Hybrid Work, The Recipe For Evolving Towards Agile Work

Hybrid Work, According to the Smart Working Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic, in 2022, there were 3.6 million smart workers. Despite a physiological decrease compared to the more than 6 million of the pandemic, this is a huge step forward compared to the 570,000 of the pre-pandemic era. Furthermore, the same source forecasts a slight growth for 2023, testifying to a trend that is now consolidated in the dynamics of many companies. 

Hybrid Work, what drives companies to change?

For some years now, companies have been busy with the modernization of the working model. After an initial phase of remote working imposed by the pandemic, the hybrid paradigm has become the most adopted solution, allowing workers to alternate between face-to-face and remote work based on personal and business needs. The policies are very different from one case to another: ranging from the rigid definition of “smart” days to more flexible profiles in which people autonomously define where to work based on the activities they have to carry out. Naturally, it depends a lot on the sector in which the company operates and on the specific role covered by the professional.

In the vast majority of cases, companies are adopting hybrid and modern ways of working for a variety of reasons, including:

• Improving the working conditions of employees so as to stimulate productivity positively;
• Be attractive to young talents and retain those already present in the company;
• Improve the work/personal life relationship of all employees, obtaining in return the attachment to the company’s values;
• Develop the image of a healthy, modern, and innovative company ;
• Reduce costs related to workspaces, which are occupied less than before.

The challenges of hybrid work, from culture to IT

Companies have to face (and overcome) several challenges to achieve the promised benefits. Hybrid work results from a profound transformation, which continues after providing a collaboration platform or, worse, a smartphone with a corporate SIM.

In hybrid work, the way of working changes, managing and evaluating performance, communicating, and governing activities within work teams that today have fewer opportunities to work together. The cultural and organizational challenges are essential, not to mention the technological ones, considering that digital is the main enabler of all agile working models. This means, for many companies, having to modernize the systems on which their business has been based for years if not decades.

The evolution towards Hybrid Work and the role of the partner

Often, companies don’t make the most of the potential of hybrid work because they fear they won’t be able to govern the necessary evolution and related change.

The good news is they don’t have to do it alone. Indeed, let’s not forget that before 2020, hybrid work was unexplored terrain for most, so the only hope of adopting best practices is to turn to an experienced IT partner who knows how to modernize the technological substrate of hybrid work and guide the company through the various stages of change. 

How to accompany the company toward practical hybrid work

The first step is undoubtedly that of the assessment, an activity aimed at getting to know one’s interlocutor. To design a digital maturity improvement path, it is necessary to understand how the company works, with which systems and applications, where it keeps files, and how it protects data.

Based on the outcome of the assessment, the modernization path is designed, the objective of which is the safe remonetization of the greatest number of roles and work activities. It logically starts from email, passing through file repositories, management, and document systems, and taking care to implement data protection policies. The goal is to ensure everyone can work remotely with the same tools and products as in the office.

The second step is the modernization of corporate communication systems. The hybrid model disassociates the communication channel (video, audio, messaging) from the individual workstation, allowing you to participate in video calls, chat, or answer calls to the internal company number with your smartphone, tablet, or tablet PC wherever you are. Paradoxically, the most complex part is the telephone one because many companies are still tied to traditional switchboards (PBXs), which in addition to not allowing disassociation between device and station, are also very expensive to manage and maintain. 

Remote endpoint management essential in hybrid work

Last but not least, there is an issue of endpoint management that needs to be addressed. Hybrid working has multiplied work tools: from the desktop PC, we have moved on to notebooks, tablets, and smartphones. Some professions also work with sensors and wearable devices.

In this context, the role of a partner is fundamental since it is necessary to enable many new devices, allowing them to access company resources securely and without compromising productivity. The digitization of work has dramatically increased security risks, which a partner needs help to respond to simply by blocking access to systems. On the contrary, it must be able to govern security modernly, based on a mix of access, identity, and network protection, simultaneously examining endpoint behavior. Remote management of endpoints is a characteristic feature of hybrid work and should be delegated to an experienced partner who can boast the right mix of skills and monitoring tools.

Also Read : What is Workflow Management & How to Do It?