What Kind of Hybrid Working Model Do Employees Want?

Job flexibility has been recognized as a permanent trend following the pandemic. As a result, hybrid working models have begun to be incorporated into the business world.

Today, while the world’s largest brands, especially Google and Microsoft, are accelerating their efforts on the hybrid working model, companies in the country continue to make announcements one after another. According to research, more than 80% of companies are giving the green light to flexible working models. Employees expect a hybrid working arrangement post-pandemic.

It is inevitable for companies to adapt to this new reality. However, before anything else, it is essential to ensure that employees are heard, their needs are identified, and their well-being is provided for when creating a hybrid working model. A survey on employees’ flexible working expectations reveals that many employees want to come to the office on days when they need to work face-to-face with their colleagues. According to the survey, more than 50% of employees state that they will plan their schedules according to their colleagues, while approximately 40% say they want to set their schedules according to the work they need to do that day. So, what kind of hybrid working model do employees demand beyond this? Here are five different hybrid working models.

Split Weekly Model

This model, which splits the week between a few days of remote work and a few days of office work, is seen as one of the most demanded models by employees. In the implementation phase of the split week model, companies plan according to departments. For example, while the marketing and business development team comes to the office on Mondays and Tuesdays, the Human Resources (HR) department works on Wednesdays and Thursdays. As in this example, days can be organized as special to departments or as consecutive days arranged with one day in between. This model allows managers to stay in communication with their teams and for teams to have regular face-to-face meetings.

Needs-Based Model

The second model, the needs-based model, allows employees to come to the office on the most suitable day and organize their work flexibly according to their plans. Those who want to go to the office especially when they need to meet with clients or colleagues or those who need a quiet place to work during the day want to continue their business life within the scope of a hybrid model determined accordingly.

Week-to-Week Sharing Model

The third model involves weekly planning for departments as in the split week model. However, in this model, weeks are not divided into days. Instead, months are divided into weeks under team collaboration. It is determined which departments will be in the office during which weeks. This alternative, which ensures teams are together for a week, primarily contributes to faster project completion. While these teams continued their work remotely last week, teams from different departments worked from the office.

Shift Work Model

In the fourth model, the shift work model, employees work in shifts at certain hours of the day and determine the time they will work within their own plans. Both employees and companies point out that this is a problematic model. From the employee’s perspective, many people find it difficult to go to work early in the morning or, conversely, to work late at night. A clearly developed hybrid model for shift work usually requires creating different solutions in addition to what employees already have.

Mixed Model

Finally, let’s examine the mixed model. Employees can shape one or more of the above-mentioned models according to their plans. This model, which allows employees to choose the working model they want and work from wherever they want instead of a single model, stands out as a model that frees the employee more compared to other models.

Reference

https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/remote-work-statistics/

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/library/covid-19/us-remote-work-survey.html

https://www.inc.com/rebecca-hinds/the-5-hybrid-remote-works-models-for-your-business.html

It may be sufficient to look at human nature without discomfort through research. People have evolved outside the home and it is a fact that we all agree on the need to be mobile and to have appropriate socialization. Even thinking about working from home forever can feel sickening. People embrace flexible working models. They want many options.

Therefore, “home office” workers plan to come together in a controlled manner at certain intervals. Meeting this need in the safest way is possible with properly planned and designed workspaces. It may be wise to convert unused desk areas into collaborative workspaces.

Additionally, we all know that companies started to adopt flexible working spaces (shared offices, etc.) before the pandemic and why they resisted this transformation. There is a fear of unknown and unmeasurable actions’ consequences. Fortunately, we have been relieved of these fears with software solutions and video conferencing tools.

Let’s simplify the need for complexity in the new era. We need comfortable workspaces free from epidemic risks, supporting flexible work and increasing synergy. What can be done for the new generation…

Redesigning and reevaluating office design from scratch may be the most permanent and quickest way. Demand is rising rapidly. Furniture companies have started forming software teams. Transformation is everywhere. Clive Wilkinson, who sets office design trends, has already started producing designs according to this new situation and made the first launch. Office usage habits and needs have changed a lot; we need to quickly change the old perspective. I want to share the article on this topic (https://www.fastcompany.com/90626329/these-architects-popularized-the-open-office-now-they-say-the-open-office-is-dead). Here. If this sounds too radical, at least transforming your meeting rooms could be a start. Companies can convert unused desk areas into large meeting rooms. Or the opposite move could be the right decision. To make the right decision, you will need some tools to understand the usage data. I will return to this later. Let’s continue to evaluate options.

You can evaluate the comfortable and spacious conference rooms of hotels with a large and relatively contracted demand. With their reasonable prices, comfort, and location, many valuable hotels can solve socialization in a hygienic and comfortable way in important parts of the city. It can be nice to present your employees or partners in a comfortable and prestigious environment and away from the home environment. Still, costs and organization can hinder the continuity you need most.

Shared offices were ready to serve before the pandemic and are becoming increasingly popular. Finding a room whenever you want is getting harder. Organizational difficulties and costs may need to be calculated very well. We expect firms that exhibit new generation approaches like Kollektif House to increase here. Although it seems far from meeting a wide variety of needs, it can still be considered an option.

Comfortable and smart areas to be established with shared office features close to residential areas of employees and HUB offices that will replace large vertical offices can make both employees and companies much happier and more productive. In short, making HUB office investments without measuring the general need and understanding it clearly can lead to unexpected results. Therefore, pre-analysis with workspace management software can help. Measuring continuous usage with these management tools, understanding habits, and producing flexible solutions is invaluable.

Measuring Usage of Workspaces, What Does It Mean?

We understand that office transformation should be designed according to the new generation’s space needs and habits. So how will we measure it?

Using special mobile software tools and even hardware tools integrated with them means collecting the necessary data. For this, your software tools need to be designed according to mobile habits. Company calendars and domain names need to be viewable on mobile devices and teams should enjoy using these tools. Reservation tools can help by keeping employees away from chaos and making their jobs easier.

Integrated reservation management systems like Bookreen prevent confusion and ensure that management designs workspaces correctly by measuring usage needs.

Especially in cities with high rents like London and NY, large companies, albeit at a low rate, gave up vertical office growth. It was unlikely that this would be a trend. Traditional approaches and resistance to transformation prevented this. With the inevitable change in office life after the pandemic, these resistances were broken. Now, companies need to carefully adapt to this transformation. We will observe much better in the coming period how necessary the use of measurement and transformation is.

As a result, it is possible to adapt collaboration and synergy to the new situation post-pandemic thanks to real-time and user-friendly tools and products. It is possible to develop unique solutions for business life with technical data and future projections.