Hybrid Work: How to Stay Productive and Reduce Risks
Prior to the pandemic, millennials gained a reputation for speeding the way to more options in how employees put in their eight hours of work. Namely, they chose to work remotely rather than report to an office Monday through Friday, choosing employers that gave them that flexibility. Remote work is no longer a preference solely for millennials, as roughly 64% of employees of all ages say they favor remote work options. This has paved the way for a widespread shift to hybrid work, bringing IT challenges along with it.
Work/Life Balance
Employers realize that happy employees make productive employees. Employers are more focused on ensuring workers have a balance that includes quality off time. But this balance also considers how they put in their work hours.
For example, some employees are happier and more productive working in the space of their design, which could be anything from a home office to a coffee shop around the corner. And while this move to a hybrid work environment has been a positive one for productivity, there are some expectations that need to be defined, particularly in technologies used for collaboration between employees.
Better Connections
The pandemic forced employers to identify solutions that could connect employees as they sheltered at home. Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Slack are just a few of the solutions that exploded during the pandemic, yet have become invaluable three years after that initial trial run.
The biggest challenge for establishing a remote work environment is that there are many cyber security risks associated with it. There are expanded attack surfaces to consider, as well as vulnerable networks and cloud-based infrastructures that make it easy for employees to err and unknowingly open the door to attack.
Finding the Right Solutions
Staying on top of productivity while ensuring cyber criminals aren’t going to take advantage of your hybrid work scenario is a hefty task. Companies that seek out assistance from security experts do not experience the hassles commonplace with companies that take a trial-and-error approach. Rather than taking a chance on new technology, the smarter move is to bring in a professional that knows the latest collaboration solutions and how they handle specific workflow types.
Three Critical Steps
When implementing a permanent hybrid environment for your company, there are three critical steps that need to be included in your planning:
- Understand what work/life balance expectations are for your employees. Getting a better picture of what your employees need flexibility for can help you establish policies that encourage employee satisfaction and longevity.
- Implement the right technology. Since the pandemic, many collaboration tools have emerged, but finding the solution that fits your needs may require some outside expertise. Not only do you need the right mix of features, but you’ll need to consider whether your network requires an upgrade to handle the performance specifications of your solution.
- Define hybrid work. Do you expect your employees to be in the office some of the time? Having a defined policy will help you set boundaries and clarify expectations.
At One Connect, we get to know our clients and how they carry out daily tasks. This allows us to align technology with their needs. It also offers our clients to save time and eliminate hassles while boosting their bottom line and keeping them out of the crosshairs of cyber criminals. Contact us, and let’s talk about a plan for your hybrid work environment.