The pandemic has made it hard for quite a lot of businesses to work, the office has turned into a dangerous place and employees have been working from home. It’s probably a good time to take a hard look at the traditional 9-5 office work and how inconvenient it is.
Many people believed working from home would make people lazy and inefficient and the pandemic situation has completely changed people’s outlook on the remote work culture. It has opened people’s minds to the perks of work from home culture. Many industries are starting to consider hybrid workforce models and many industries and startups have already adopted this model.
WHAT IS A HYBRID WORK SCHEDULE?
A hybrid work model is a combination of the traditional office culture and remote work culture. Employees enjoy flexibility and control of their work hours and a sense of professionalism that comes with working in a traditional office, all in a single model. This model increases work efficiency as well because having autonomy over working hours and being able to work in a pressure-free environment improves morale and motivates all employees.
Since the work in every industry and enterprise is different, the time spent in remote work and office work would also vary. Creating a positive, convenient and flexible environment for employees should be the key goal of the model, regardless of the type of industry or enterprise.
HOW DO YOU CRAFT AN EFFECTIVE WORK MODEL?
What makes a hybrid workforce model effective is proper planning ahead of implementation. This requires a lot of serious effort from employers and leaders. You need to think ahead and analyze all possible scenarios that could potentially turn out to be a disturbance or an advantage to the efficiency of the work model. Understanding the needs of your co-workers and your work and coming up with a middle ground where both are satisfied is the only way to create a successful work schedule.
8 TIPS TO CREATE AN EFFECTIVE WORK SCHEDULE
Not sure what to consider and what to analyze while crafting a hybrid workforce model? Here are some helpful tips that you should keep in mind:
- Sort out your priorities first!
It’s extremely important to know exactly what you expect from your employees and why you are opting for a hybrid work model. First, understand what is a hybrid work schedule and how it works, then decide how you can benefit from it. What you expect from the work model will decide what your priorities should be.
- Analyze possible obstacles and come up with solutions ahead of creating a model.
Evaluating all the parameters of your enterprise and analyzing possible obstacles will help you craft a work schedule that would work for everyone. Analyzing all possibilities beforehand also prepares you and helps you create effective strategies to deal with problems.
- Understand the requirements of your work and incorporate values that maximise efficiency.
Understanding what your work requires will help you create a schedule that maximises efficiency. Which departments need more office time and which produce better results in remote work will help you understand and create time schedules that are satisfactory to the employees and the enterprise.
- Create a healthy and positive work environment for your employees.
A healthy and positive work environment is essential to maximise the potential of your employees. Communicating with them and understanding their needs and complaints would help you in crafting better schedules and make them feel included and valued. This motivates employees and uplifts the morale of the enterprise.
- Make time appropriate changes to your schedule instead of having a rigid schedule.
A rigid schedule is always a bad choice. Always craft a schedule that can accommodate sudden changes in working trends or any unfortunate circumstances. Rigid structures defeat the purpose of hybrid workforce models and eventually turn into a partially virtual 9 to 5 work schedule, it could also increase work pressure and create conflicts.
- Provide your employees with the required technology and resources
To maintain an effective work schedule, providing your employees with necessary technological incentives and resources is vital for remote work to run smoothly. Employees need a common medium to communicate and work with various departments and teams. Creating a specific mode of communication or application that connects all the employees and their work to the enterprise and each other.
- Federalize and organize.
Federalizing and distributing the workload among all employees will help supervise and organize the work schedule. Letting team leaders create specific time schedules for their teams will be a good idea that would be helpful to everyone.
- Rotating work schedules.
Having rotating work schedules for different departments and/or teams reduces the number of people in the office hours. In situations like COVID-19, this would ensure the working of the enterprise smoothly with minimal disruptions.
CONCLUSION
The first step to crafting an effective hybrid work model is understanding what is a hybrid schedule and coming up with creative solutions and strategies to maximise productivity in the workforce. Know what your work requires from your workforce and what you expect from your employees. Keeping a flexible and convenient working schedule is the most important aspect of an effective hybrid work model. Delegating and letting your employees take leadership and decide time schedules creates a sense of responsibility and leadership that’s always beneficial. Always actively ask your employees to express their ideas and opinions so you can come up with a model that suits them best.
