How to Maximize the Benefits of Hybrid Working Arrangement

Millions of workers throughout the world have switched from being constrained to working in an office to working from any location at any time. As we emerge from the pandemic, many businesses are embracing flexible working arrangements with a focus on enhancing productivity and employee satisfaction. The hybrid work model has the ability to strengthen your company in various ways when organized thoughtfully and deliberately. The key in maximizing the benefits from a hybrid model is having the opportunity improve on business-critical processes.

Improved Security

As employees shift to more flexible work arrangements, companies have the chance to not only leverage the use of technology to coordinate tasks, but they can also use this opportunity to improve access controls and security. Companies can implement systems that not only provide their remote staff with reliable, simple access to key tools and data, but also to secure these assets.

• Companies should start by conducting a full network audit of its access management and controls. This assists in devising strategies to implement multifactor authentication (MFA) across all of your corporate apps. MFA is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity.
• Assess the threat individuals pose to their cybersecurity. Even with all of the technology available to prevent cyberattacks, they still occur, and the most common point of vulnerability are humans who aren’t properly trained to recognize or report a threat. Make sure each team member’s system is audited. Make sure nothing is out of place, that software is up to date, and that proper scanners are in place to protect against malware, viruses, and trojan horses.
• Implement an automated reporting system to trigger alerts on any anomalies across the network and connected devices.
• Companies can review, and update written policies for user groups depending on their roles and make these policies accessible.

Improved Workflows

Companies are taking advantage of the current situation to reinvent workflows. Existing harmful practices should never be replicated in new hybrid arrangements. Many organizations just overlaid new technologies atop existing processes, thereby repeating its weaknesses, idiosyncrasies, and workarounds. When adjusting to a hybrid model, assess what team tasks are obsolete and what can be automated or reassigned.

Find new ways to replace synchronous procedures and meetings with more flexible alternatives, ultimately increasing efficiency and productivity. These shifts provide opportunities to reinvent our workdays, allowing individuals to stay connected and involved wherever they are, on whatever schedule suits them best. Automate routine work to free up precious time so employees can focus on creative, exciting and inventive work. Replace laborious operations that require human intervention with efficient workflows that connect your tools and automatically carry work forward.

Better Understand Employee Preferences

Depending on particular preferences, employees’ abilities to work at peak productivity and performance differs substantially. Consider the preferences of your workforce when designing hybrid work arrangements and make it easier for others to understand and accommodate those choices. Some employees may want to avoid the office commute and prefer to spend focus time in their well-equipped home office with no distractions, while others may want mentoring, coaching, and prefer being on-site most of the time.

To better understand your teams’ personal preferences, work environments, and critical activities, use simple diagnostic survey methods. It can help you determine how engaged team members are, whether they have a well-functioning home office, and what cooperation, coordination, and focus requirements they have.

Fortify Your Company’s Defenses

Companies should start by understanding the main drivers of productivity for every task. Consider how changes in working arrangements along the axes of time and place will affect those drivers. With KRIS Document Management System (DMS) you can identify key tasks to automate, easily disseminate surveys to regularly get feedback from what your employees want and how the work best.

This helps the organization be creative while eliminating duplication and unproductive elements in workflows. It is important that effective, transparent communication is ongoing, so everyone understands and embraces the hybrid work model that enhances and not depletes productivity, accentuates the company’s values and support its culture.