With the significant development of remote working, exchanges between employees have become shorter and more concise. Teleworking, by limiting distractions, such as coffee breaks or extended meetings, increases team productivity.
According to a recent study by Stanford University, more than 85% of businesses that use remote work are experiencing an increase in productivity, due to greater flexibility.
Thus, by limiting exchanges and making employees more responsible, hybrid work seems to be the ideal solution for companies.
On the one hand, it allows them to reduce their office space, because some employees now work remotely. This reduction in the number of m2 leads to a significant reduction in fixed costs. On the other hand, teleworking, by offering more flexibility and autonomy to employees, makes it possible to increase their productivity by limiting distractions and deconcentration factors.
In order to promote remote collaboration, many tools and technologies have emerged and now make it possible to organize a new work environment in hybrid mode. However, these technologies must be at the service of employees and not the other way around.
The biggest mistake is then to rely on these new technologies exclusively, forgetting that the most variable is the employees themselves.
Digital technology at the service of collaboration
With the development of hybrid work, companies are free to place the cursor between all remote and all face-to-face. This flexibility is a guarantee of flexibility and attractiveness. However, it must be accompanied by appropriate tools in order to promote exchanges and collaboration at a distance.
The recent global pandemic has been the driver of this transition. Computer tools have thus made it possible to ensure economic and social continuity.
Although initially used, these tools were also appreciated when the company chose to adopt a technological approach at the service of employees with, for example, the adoption of flexible hours or informal meetings such as “team cafes”.
More and more businesses are taking the plunge and are now adopting hybrid work models. In order to take advantage of this gain in flexibility, they must remain vigilant to ensure that these new digital tools promote a sense of belonging and that they are not vectors of isolation.
At a distance, exchanges are shortened, the informal moments that used to allow you to clear your mind with colleagues, between two meetings, are a distant memory. A feeling of overwork may then appear. You feel overwhelmed by the amount of work and you only live outside of work hours.
The major risk is to develop psychological problems linked to this isolation, and to lose all social ties. On the company side, this feeling of isolation and forgetfulness leads to repeated work stoppages that sometimes lead to “burnout” as well as a sharp increase in the “turnover” rate. It is therefore not in the human and economic interest of the company to have to face these types of difficulties.
Hybrid work should be a guarantee of flexibility and not isolation. Managers must therefore organize team life between face-to-face and remote, and take advantage of the flexibility of hybrid work, while maintaining and promoting social ties.
Concretely, it is a question of bringing its employees on site for real reasons. Thus, they are no longer brought in for banal 15-minute meetings, but for real moments of sharing and exchange. Employees now travel to their workplace with the ambition to meet their colleagues, and no longer just to work there as before the democratization of teleworking.
Hybrid work means giving value to moments of conviviality and collaboration in person. Certainly, these moments are now rarer, but they are also of greater quality and intensity.
A good balance between face-to-face and remote meetings must be found. Managers must therefore adapt the balance between the needs of their team and the company's work policy.
Hybrid work therefore invites companies and managers to reinvent their employee experience. This new form of management and work cannot be reduced to the simple organization of teams between teleworking and the office.
Hybrid work thus encourages the redefinition of new ways of working, in order to take advantage of greater flexibility and to strengthen the well-being of employees.
An employee can now take advantage of his teleworking days to best adapt his professional schedule to his personal life, and will more appreciate meeting his colleagues at the company headquarters to share moments, which are certainly rarer, but of greater quality.
In order to organize team life between face-to-face and remote, it is necessary to adopt the right tools. m-work is a hybrid work management tool that promotes social ties and exchanges between employees. It thus allows employees to meet the same day at the head office in order to work together and/or share moments of conviviality.
To find out more about m-work, click here!
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