Hybrid work: balancing the risks and rewards
You have probably seen plenty of quotes from very credible sources proclaiming that remote work is here to stay. You’ve probably also seen at least as many quotes declaring the end of remote work. Obviously both can’t be true!
Actually, yes they can. At SCG Hybrid Work Solutions we believe, like many organizations, that hybrid work is the most effective and reasonable way to balance the advantages of remote work with the need for time in the office.
However, we do not agree with many organizations that declaring a target number of days in the office, with workers free to spend the remaining days of the week working from home is a sufficient definition of ‘hybrid’.
“We’ll move to a hybrid work week where most Googlers spend approximately three days in the office and two days wherever they work best,”
Sundar Pichai – Google CEO
In fact, the challenge of making a hybrid work strategy effective is even more complex than designing either fully remote or fully in-office work strategies. What is needed is a strategy that aligns to desired outcomes rather than an arbitrary measure like ‘days in the office’. This strategy then needs to provide the tools, techniques, policies, and processes to enable those outcomes.
“…called ‘Work Appropriately’, this means that where the work permits, employees have the flexibility to work where they can have the greatest impact on achieving our goals.”
Mary Barr – GM CEO
A good hybrid work strategy must address, as it relates to hybrid work, the following:
- alignment to organizational business strategy
- technical and cultural challenges of collaboration between remote and in-office workers (for example in teleconferences)
- compliance of remote work and workspaces to security policies, legislation, and contractual obligations
- compensation
- equity, diversity, and inclusion
- performance management
- unique health and wellness needs of remote workers
- innovation
- employee engagement
- measurement of the strategy’s success
Furthermore, what is a good strategy for one organization may not work for another. Companies have different needs, and alignment of the hybrid work strategy to those needs requires tailoring of the strategy. While there are ‘best practices’, the recipe of which practices to apply will be unique to each organization.
To get started, ask us about our Risk and Readiness Assessment, which will provide you with a clear picture of how to improve the effectiveness of your hybrid work strategy, or request a callback below.