The pandemic has transformed many aspects of our lives. As we move towards normality, some of these transformations have been internalized to the point of becoming commonplace. The hybrid work is a good example of this, and business applications, such as workspaces, have been adapting to these increasingly common situations.
What is hybrid work
With confinement, those businesses best prepared for a situation of closure and restriction of mobility, implemented the telecommuting in their offices. This change, in many cases, occurred overnight; with all the drawbacks that this entails. Several months have passed since then, everything has been evolving and with the social and health improvement, we are in a new scenario.
At a time when many companies have promoted the return of employees to offices, there has also been a change in the mentality of many professionals. Some, with experience, want to continue telecommuting, while others do not want to see it even in painting. There are also situations in which the same worker prefers to work remotely at some times and take advantage of the advantages offered by the office at others.
For these situations, employers have found a good solution with hybrid work. In other words, a way of working that combines both worlds, providing a greater flexibility and autonomy. The result is professionals capable of maximizing their work productivity with a perfect adaptation to their personal needs.
Hybrid work, in short, is to achieve business objectives with a personal and flexible organization, even being able to decide when to work and carrying out the activity in the office, at home, in a coworking space and/or anywhere in the world with Internet connection. Internet.
Benefits of hybrid work
The flexibility of hybrid work allows the employee to achieve a better balance between work activity and personal life or family. This directly affects the worker satisfactionwhich has a clear effect on performance for the company.
And although this is the most relevant benefit for the employer, the company should not disdain the influence of hybrid work on the cost reduction (for spaces, furniture or maintenance) and the possibility of attracting the best talent anywhere in the world.
How to implement hybrid work
As in any relevant change, the first thing a company must do is assess your situation concrete and, from there, look for the measures that generate the greatest impact through a plan with everything necessary: obligations, tools, procedures, etc.
Communication is especially important in this case since hybrid work is not just “full freedom”. It is also and above all a better way to work. For this, it is necessary to continue taking care of the possibilities of collaboration or transfer of information through investments in tools, established hours for complete availability or days for physical meetings.
The collaborationthe communication and the Projects management These are very important issues in today’s workplace, so the only way to allow all employees to be productive (face-to-face, remote or hybrid) is to promote alternatives to avoid the possible disadvantages of teleworking, asynchronous communication and remote work. . Especially remote access to teams, secure connections and platforms like Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Teams for hybrid work
Teams is the most powerful collaboration solution on the market, which sees its possibilities expanded thanks to its integration in Microsoft 365. With it, you can create equipment (for conversations and document management), create channels (within each team to organize work around a theme), do calls (with and without video with up to 100 people at the same time, which can also be recorded for later viewing and have a chat and screen sharing option), manage the calendar (to view and schedule meetings, as well as organize your personal agenda) and manage records (to share with the team or create collaboratively).
The application available at any time and place, from any device connected to the Internet, also allows communication and collaboration with people outside the organization, who do not have to have Microsoft Teams. Thus, you can send files stored in the cloud, make video calls or create webinar among many other options.
All these possibilities make it the perfect tool for hybrid work:
- Quick access for meeting attendees, and simple access to all available options (presentation, chat, reactions, meeting and device controls, etc.).
- Planning from Outlook, allowing the use of email (which is the asynchronous communication system par excellence) to better manage meeting attendance, responses, content on a specific topic, calendar management, etc.
- Reservation of meeting rooms in the office, assignment of a specific address for a meeting or creation of a conference by Teams according to the model that each worker is practicing (face-to-face or remote).
- Hybrid presentations with Cameo, where presentations and the camera are combined, with design suggestions and different possibilities to present remotely as if they were live.
- Suggestions using artificial intelligence to improve presentations, meetings or exhibitions privately; thus ensuring a better rhythm, provision of data, alerts about interruptions or suggestions to favor diversity.
- Sending reminders about meetings and associated content that can be reviewed to prepare for the meeting.
- Automatic lighting and video corrections to be able to hold meetings in any place and condition.
These and other possibilities of Microsoft Teams allow your organization to bet on hybrid work with the guarantee of not losing any of the benefits of face-to-face workwhile all embrace advantages of remote work. For all team members and the organization as a whole.