According to an Accenture report, 63% of high-growth companies have hybrid work models. While the trend accelerated during the pandemic, it doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon.
There are many benefits of the hybrid work model. For instance, it increases productivity at work, improves culture and employee satisfaction, offers better collaboration, and supports mental health.
However, many organizations and HR professionals consider it hard to manage hybrid workforces. That’s because, in a remote environment, it is challenging to build connections between employees. At CoffeePals, we understand the importance of employee engagement, which is why we offer a Microsoft Teams app to connect your remote team.
In this discourse, let’s explore five popular hybrid work model examples, some best practices, and how to decide on a model that suits your organization.
What Is a Hybrid Work Model
Considered a flexible approach, a hybrid work model allows you to split your employees' time between working from home and the office. You can ask your workforce to decide the days they want to come to the office, or you can assign a schedule yourself. There could be a combination of these two approaches as well.
A hybrid work model's primary purpose is to give employees the flexibility to manage a good work and life balance. It encourages employees to have every right to how they want to work without affecting their productivity.
Hybrid Work Model Best Practices
The best hybrid work models enhance productivity and engagement. Let’s have a look at some best practices.
- Value consistent communication: Building clear communication is one of the biggest hurdles of controlling a remote team. It is imperative to build a solid communication strategy to overcome this issue before implementing a hybrid work model.
For instance, you should be clear about the communication channel you want to go for. Many companies choose emails to notify their employees, while others go for chats. Make sure to use a technology that every employee is comfortable using.
- Keep building human connection: With fewer face-to-face interactions, making a human connection becomes pretty hard. Whether in regard to work or home life, having a strong support system is key to overcoming challenges and maintaining positive mental health. That’s why it’s important to use apps such as CoffeePals to encourage social interaction between employees, so they don’t feel so isolated at home and reap the benefits of building connections.
- Set workflow and productivity expectations: It isn’t easy to maintain high productivity levels when you choose to work from in and out of the office. If you expect your workforce to generate a specific workflow, it is essential to design a schedule and clarify certain boundaries to support expected productivity and outcome.
- Keep your culture alive: Your employees may get distant from the company’s culture while working from home. Don’t let that happen. Instead, keep the norms alive by replicating the work environment, communicating efficiently, and introducing perks.
Benefits of an Effective Hybrid Work Model
If you successfully implement the best practices above, you may reap the following benefits from a well-curated hybrid work model.
- Since a hybrid work model empowers employees to work in an environment that supports their strengths, it boosts productivity. Whether your workforce wants to work in a quiet office environment or their comfortable home setting, the choice is given, giving them the power to use it properly.
- A hybrid environment gives your employees complete control over decision-making, making them feel important, and increasing their work satisfaction by manifolds.
- An exhausted employee may not feel encouraged to learn. As a result, they might not contribute to your company’s development. As an HR manager or a leader, you should recognize this problem and create opportunities to accelerate learning daily.
- A hybrid working environment creates excellent work relations and collaborations when organized well.
Five Types of Hybrid Work Model Examples
Here are some famous hybrid work model examples that you can choose from. But before you finalize one, ensure to create a sample hybrid work policy first. This policy covers all the rules and regulations that hybrid employees should follow regardless of where they work.
You can easily find a hybrid work policy template, but here are a few essential points.
- People who are eligible for the policy with their positions and locations
- Expectations for your hybrid employees
- Security procedures adopted by your company
- Availability and work schedule
- Communications tools and rules
A solid policy will help you implement the working model that may work well for your environment. Here are some examples that you can choose from.
The Microsoft Model: Balanced Between Remote and Office Work
In March last year, Microsoft released a blog explaining its practice and philosophy of a hybrid workplace. Then, as per the article, the giant followed to make the hybrid workplace dream come true.
The company allows its employees to work 50% of their time remotely. However, workers are free to obtain managerial opinions to increase the duration of their remote schedule. The model allows the company to focus on people working in conference rooms or their homes and then create strategies that support them.
This model was designed after considering the preferences of the majority of the employees, developing a flexible hybrid policy, and analyzing the employee data. The flexibility in this model is often desired by top leaders but also considers the needs of the employees.
The Meta Model: Office-first
This policy used by Meta requires its employees to work in their offices at least 50% of the time. This one is entirely different from the model above and a perfect example of centralized and top-down decision-making. Meta also has an office deferral program for its employees who wish to return to their office for three to five months.
This model is a perfect example of a company who wants to prioritize office work over remote environments. It will work well for your organization if your workforce is willing to visit the office at least three days a week.
The Amazon Model: Customized by Workforce
If you want to implement a hybrid work model at a large scale, the Amazon Model may strike your fancy and suit your environment. In this model, the authority to choose a location to work from lies with your company’s team leaders. The decision-making at the team level increases personalization and flexibility.
This model also allows teams to work remotely for a maximum of four weeks in a year from their chosen location. The Amazon Model works best for teams who trust their leaders when building a flexible environment for themselves and their employees.
The Salesforce Model: Decision-making at Employee Level
Do you know that Salesforce is often considered a perfect company to work with? That’s because their hybrid work environment gives immense authority to the employees.
The employees have three options. For instance, they can choose the flex option where they can work from one to three days from the office for collaboration, meetings, and presentations. The fully remote model is for people who have homes away from the office or work on jobs that can be handled online.
Finally, the office-based option works best for people who need to be in the office as per the demands of their roles. This model empowers individuals to pick an option, enhancing employee satisfaction.
The Lockheed Martin Model: Excellent Training and 40% Hybrid
This model works best for companies that find it hard to manage their leadership when going completely digital. In that case, training is a great savior for employees who want to work remotely. The model manages both environments effectively, ensuring all its employees get used to the flexibility the hybrid environment offers.
Which Model Should You Choose?
Since many models are available, choosing one might be a daunting task. Make sure you don’t feel overwhelmed by following the tips below:
- Have a conversation with your team members and discuss the model options available. You can use CoffeePals for this as well. You should present all the available options to your employees and let them decide what works for them and what does not. When choosing a model, select an option that enhances the workforce’s productivity.
- Select a model that makes transition effective and easy. If a hybrid transition increases employees' well-being, productivity, and use of office space, it is worth going for the option.
- When choosing a model, you may think it is the perfect option available, but it might not meet your expectations after some time. In that case, keep your mind open and don’t hesitate to make a shift, even if it requires extensive training.
Work With CoffeePals to Build an Effective Hybrid Work Environment
To make your hybrid work model a success, make sure to make communication a priority. CoffeePals can achieve that for you through chats and posting thought-provoking topics to accelerate discussions between team members. It performs all of this within Microsoft Teams.
CoffeePals has transparent and simple pricing and also provides a free trial. The app's goal is to create spontaneous connections between employees and drive engagement and collaboration. It also allows to match mentees with their mentors for growth and learning and also creates an opportunity for new hires to improve their onboarding experiences.
So, if you think that your remote or hybrid team needs a similar app to work better together, contact the app’s Helpdesk to learn more.
