real estate ROI data, in the event that the office isn’t being used much.

In order to effectively implement a hybrid workplace, companies should use data to see what works and what doesn’t. They will want to invest in the proper channels to track employee progress and productivity without it feeling overbearing; they will need to capture data on both an aggregate and individual level and, most importantly, will need access to it in real time. Investing in this, along with the technology listed here, will highly increase the odds that companies can pull off a smooth transition to going hybrid.

Overall, going hybrid is not simple and requires the same attention as any other major corporate initiative. There are plenty of pitfalls that companies may encounter. But using the proper technology and data goes a long way towards ensuring that using a hybrid work model will be profitable and beneficial for both employees and employers.