7 Considerations For Creating The Perfect Hybrid Work Environment

by Angela Anastasakis, SVP of Operations and Buyer Success for Nvoicepay

The world has modified fairly a bit since COVID-19 hit. Folks moved, many to completely different states. Infants have been born. Corporations have grown and adjusted. It’s seemingly that the best way we take into consideration work won’t ever be the identical once more.

Forcing everyone again into the workplace in as we speak’s market is a silly concept. Bearing this in thoughts, plainly the following problem leaders face is creating useful, hybrid work environments.

Positive, discovering a distant resolution is much more complicated than an in-person 9-to-5 mannequin, however on the similar time, I believe it’s incumbent upon us to work with our staff to create extra versatile work conditions. Workers have carried out their jobs remotely for over a 12 months and we’ve barely missed a beat. During the last 12 months, we’ve seen there’s actual worth within the distant work mannequin. We have to discover methods to satisfy staff within the center and do what’s proper for the corporate, the tradition, and every particular person.

We’ve had a number of discussions about this at Nvoicepay. We’ve performed company-wide surveys and have even checked out our staff’ DiSC profiles to see who’s more likely to wish to keep dwelling – and sure, to thrive there. Listed here are a few of the elements we’ve weighed round this new alternative:

1. Sort of labor.

Every staff’s return to the workplace relies upon rather a lot on their main operate and the way collaborative they must be. For instance, our implementation staff is on the cellphone consistently. They’ve discovered it’s a lot simpler to be at dwelling on the cellphone in a quiet, distraction-free house. However, our vendor help staff, (who’re additionally on the cellphone on a regular basis), discover it extra useful to be collectively. This enables the staff, which incessantly sees new members added, to hear to at least one one other’s calls and coach or be taught from one another.

2. House planning.

Nvoicepay grew nearly 40 p.c through the pandemic. If everybody have been to come back again to the workplace full time, we couldn’t simply accommodate all of them with the comfy house folks have usually loved. Different firms could try and shed overcapacity points. Everyone seems to be making an attempt to determine the best way to use the footprint they’ve in essentially the most environment friendly method.

For us, that plan means constructing out a schedule of who’s going to be in and when. We’ve even thought-about a system the place staff could not have an assigned workspace in the event that they aren’t going to be within the workplace a minimum of thrice per week. There might be much more ‘sizzling desking’ with this technique, but it surely additionally permits for the flexibleness this pandemic has made so crucial.

3. The dreaded commute.

We’ve at all times allowed folks to shift their hours to keep away from visitors, however I believe all of us have a brand new baseline concerning the worth of reclaimed commute time. Whether or not that saved commute time is used to train, pursue a interest, or be with household, persons are leaning in and having fun with that further house. Earlier than the pandemic, considered one of our staff had a two and half-hour each day commute. Then he had a child throughout lockdown and now he works at dwelling whereas sporting the infant on his chest. He can’t think about giving that up and we don’t need him to! We count on commuters who’re in a task the place they are often distant are in all probability going to remain distant aside from possibly as soon as a month for an in-person workers assembly.

4. Sustaining firm tradition.

Nvoicepay is thought for its tradition. Our Tradition & Communications Committee (C3) labored exhausting to search out alternative ways to maintain all that satisfaction in our work tradition collectively through the pandemic with a wide range of occasions. One in all our favorites is the “First Friday” assembly, the place the manager staff brings updates and shares kudos with the entire firm. Pre-pandemic we had some folks dialing into these, however we didn’t see that a lot engagement from them. Now, we notice you may generate a number of engagement remotely. Since we all know there may be a lot room for engagement regardless of folks being distant, we’ve got to work to maintain offering alternatives for distant engagement at the same time as we add again in-person occasions.

5. Fixing the partial consideration drawback.

When everybody was within the workplace, we had a “laptops down, telephones off” rule throughout conferences, however that etiquette crumbled with folks working at dwelling. We recognized one of many tougher facets of distant work: multitasking throughout video calls. We encourage everybody to have their cameras on–it’s not potential to make it a hard-fast rule, as a result of some people don’t have sufficient bandwidth to help video chats. Most of our staff reply positively to talking “face-to-face.” We’re working exhausting to help them and hold them engaged all through the work day, particularly as hybrid environments turn out to be commonplace.

6. Conveying the advantages of being within the workplace.

There’s a sure power that occurs the place two or three folks huddle up, concentrate on a problem and deal with it. At the least initially, we’re going to need to promote the advantages of returning to the workplace by reminding staff of that power.

When everyone seems to be distant, what may very well be a five-minute deskside dialog finally ends up being a 30-minute scheduled convention name. Personally, I might be within the workplace a minimum of three days per week, as a result of there’s an power and degree of camaraderie I’ve missed. We’ve introduced on so many new folks I additionally wish to be there to satisfy them in individual and help them.

7. Assuring fairness.

Even earlier than the pandemic, many firms had distant staff, although they have been the minority. They’d name into conferences, usually forgotten by the folks within the room and customarily had rather a lot much less visibility. That might typically restrict alternative.

Normalizing distant work will seemingly improve the inclusion of distant staff. Even so, we may also encourage engagement so that they’re at parity with in-office staff. Maybe we will be taught from a few of the individuals who excel at staying engaged remotely as in individual. It’s an entire new ability set we have to assist professionals develop, but it surely’s vital to us to maintain this on the forefront of our planning.

Amongst different advantages, hybrid work environments provide firms the flexibility to draw proficient staff no matter their location and to retain them. The expertise we’ve had through the work-from-home efforts ought to go a good distance towards overcoming firms’ apprehensions about providing distant work choices extra broadly. Though there are a number of unknowns, it’s thrilling to form this courageous new world. In the event you can stay versatile and be artistic, distant work is a chance to have a happier, extra productive workforce and achieve a aggressive benefit on the similar time.

Angela Anastasakis is the SVP of Operations and Buyer Success for Nvoicepay, a FLEETCOR Firm. She has greater than 30 years of management expertise in operations and product help. At Nvoicepay, Angela has been instrumental in main Operations via fast development, whereas sustaining their 98% help satisfaction ranking via excellent service.