Benefits of a Hybrid Work Strategy

In our quickly changing workplace world, many companies are opting for more flexible or unconventional scheduling for their employees. One such type of schedule is known as a hybrid work schedule.

A hybrid work schedule refers to an employee who works a portion of their time in-office and a portion remotely. In-office is rather self-explanatory, but most people equate working remotely with working from home. While a hybrid schedule can include working from home, it is just as feasible, and possibly more beneficial for both an employee and for the company, to work from somewhere other than home or office for at least a few focus days per week.

Some basic ways one can structure a hybrid schedule include fixed, flexible, and meetings only. A fixed schedule simply means the employee works certain days in the office and other days remotely. They might come to the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but stay closer to home on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays…or vice versa!

A flexible schedule might mean whether they are in office or away depends on the individual’s needs, and each week they set their own schedule while still adhering to any requirements made by the company policy. Further, it can also be feasible to work remotely every day, but just need to come in for meetings and special gatherings.

As with anything, there are of course some challenges that must be overcome for any system like this to work. A process should be in place for holding an employee accountable for their workload and hours, as being away from the office, oversight can become more difficult. Tracking productivity will require honesty on the part of employees. Of course, we all hope we can trust those we’ve hired to help our business grow!

Working on-site every day comes with its own set of challenges as well. If an employee lives in Woodstock but has to drive into Atlanta every day, that’s enough to make someone second-guess their career choice. Eight hours a day is a lot to give a company but adding an additional hour or more each way to every day can drain a person completely.

Add further complications such as a sick child, getting the kids to practice, or just dinner every night; it can be overwhelming and exhausting.

However, trying to be productive solely from home presents a completely different set of distractions and blurred lines. Being completely disconnected from coworkers can be a challenge in developing camaraderie and functional working relationships. As humans, we have a need for connection with others, and collaboration requires it at times.

A hybrid schedule allows an employee to address each set of issues cleanly and individually. It builds connections between coworkers and allows collaboration without requiring every day and reduces time spent on the road and the stress that comes with that.

Flexibility is another advantage to a hybrid work schedule. Conventionally, an employee’s personal schedule is not any of their employer’s concern. However, it is foolish for a company to think it does not matter. Your office assistant’s son’s baseball schedule is on the top of her list, most likely! School schedules changed throughout the year for the majority. So it does a manager well to consider these things when dealing with employees who have days, weeks, or even seasons of change in their personal lives. These kinds of options for employees can make a huge difference in the lives of people and be the reason they stay longer.

If you’ve been thinking about creating a hybrid work schedule for some or all of your employees, there are many options to meet the needs of both your business and your employees. Spending an hour each way for a commute, water cooler conversations, and having to juggle kids and home life around a 9-5 can certainly drain productivity from a day. In the other extreme, working from home exclusively can enlist a whole array of distractions and disconnection from coworkers and clients. However, for a person to couple some opportunity to comingle and collaborate with colleagues with a dedicated space to hyper-focus on work tasks might present the best of both worlds. Coworking options are available to meet these very needs.

We give tours of our facility anytime during business hours. Give us a call if we can answer any questions or can show you around to the many options we have available!