The New Normal Office: A Big Shift towards a Hybrid Workplace Environment

Many company leaders are now looking at how to safely bring back their workforce to the office as the world emerges from the pandemic. For the majority, the new normal office will ultimately evolve as a result of the pandemic. Some companies went ahead and welcomed their staff back to the workplace with a hybrid work arrangement using a reliable desk reservation system.

What is a Hybrid Workplace?

The hybrid workplace model allows team members to clock in from various locations at any given workweek. It provides flexibility for employees to work at home, in the corporate office, in a co-working space, or another conducive area to work.

In a recent study from WeWork, Workplace Intelligence, and HR Research, around 2000 U.S. employees and C-Suite executives were asked about how a hybrid work arrangement could fit into the safe return to work. It turns out that 95% of employees and 96% of companies are willing to allow the hybrid workforce.

More Flexibility

The majority of the employees are willing to give up at least one work benefit, for example, vacation time, bonus, or health coverage, if hybrid work arrangement meant having more flexibility in choosing where they could work. Nearly two-thirds of the employees would even consider access to a free desk booking app, co-working, or office space closer to wherever they want, for that matter. This type of flexibility can be achieved through a desk reservation software system.

Also, almost half of the employees are willing to spend for co-working space or invest in a remote office. The majority of the company executives allow the employees to alternate their time spent remotely and in the office using the web based room booking software if their job is suitable to such arrangement. Company executives would even agree to offering an allowance to their staff wanting to work at home or in a co-working space by using a room scheduling software system to set up remote and on-premise workdays.

The Hybrid Workplace and Its Impact on Investors

While most rental businesses lost significant revenue from their office rental business, many companies have downsized their offices, but co-working spaces significantly increased. The use of online scheduling tools can boost their productivity and entice a more agile workforce. Now that employees are returning to their daily office life, they are willing to explore co-working options, including accessing a room reservation website that will keep them productive on their terms.

Now, more than ever, rental spaces providing free conference room scheduling apps can gain an advantage as the survey results reinforced what the pandemic has already made clear – Covid-19 has drastically changed the way we know about the office.

Recreating the Workplace for Hybrid Work Environment

Company leaders are making adjustments to their workplaces to suit the significant shift towards a hybrid work environment. Here are some ways that company leaders are redesigning the office for their hybrid workforce:-

• Mixed Model. Almost half of the companies are transitioning to a hybrid model. A mixed model setup involves permanently assigned desks and some hot desks.
• Hot Desking Model. 14% of the surveyed are leaning towards the hot desking model without any permanent assigned seating.
• Desk Reduction. 18% of company leaders said they reduced their number of desks and have added more meeting spaces to transition into collaborative space for teams to work together.

How do Team Members Perceive Hot Desking Model?

Even before the pandemic began, not all employees are in favor of hot desking practices in their workplace, but statistics show:-

• Only 23% of surveyed companies reported that their employees would prefer their desk over the idea of hot desking
• 19% of company leaders said their employees are neither for or against the concept of hot desking
• 10% of company leaders said their employees are fully embracing the hot desking software system

When employees were asked directly:

• 33% said they like the hot desking model
• 27% said they dislike the hot desking system

Whether to establish hot desking practices will depend on the company leaders to help their team members ease grievances. The hot desking system can help them maximize their spaces while maintaining their staff’s flexibility within their workplace.

Understanding Company Leaders’ Concerns on the Hybrid Workplace Environments

When company leaders were asked the question about their top priority when transitioning back to the office, workplace leaders unanimously answered “keeping team members safe from the virus transmission” and “following the health guidelines recommended by the CDC.”

This answer resonated with the employees’ top priority as safety from contamination was the topmost priority, followed by re-establishing workplace equitability and regaining pre-pandemic productivity.

