Remote work has evolved from a pandemic survival strategy to a workplace mainstay. Established organizations, such as Google and Microsoft, have rolled out flexible working policies to let their employees work anywhere.
That makes a hybrid workforce the inevitable reality of modern businesses. Like it or not, a section of your employees has gotten used to working from home. They’ll continue to be more productive and motivated as long as you let them work independently.
Working from home also means a larger pool of talent, even including overseas workers. Global workers are looking for work assignments that allow them to live wherever they want while still contributing to a vibrant team and company. This type of workforce mobility is a huge benefit to your business if done right.
If you’re still skeptical about adopting a hybrid working model for your business, here are a few eye-opening statistics for you:
- More than 15% of all high-paying job listings are available as remote opportunities.
- Nearly a quarter of all professional jobs in North America will be remote in 2022.
- By 2025, 70% of the global workforce will work remotely for five days every month.
If you want to continue seamless business operations in 2022, it’s high time you adopt the right technology solutions to embrace remote work.
The Reality of a Hybrid Workforce
It’s important to understand that adopting a hybrid workforce isn’t equivalent to letting your employees work from home. Nor is it as simple as providing on-site and remote employees with sophisticated communication tools.
The transition to a hybrid workforce requires a massive overhaul of business processes and operations. From cloud computing and automation to IoT solutions – you need to use a wide array of technologies to facilitate remote operations.
That emphasizes the importance of working with an experienced managed IT service provider familiar with your industry. If you’re running a business in Arizona, find a trusted managed service provider in Phoenix that addresses your company’s technology needs.
From VoIP and SD-WAN to network infrastructure and hardware – a managed service provider in Phoenix is crucial for the successful digital transformation of your business.
It’s worth keeping in mind that the transition to a hybrid workforce will usher in a significant cultural shift in your organization as well. Employees across all levels must be open to the idea of collaborating with other team members, irrespective of whether they’re in the office.
So, how do you ensure a quick and frictionless transition to a hybrid workforce? Let’s find out.
1. Choose the Right Collaboration Tools
When all your employees come to the office, it’s easy for them to stay up-to-speed on different projects. They can meet other team members daily and track a project’s progress.
A hybrid workforce could result in the formation of silos between on-site and remote team members. Remote employees will particularly struggle with staying on top of things. That, in turn, could disengage them and affect their productivity.
The best way of avoiding such scenarios is to provide each team with cloud-based collaboration tools, such as Trello and Asana. Whether your employees are working from home or the office, they can access these tools to monitor the status of a project and follow up with their colleagues.
Also, they can share their ideas, feedback, and updates with other team members. Ensure you select tools that can be accessed using different devices, including smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
2. Prioritize Flawless Communication
A collaboration tool can only do so much to help employees stay connected. If you want remote and on-site employees to feel like they’re part of the same team, you need to use communication tools, such as Zoom and Skype, to help them keep in touch.
Organize virtual meetings and team-building activities to let employees interact with each other. Also, you could consider using hosted VoIP solutions to help remote employees stay connected to customers and vendors.
3. Identify and Tackle Security Risks
The abrupt transition to remote work has left businesses vulnerable to cyberattacks. Apart from causing financial losses, such attacks also impact customer relationships and trust.
As businesses adopt digital technologies, such as IoT and data analytics, the risk of cyberattacks will continue to loom large. The threat is exacerbated when employees access business data and systems using personal devices and unsecured networks.
It emphasizes the importance of working with your managed service provider to identify the right cybersecurity solutions for your business. There are various ways to protect your hybrid workforce from cyberattacks, from single sign-on and multi-factor authentication to firewalls and VPNs -.
Besides implementing robust security measures, you should educate your employees about various risks and ways to identify them. Make sure you outline an incident response plan to deal with such attacks as well.
Closing Thoughts
Digital technologies have made it easier than ever to transition to a hybrid workforce. The key is to work with a managed service provider to identify the right communication and collaboration tools for your team. Also, deploy robust cybersecurity protocols to protect sensitive business data.