What is a Hybrid workplace?

Why is the hybrid workplace the future?

What challenges face a hybrid workplace and how to overcome them?

Work is the essence of life. Whatever your field or your job is, it's important to your community. As work is a fundamental base for building countries and their societies, economy, and prosperity we always are looking for ways to develop the process and structure of working to make it more successful, productive, efficient, and convenient. The way we see working and labor Changed, it's no longer about the work hours wages, and workplace conditions. It’s about being smart, futuristic, creative, and extraordinary in the most efficient ways. The management of people inside organizations leveled up and has many shapes and forms now. And today in this article we will talk about one of the new work structures and approaches which is the hybrid workplace.

Lately, we hear the term (hybrid workplace” and “hybrid office” a lot. These two terms are connected somehow with today’s work management. We can say that today's work environment is simply driven towards the hybrid workplace concept. Maybe you heard about it before and maybe you didn’t but anyway we are going to know all about it in the following paragraphs. Covering three main points

1- What is the hybrid workplace and what is the hybrid workplace model?

2 - Why do people consider hybrid workplaces the future of work?

3 -How to apply the hybrid workplace concept and how to overcome the challenges you will meet?

Before talking about the hybrid workplace topic in detail, let’s start with the model behind it, the hybrid work model.

Hybrid Work Model

Simply put together the hybrid work model is a working arrangement where employees can work from anywhere at any time. It's a flexible work model where organizations manage their workforce onsite or offsite. Whether they are startups or corporates, big, medium, or small businesses. 

This model has been there for a while now and some companies used to follow its approaches like IBM. But during the past two years because of COVID a lot of businesses were obligated to test the model in order to continue and a lot of companies found that it is very useful and works well with their vision.

Hybrid Workplace

The hybrid workplace is a workplace or an office that is based on the hybrid work model where it is designed to fit a distributive workforce for both employees working in the office and employees working remotely.
The hybrid workplace is built to support flexible working static. Considering architecture, interior design, technicalities, equipment, and cloud-based communication. There are multiple types of hybrid work model implementation. which we support here at Consoleya.

Consoleya is a roster of plug-and-play offices that totally support the hybrid work model. We can proudly say that the Consoleya building is a hybrid workplace that includes multiple spaces and areas that support employment flexibility and represent the modern concept of work.

1. Occasional working from home

One of the approaches to creating a hybrid workplace is to allow your employees to shift between working from the office and working from home. Some organizations do this in terms of dividing the workdays for all the employees, for example, they can work for 2 days from home and meet to work 3 days at the office. Another way to do it is to divide the employees into groups. Each group will attend on a different set of days so that they are not all in the office at the same time and this worked well post COVID-19 as a percussion of safety. Some other companies let the employees choose whether they want to work from home or from the office. What really matters is the results at the end. The common thing here is that there is an office that manages the organization team whether they are onsite or offsite.
At Consoleya we support this type of hybrid workplace by offering different spaces and services that fit startups and companies needs to build strong businesses such as

• Private offices where you can choose and customize it to fit your business brand and the number of your team members

• Meeting rooms That are designed and prepared for teams to meet and discuss their businesses or to meet up with guests like potential customers or partners. 

• Phone booths for residents to have privacy if they want to work calm places or have phone call meetings

• Coffee corners and lounges for teams to meet, make activities, drink coffee or just have a break.

  2. Remote Working

  The second hybrid workplace approach we will talk about now is remote working. Remote working is trending nowadays. It’s not so different from working from home except for if you are working remotely you don't have to go to the office you can work from anywhere you want. The main advantage of remote working is it removes the barrier of distance. A lot of companies and startups are using this approach to select outstanding talents with no concern about the country of their residency. For example, the startup could be in Dubai and they hire a marketing specialist from Indonesia. This type of hybrid workplace gives opportunities for startups to be flexible. They don't have to have offices with the same number of desks as their team members. One of the solutions that this type of hybrid workplace uses is renting hot desks and spaces when needed.

  Hot desks are one of our top used workspaces in Consoleya. Where we give startups, remote workers, and freelancers the opportunity to work in a proper working environment when they want to.
  Hot desks membership gives you access to the entire building, event venues, lockers, and events spaces. It provides you with the perfect ergonomic chairs to support your back, a good interior that helps you focus, and a super-strong internet connection

  3. Distributive Working

  Another type of hybrid work model is distributive working. Distributive working is when a startup or a company decided that they don't want to have a physical headquarter. They are not interested in a constant office to operate their business. They can work from anywhere and meet in coworking spaces or cafe areas
  At Consoleya we have the perfect solution for this type of hybrid workplace which are

• Virtual office membership gives you the opportunity to have the necessary physical address advantage. Considering Consoleya’s building as your permanent add

• The Coworking cafe at Consoleya would be great for teams to meet up or even work individually. 

Now that we understand the hybrid work model and what a hybrid workplace is, we can discuss the reasons that made this approach trendy in today’s entrepreneurial world. The hybrid workplace concept was already here when the unfortunate break out of the coronavirus pandemic happened, it was only under testing. But in 2020 organizations found themselves in a place where they must decide whether to lose everything or adjust to what is happening and go for the hybrid work model. Surprisingly after the vaccine is out and a lot of countries ended their lockdowns companies are choosing to stay as a hybrid workplace. is it being said let's highlight the five main rings isn't hybrid work places are in and probably will always be.

