4 Hybrid Office Tips for the New Year

Take the first step towards a hybrid office for your business

December 21, 2021

It’s that time of year again where we all make our New Year’s Resolutions, so why not make one for your business? In 2021, the Hybrid Office has become the new go-to structure for businesses. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work has become increasingly common, making it essential for office employees and remote employees to collaborate. The Hybrid Office structure facilitates this collaboration between employees.

Usually, there are two ways to structure a hybrid office:

  • Having some employees as full-time office employees, while others are full-time remote employees.
  • Having most employees working several days in the office and several days remote in shifts or alternating days.

Whether you structure your hybrid office one way or the other, it can benefit your office culture.  Your business could have lower overhead, increased employee efficiency, and happier employees. But how do you try to ensure your office runs smoothly as a hybrid office?

4 Tips to Set Up an Effective Hybrid Office

  • Tip 1- Make sure the right jobs are chosen to work in the office, remote, or as a combination of the two
    • Some jobs can easily be worked remotely, while others may be very difficult to accommodate outside of the office. Make sure that employees who need access to specific equipment have enough in-office time to effectively do their jobs.
  • Tip 2- Have a plan and set up clear expectations
    • Make sure all the departments in your business are aware of what employees work remotely and what their responsibilities are. The clearer an employee’s responsibilities are the more likely it is that they can work efficiently from home.
  • Tip 3- Have at least 4 office hours where all employees have overlap
    •  Not all of your employees need to work all their hours at the same time, but having some scheduled overlap will help minimize potential problems. This overlapping time allows employees to still feel connected whether they are in the office or remote. During these hours employees will know that whoever they need is available in the event of an unexpected deadline, or other office emergencies.
  • Tip 4- Make sure all employees have equal access to each other and office documents
    • Can your employees easily get in touch with one another and share work or have a video chat? What about managing tasks and schedules? Being able to work together even when you’re not sharing the same space is vital. There are tons of free apps available for task management, but ideally, your company should be leading the way in creating a consistent plan for collaboration and communication. This means having centralized, secure access to documents with an electronic content management system, a secure video chat platform, and procedures around in and out of office work. 

Once you have implemented one or all of these tips, get ready to take advantage of a Better Hybrid Office Structure in the New Year.

How DOMA Handles Remote WOrk and a Hybrid Office

Last year DOMA sent out an internal survey to find out how employees felt about remote work. To see how the past 9+ months have affected our team, DOMA recently conducted a follow-up survey. The results were surprising to many members of management. Despite the challenges many of our team have faced, 64% of employees would like to continue working completely from home going forward. A further 20% would like to continue with a hybrid work week. When surveyed about challenges, the top concern was balancing work with their home lives. 

Another key finding was that the majority of employees surveyed (69%) were happy with how DOMA has handled the transition to remote work and that the two top concerns were physical equipment upgrades and a request for additional training. DOMA leadership attributes our focus on automation and our cloud software as key factors in our success during the shift. Employees have been able to collaborate effectively and access important information with virtually no interruption to customer contracts. 

About DOMA- Powered by Tech, Driven by People

DOMA Technologies (DOMA) is a software development and digital transformation company whose mission is to change customer lives by lightening their workload through faster and more targeted access to their data. Since 2000, our team of 200+ experts has helped businesses navigate all aspects of the digital world. We are a dedicated strategic partner for the federal government and private sector clients at every stage of their unique digital transformation journey.

Director of Communication

Author:

Danielle Wethington
Director of Communications