The COVID-19 pandemic has permanently changed the world of work and involuntarily tested companies to see how well they are set up for remote working. Many employees and companies have had positive experiences, but the end of the office has not materialised, as most companies are now working on bringing their teams back to the office. Nevertheless, a complete return to the office seems unlikely, and the current trend is that the work of the future will be hybrid. What does hybrid work mean? And how can companies optimise their set-up for the flexible working world?
Hybrid work refers to a time- and location-independent form of work in which employees no longer spend every day in the office, but instead work partly in the office and partly outside the office. It is, so to speak, a combination of office work and remote work, i.e. working in a place that is not the office. This is usually the home office, but it can also be any other place with a stable internet connection, such as a co-working space, a library, a café during workation or while travelling (on the Deutsche Bahn train).
The bottom line is that hybrid working is a flexible working model that enables employees to adapt their working week efficiently and individually to their own schedules, needs and life situation.
Exactly what a hybrid working model looks like in practice varies from company to company and each company may have its own guidelines. In principle, however, it can be said that any form of work is hybrid if at least one day a week is spent working outside the office. In some companies, the division of labour is even reversed and there is only one (fixed) office day per week.
Not all hybrid work is the same. Hybrid work takes different forms. In principle, there are two dimensions that can be varied: the place of work and the working hours.
As a rule, however, only the place of work is really decisive for the type of hybrid working. A distinction is usually made between:
If the time dimension is added to the hybrid working model, there are also these variants:
Hybrid work should combine the advantages of office work and mobile work - the best of both worlds, so to speak. If the necessary conditions are created within the company, hybrid work offers numerous advantages for employees, companies and society as a whole.
Hybrid working has these advantages, among others:
Advantages
But hybrid working can have more than just advantages. The disadvantages of hybrid working can be, for example
Disadvantages
Hybrid working also offers benefits for society as a whole. The fact that employees commute less to the office and may be travelling less often due to virtual meetings reduces CO2 emissions. Hybrid working therefore makes an effective contribution to climate protection.
The possibility of increased remote working also increases flexibility in the choice of place of residence. Skilled workers are no longer forced to move to the big city for their qualified job, which leads to a greater social mix and consequently to a strengthening of rural areas.
For companies, switching to a hybrid working model is not a process that takes a few days or weeks. Rather, the process is characterised by constant learning and regular adjustments. Nevertheless, companies should think in advance about how a transformation can be successfully organised and create the necessary conditions for this. So what does it take to master the challenges of hybrid working and reap the benefits?
#0 - Defining the vision for hybrid work
As a starting point for a hybrid working model, managers in the company should first determine what role remote working should play in their own organisation in order to define a vision for hybrid working and how the company wants to work in the future. Is the primary goal of the flexible working model a potential cost saving or are the employees and their individual needs the focus of hybrid working?
#1 - Make sure you have the right (technical) equipment
Once the foundation for hybrid work has been laid, the next essential step for hybrid work is to provide professional (technical) equipment, both in the offices and individually for all employees. Everyone should be able to access emails and important documents from anywhere, take part in meetings and communicate with colleagues simply and easily. This requires a secure IT infrastructure and all employees must be equipped with the appropriate hardware.
#2 - Turning the office into a meeting place
The way in which the office is used is changing with hybrid working. Companies should therefore ensure that their office space meets the new requirements. In order to successfully establish hybrid working, companies should definitely transform their office into a hybrid working environment and, for example, plan meeting rooms, space for creative work and collegial dialogue as well as quiet areas.
#3 - Establish clear rules and boundaries together with employees
When working purely in the office, work and private life are automatically separated, and the daily commute ensures that employees can mentally prepare for the working day on the way to the office and switch off on the way home. This is not necessarily the case with the hybrid working model. Due to the lack of physical separation between work and private life, many employees feel that they always have to be available. It is therefore important to define clear rules for remote working days, for example when the core working hours are or when availability must be guaranteed - and when calls or emails are taboo (see the matrix above).
#4 - Focus on personal responsibility instead of control
Hybrid working means that work is less "visible" in the office. This makes it more difficult for managers to monitor their employees. Instead, managers should have confidence in the autonomy and personal responsibility of their employees and be able to rely on everyone completing their tasks reliably and conscientiously. There is no room for micromanagement in hybrid working models.
#5 - Adapt processes
If part of the team works in the office and the other part works from home, it is all the more important to create processes that firstly ensure that work can be done productively and secondly ensure that there are no information gaps. Managers should therefore specifically encourage and demand the exchange of important information and document all important decisions and make them accessible.
#6 - Use tools for better collaboration
Collaboration is increasingly taking place digitally in a hybrid working environment. In addition to the right technical equipment (see #1) and a customised hybrid office environment, the right HR and collaboration tools are important to ensure that collaboration runs smoothly and productivity is guaranteed.
#7 - Offer flexible mobility benefits
Companies that focus on flexibility are not only better equipped for the future, but are also successful in the present. The benefits of remote work and hybrid, flexible working models are further enhanced by offering a flexible mobility budget.
Many people have fundamentally changed their mobility behaviour in recent years and are increasingly relying on different modes of transport to adapt their mobility choices to their situation or requirements instead of relying on a single means of transport.
With a mobility budget, companies can respond ideally to these wishes and needs of their employees. This is because the mobility budget offers flexible mobility solutions for the hybrid working environment of employees.
#8 - Get regular feedback from the team
Not every employee wants to work from home equally often or has the same ideas about how hybrid working works best. When establishing hybrid working models, it is therefore important to talk to employees and obtain feedback on where they currently stand and how they envisage hybrid working in the future.
All employers must decide for themselves which hybrid model to introduce. Deciding on a specific working time model may entail further major changes to the way of working in the future: The company may decide to establish an agile organisation or a bottom-up approach in parallel in order to meet the changing requirements of hybrid work. This goes hand in hand with a more flexible and situational management style, which requires new communication and collaboration tools, as well as HR software solutions to improve efficiency and reduce costs so that hybrid working functions smoothly.
Interpersonal relationships are particularly important. If colleagues do not meet regularly in the office, an adapted team culture can help, for example by companies establishing a fixed weekly office day or setting up regular hybrid, virtual meetings in which a high value is placed on informal dialogue.
The world of work has changed significantly. In recent years, a working model has become established that previously only existed in isolated cases. Hybrid work is no longer a grey theory, but has arrived in practice. How companies react to this development will be decisive for the future development of the world of work.
Many companies have already embraced this and incorporated hybrid working into their corporate culture. This shows that Hybrid work works. The future of work - keyword New Work - is hybrid.
