A hybrid work model—one which splits the week between a central office and remote work—can prove a resilient, sustainable, and incredibly effective workforce. It allows both employees and businesses to save time and move quickly. For workers, that means better work-life balance, as they can more adroitly address other aspects of their lives. For organizations, it means saving time and day-to-day costs, while improving employee loyalty and retention. There are very few downsides—provided you have the right tools and a proper hybrid workplace strategy in place.
An essential part of any hybrid workplace strategy is the design of the workplace itself—the hybrid office. This includes physical space, yes, but also all the digital infrastructure (software, apps, et cetera) that lets your teamwork and communicate remotely. Even just a few years ago, the level of today’s digital integration seemed unthinkable. But with the advent of Zoom meetings, cloud data, and hitherto unseen interconnectivity, it’s become indispensable to run a coherent workplace.
AI-Powered Smart Office Space Management
While many employees in a hybrid workforce spend part or all of their week remote, central office space is still necessary. The question instead is “what purpose does the central office serve?”
As workdays change, so do space requirements. For example, fewer workers in the office every day means less need for cubicle space, not to mention Covid-related occupancy restrictions. What does work well in these smaller spaces? Collaborative and client meetings—tasks that depend on physical interaction. Converting your labyrinth of cubicles to a leaner meeting place is just one example of how to repurpose space.
But balancing all of this—along with wildly-varying work schedules—can prove extremely challenging without the right tools. Platforms like Smarten Spaces use capacity management tools to automate the work involved in hybrid office space management, along with AI analytics designed to find what works and what doesn’t. This lets managers focus on other aspects of a hybrid workplace strategy while ensuring that your “new normal” runs smoothly and efficiently.
Employee Training (and Retraining) Tools
The shift to a hybrid has rippling implications for other aspects of business too. An effective hybrid workplace strategy needs to make provisions for all the changes that affect your team.
More specifically, traditional employee training and onboarding techniques become obsolete in a decentralized work model. Instead, consider technologies like microlearning, designed specifically with hybrid work in mind. Microlearning courses train workers in smaller, more accessible chunks, rather than an all-at-once, hours-long orientation.
Even if they’re not working remotely per se, workers today are always on the go. Microlearning fits in lessons on their time and fits in digestible snippets on their phones. No need to haul everyone in for “training day,” crammed into an office watching slideshow after slideshow. In other words, it provides exactly the benefits you’re after with your hybrid work strategy.
Hybrid Workplace Scheduler
Scheduling is one of the biggest hurdles to overcome with your hybrid workplace strategy. It’s also the place where the benefits of the hybrid workplace can most keenly be felt.
Flexibility is the name of the game when it comes to a hybrid workplace—each employee needs the ability to define their own experience. Some may need to come into the office on different days; others may need set days at home to handle vital tasks like picking their children up from school. A one-size-fits-all schedule with universal set office hours simply doesn’t work in a hybrid office. In a hybrid setting, you’re trading organizational simplicity for flexibility and efficiency.
Of course, this constantly juggling is a headache for already overloaded management—but automation can fix that. Instead of laboring over an ever-changing schedule, leverage a tech solution like Smarten Spaces to automatically fit everyone’s hours into a centralized database. This makes it easy for both managers and team members to sync everyone’s time and ensure needs are met without spending long hours hashing calendars out. Smarten Spaces also integrates with common calendar apps like Google Calendar, making it all the easier to keep your scheduling details in a single virtual space.
Smart Visitor Management System
Managing visitors and clients in a hybrid workplace have changed too—and not always in the ways one expects. While remote communications make it easier to meet without visitors coming into the physical office, those who do require a more complex approach than was even possible just a short while ago.
A good hybrid workplace strategy will take newfound health, safety, and scheduling concerns into account. This keeps your workforce healthy and functioning, while also ensuring that visitors themselves can do business without stressing about the same. That’s why Smarten Spaces includes flexible visitor management features, taking the guesswork out of handling clients and customers in your office space.
Make Your Hybrid Workplace Smarter with Smarten Spaces
Hybrid workplaces are the future of business—and with a strong workplace strategy, your company can reap the benefits. A well-planned hybrid workflow offers improved flexibility, higher productivity, increased employee loyalty, and the ability to move at the speed of your business. But this payoff only comes provided you have the right tech solution to handle the challenges of a hybrid workplace.
In comes Smarten Spaces. Smarten Spaces serves as your central hub for creating, running, and maintaining a hybrid office. The tool helps your team access and exchange information, develop integrated schedules and otherwise ensure that they can function effectively—no matter where they work.
The face of work is changing rapidly—is your workplace changing alongside? Or will you be left behind? Reach out to Smarten Spaces today to see how you can transform your workplace!