The new way of working became the new normal at an unprecedented speed. The good news is that most employees recognise the advantages of working from home. However, it is not always sunshine and rainbows. How do you keep everyone on board? Whilst they are all floating around the flagship in their dinghies at the same time?
Fortunately, the technological possibilities in the new normal are endless. Not only to enable remote working. But predominantly to simplify it and to keep distributed teams together.
Thanks to the innovative spirit of the technological sector, we are gradually getting closer to the ideal normal: a situation in which we work remotely just as pleasantly, efficiently and safely as we do at the office. It means that every employee can open his or her laptop where and when it is most convenient. That is, in a nutshell, the balance in terms of flexible working that we were still missing. The ideal normal is the right mix between working from home and working at the office: hybrid working! It means that both the advantages and disadvantages of working from home fall into place.
What is hybrid working?
The role played by traditional offices is changing. It’s no longer necessary for everyone to be in the office to attend meetings. In short, ‘flexible working location’ means that employees may work from home. Or on-site at a client’s place of business. Or not even have a fixed physical workplace! The office will be a place where we can work together, make phone calls and hold meetings pleasantly and productively. One part of the team is physically present in the office. The rest of the team works from home. Or from the beach? Online platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom are helping to make interactive collaboration in the workplace increasingly easy and natural. There are plenty of tools to enable you to get together digitally!
This is how you take the first steps
We anticipate that the shift to hybrid working will also have a marked impact on how office space is organised (wherever that may be). This is how you take the first steps towards a successful and safe hybrid working environment.
1. Provide good collaboration tools
Everyone should be able to work anywhere, at any time and in any location. Look for systems and tools that enable effective cooperation and communication in both the physical and virtual worlds.
2. Prioritise safety
Working safely and cybersecurity is still new to many people, although the risk of data leaks is increasing. Now that hybrid working is becoming the ideal normal, and people are predominantly working from home, the above will play a more decisive role in the security of valuable data.
The modern workplace
There is no question that technology will play an increasingly important role at work. Digitisation is therefore at the top of the list when designing or redefining workplaces. Do you want to know everything about the modern workplace? About digitisation? Or the countless possibilities of flexible working? The CTOUCH For Teams Go is a core building block to enable seamless Microsoft Teams collaboration in a hybrid workplace. We would love to help you create a modern workplace in which your people work together more efficiently.