The most important asset for an organization to succeed and a business model to actually work is the people. With smart proper management for your employees, workers, or team members you're able to establish your vision. The hybrid workplace helped to put the workforce first and so they feel special and that the values they are getting from the organization are beyond their salaries or adding to their career path. It's more about belonging to an entity that takes care of their safety and comfort.

Another face to smart management is actually smart which is being technological and using SaaS products to manage your team. Using online tools such as Slack for communicating, Asana project management, and Zoom for online meetings to manage your team, helps you to have everything in one place. It's easier to track everything going on and communicate tasks, new projects, and timelines, of course, you can do this while you are in the same office too, but it is much more efficient to use them in a hybrid work place.

One of the great advantages of using or applying the hybrid work model is the fact that your talent pool is totally scalable. You literally can only focus on talent and skills. Being able to work with your team remotely gives you the chance to hire anyone from anywhere. At this point, the geographical boundaries are not a barrier. After the pandemic 54% of people that worked at home or remotely believe and think that this was an amazing experience career wise. It gives them a lot of opportunities as it gives the candidate a great chance to land great jobs. It also gives organizations the opportunity to hire anyone and choose whoever they want depending on their skills and of course, it needs arrangement and clear operation to work but it's so easy nowadays with the advanced technologies and tools that we have.

A hybrid workplace allows employees to have mobility which improves productivity. There are a lot of reasons why some employees find it really useful and more productive to work away from the office. For example, they can choose their workspace or the desk they are using, and the chairs they are sitting on. It's totally a personal preference. Another reason is that they have flexible working hours and so they work when it's convenient to them, not necessary from 9 to 5. Last but not least working remotely gives them a chance to become more independent. They are more empowered to act fast and make decisions.

As a result, productivity will increase, team members, become more creative in order to solve problems and communicate with each other, and innovation in the organization in general increase because now they have to deal with new ways, new concepts and get introduced to new ideas and management tools. According to connect solutions savvy 77% of remote workers even if it’s for a few times per month do better in general. You can check out this article to know more.

It is so clear that the hybrid workplace saves organizations a lot of money. As it reduces a lot of unnecessary expenses. Whether you choose to work a few days per week from the office, rent a private office at a hybrid workplace like Consoleya, or work remotely you will be able to reduce the cost. In office expenses for the equipment, its maintenance, utility expense, privileges like snacks and coffee, and more. What's great is that you will not only reduce cost but also you are improving and increasing productivity and so your revenue is going to be increased and at this point, we are talking about an increased profit rate. If you think about it, it's a win-win situation for the organization and their staff. you can always take part in the saved coast and invest in improving your team communication capabilities during remote working.

If you think about it you will find that freelancers and organizations that implemented hybrid working are the least affected, why is this disturbance happening in the business world due to COVID-19. I know what you're thinking about, not every crisis would be as fatal as the coronavirus, we always need to stay at home and have a restricted lockdown of course. The thing is being able to manage your team remotely and make things work through achieving goals and reaching the plant results would make this team go through anything and everything. as this type of company, structure helps strengthen the communication and comes out with outstanding solutions for all the challenges. If an organization could achieve remote communication and cloud-based team management, they are flexible enough to overcome crisis and risky situations.

The first challenge we will talk about today is how your team is affected by the hybrid work environment if not treated right. Starting with the culture, if you are welcoming your team members remotely it's a little bit harder than welcoming them on board in person. There is no doubt that the office and its interior design express your brand and the company culture and it's a lot easier to get to know someone while they are sitting next to you.

 As a result, sometimes the remote workers feel like they are out left and that they don't belong to the team. They are just employees doing their job and getting tasks done. Forming relationships with your coworkers is so important to feel the essence of the brand. Adopting the work culture of a place is believing in the vision and the mission and feeling proud that you are part of this entity.

Another way to make your remote employees feel like they are out lifted is not to include them in all the buzz happening inside your office. In other words, they say what the eye sees, always remembers and so most of the time if you are not considering your remote workers and employees outside of the office you will miss informing them with important things like achieved targets, products updates, or exciting news which sometimes affects the distribution of tasks.

How to solve this challenge

1. Proper onboarding to new team members and introducing them to old team members

2. Frequent stand-up meetings among members of the same team, and occasional meetings for everyone to share general updates

3. Create fun gatherings and small catch up video conferences every now and then

4. Give chance to all team members to take the lead and manage important tasks

5. Track performance based on the results and timelines.

Offices are no more dull places with white walls and crowded shared space, they need to be more inviting. As for hybrid workplaces, employees won’t come to the office except for specific reasons, they need to find a suitable and exciting work environment.

For most of us, work is one of the most important things in our lives or even for some the most important. And so the workplace such as offices and companies, that's why when some organizations start applying the hybrid work system they lose the commitment and involvement of their team members. The key here is Maintaining discipline and morals