The new balance between working from home and the office

Hybrid work, or the combination between physical and digital work, is the new way of working. It is not something that is going to blow over, but it is the future of the workplace. But how do you properly set up this way of working in a way so that it helps the employee? In this article, we share some tools you can use in the approach.

What did we learn?

The past year has been a huge learning period. But we have found out that working from home definitely has its benefits. Some 70% of employees report working more productively at home than in the office. Employees report that they prefer to do function and focus work in their own environment. Therefore, simply sending everyone back to the office is not the solution. A middle ground must be found here that works for all employees: hybrid working.

What are employees missing?

What many employees did miss in the past year is the social side of work: creative brainstorming sessions, developing knowledge together, collaborating et cetera. Every organization is different, of course, so be sure to start the conversation and ask what the needs of individual employees are, as well as those of the entire team. You can also choose to send an anonymous survey so that employees dare to be as open as possible about their wishes.

Release employees

You can give employees certain guidelines, such as introducing workplace reservations or that they must remain reachable between certain times. However, you must keep in mind that they themselves know best what does and does not work for them. Therefore, leave them free to choose their workplace and how often they come to the office. It is important, however, that the employees and the manager agree together on working hours and how meetings or brainstorming sessions are handled.

Furnishing the office

Make sure there is a visible separation between focus and creativity in the office. Many employees will work from home for focus tasks. So design certain places in the office to encourage creative processes. Create talking corners. Remove desks and place beanbags. This invites them for some creativity when they are in the office and this way the separation between focus and creativity is also visibly present.

Trying out, trying out and trying out

Hybrid working is something new for many organizations, so it's not going to be perfect right away, and there's no way to be 100 percent sure beforehand what's going to work best. You need to start discovering together what the best balance is. Take the time to try things out and keep reflecting on how things are going. Use the first three months as a pilot and see this as a learning phase. Only make final adjustments after a year.

Want to learn more about hybrid working?

Within our online learning platform you will find several online training courses focused on hybrid working. Think for example of the podcast hybrid meetings or the webinar hybrid collaboration. This will ensure that you can properly support your employees in implementing this new way of working.

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