We are living in a world that had to quickly adapt to the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought about an array of challenges and new perspectives. Shifting to working from home overnight taught us a lot about the nature of work, what we need to prioritize, and brought to light many unforeseen benefits. But now, many of us are ready to return to the office, at least partly.
This is where hybrid work comes in. It is an increasingly popular work model that gives employees the flexibility of working from home part time while also allowing teams to connect in-person when necessary. While hybrid models will differ depending on the organization and its needs, workplace technology is crucial for facilitating this work and mitigating the challenges that come with managing a workforce that is remote part of the time.
Junior Content Marketing Manager at deskbird
Save Costs
Transitioning to a hybrid work model allows your employees to avoid the added costs associated with working in the office. Being able to work from home some days means not having to pay for transportation, whether that is gas for your car or a subway ticket. As gas prices rise globally, so does the cost of commuting. Additionally, it keeps employees from incurring other essential expenses such as lunch, which can be made at home.
Your business can also reduce its costs by transitioning to a hybrid model. First, there is the cost of renting a space. Not only is this a massive cost, but in most major cities it is quickly rising with inflation and property costs. For many businesses, this is a great time to downsize office space by going hybrid. If only half of your team is coming in on most days, the amount of space needed can also be reduced by half.
Additionally, there are ancillary costs required for the operation of your workplace, such as electricity, heating and general maintenance. Reducing the number of people in-office, also cuts the use of electricity and other costly resources, for example.
These savings are easily facilitated with an office management software. Implementing a desk booking software like deskbird, for example, will help generate data on office space usage and can therefore decrease space needed. In this case, coordinated hybrid work is crucial. Without software collecting data about who is in the office and when, it will be difficult to understand how much space is actually being used and how many resources need to be made available.
Improve efficiency/ productivity
With the rise of innovative technology created for the workplace, there are solutions being created to nearly every problem in different parts of the organization. The best way to illustrate this is through examples.
One of the best examples of this, that benefits every member of the team, is the cloud. Instead of having all information stored on the computer’s hard drive, it is stored in the cloud. This allows all members of the team to access this information when needed. Let’s say you need to read over some research that a colleague has conducted. Instead of having to email the colleague to send over the document and wait for their response, you can get to work right away.
Other types of productivity technology benefit the team as a whole, such as organization and task management programs like Trello and ClickUp. Giving all employees a centralized place to manage their tasks and assign tasks to others makes the overall workflow run more smoothly.
There is also technology that specifically serves the HR and office management function, such as deskbird. With the hybrid scheduling feature, which allows the HR team and other employees to see who is in the office which days. Office managers can then more productively manage space and resources. deskbird’s proprietary research shows that coordinated hybrid work increases productivity by 20% on average per week.
Additionally, document collaboration software like Google Docs benefits the content team, where they can work collaboratively in real-time on communications. Editing, suggesting and writing can all be done in one place without the need for additional communication and sending the document back and forth for edits.
Help improve workplace culture
The advent of workplace technology has transformed employee experience for the better in the context of hybrid work specifically. While there are a number of debates about whether tech has improved work life overall, sometimes leading to burnout and disconnection, it has improved hybrid work greatly.
Workplace technology can positively impact the culture of an organization in a number of ways. First, it can increase employee retention. Keeping employees at your company is driven by a number of factors, including satisfaction, work-life balance, and overall culture. The right technology that allows for fruitful communication and seamless hybrid scheduling will not only boost satisfaction, but in turn, will keep your team dedicated and loyal.
Because many new innovations are facilitating the future of work, characterized by flexibility in terms of time and location, technology similarly facilitates work-life balance. Let’s take a hybrid scheduling software for example. If each individual can schedule the days they are at home, they can use these days to watch over their children or save time by avoiding a long commute.
Finally, workplace connection is deepened through technology, especially in a world where hybrid and remote work is becoming increasingly popular. With video calling platforms, like Zoom, co-workers can have synchronous communication even when working from home. Being able to experience facial expressions, individuals can have more genuine interactions.
Streamline planning and communication
As previously mentioned, workplace technology has improved communication across and between organizations.
First, we have chatting platforms like Slack, which organize communication into channels. Not only does this give co-workers the ability to chat instantly but it organizes the communication by topic, streamlining both internal team discussions and cross-team projects. Or, Microsoft Teams, which allows for file sharing, scheduling building and team collaboration.
Additionally, features like deskbird’s Week Planning, allow individual employees and members of the leadership team to check the office occupancy and see which colleagues are coming to the office. Planning tools like these help employees communicate their schedules to the whole team without having to directly contact them.
Provide valuable data
One of the greatest benefits of workplace technology is that it collects valuable data for the organization to utilize in order to improve KPIs like efficiency and office space optimization. For example, the deskbird Office Analytics feature gathers insights into how people use your office space.
A workplace booking or desk booking system collects information about who is using the office and when. This data is valuable for HR and office management teams, allowing them to determine how much space is being used on a daily basis. They can therefore adjust the number of resources based on what is needed.
From a company culture perspective, technology helps manage employee satisfaction. For example, Culture Amp’s employee management tool helps run engagement surveys to better understand experiences such as onboarding and DEI practices.
Coordinated hybrid work is the way to go as it not only improves productivity but it also enhances the employee experience by facilitating communication and collaboration. Not only does workplace technology help organize work outside of the office but it also ensures that hybrid offices run smoothly.
Related Categories