Hybrid Workforce: A New Beginning For A More Productive Office Team

The major shift toward hybrid workplaces signals a new beginning for a different types of office teams. The hybrid workforce will move away from the traditional five-day, on-premise work week and will implement the flexibility of a hybrid work model. The Microsoft room scheduling software can help the hybrid workforce transition to this new normal office setup. Company leaders must brace through its far-reaching implications on employees’ personal and professional lives. To maximize the hybrid workplace environment, leaders need to impose hybrid workplace etiquette and practices while remaining nimble as they navigate through the challenges of the hybrid work setup of their company and their employees. Using a meeting room reservation system to discuss these changes can brief everyone about the idea.

3 Hybrid Work Setup Challenges to Watch Out for and How to Overcome Them

Companies are testing out the hybrid work set up for the first time as the corporate world slowly returns to the new normal workplace. Although no two organizations maneuver the hybrid work set up the same way, they face similar hybrid work setup challenges.

Here three (3) hybrid work setup challenges to watch out for and the approach strategies to overcome them:-

1: Not enough people are willing to come back and work on-premise

If your company struggles to persuade teams to work in the office, start figuring out what your team members need to come to the workplace. Survey to learn what makes your employees feel comfortable and willing to return to the office. Knowing what your teams need, you can adjust your protocols so your employees will be glad to return to the office using a room and desk scheduling software system.

For example, if your employees are concerned about their health and safety, provide tangible solutions to address their concerns. A desk booking software has a vaccine management feature that allows company admins to monitor vaccinated employees and their subsequent scheduled doses. The room booking system ensures their team members are protected through the social distancing feature, ensuring desks maintain the prescribed distance between workers.

DeskFlex desk and room scheduling system assists companies in implementing hybrid work schedules. It allows employees to schedule their time in the office even days or weeks in advance. This desk scheduling system will help employees plan to meet with work teammates and designate their workstations in the office with the help of a room manager display.

2: Too many employees come back simultaneously at once

Although coming back to the office is a good sign that your employees value the workplace, it can deter health and safety protocols that your company is trying to impose. So focus on redistributing ‘work in the office time’ and ‘remote working’ among your team members using a room booking application. Teams must have a designated day of the week to come into the office. This way, the company can avoid the challenges of having all of the employees come back to the office all at once.

DeskFlex desk scheduling software system enables the hybrid work setup. It allows team members to schedule their days in the office, team meetings, and workstations using the mobile app or the web-browser access while at the comforts of home. With the desk booking software system, both company leaders and team members can view which workstations are available for booking and which desks are already booked.

3: Team members are not maximizing the use of office spaces

There are several reasons why employees are not using areas in the office. One could be because teams are not familiar with the spaces, and another one is that the office space is subjected to certain authorization levels. Consider suggesting these unused spaces for team members to use during a company meeting or when your company is sending out emails to all.

The DeskFlex room booking software has an analytics and reporting feature that can efficiently record and monitor office space utilization to help organizations maximize the use of workspaces. Company leaders can use this feature to generate information about how often employees reserve specific workstations, review on-demand office spaces, the number of confirmed, canceled, and rescheduled reservations, types of equipment requested, peak days or months, and many more critical data related to desk and room booking.

Ultimately, transitioning to a new set will be met with challenges. This transition process holds in the hybrid workplace environment. However, identifying the issues quickly and tackling these challenges early on can help ease your hybrid workforce. As you develop different solutions, you will get closer to optimizing your hybrid workplace for your agile teams.

How Can DeskFlex Hot Desking System Work For the Hybrid Workplace?

As vaccination rollouts accommodate many of the working-class people, employees are returning to their workplaces. However, these employees will not be going back to the way things were; instead, a hybrid workplace will greet them.

A hybrid workplace environment allows employees to schedule their days to work remotely and work at home to comply with the CDC’s recommended health and safety protocols in the office. This shift towards a hybrid office space poses its threats. Company leaders must consider creating a great workplace where their employees will be enticed to return and ensure that they actually “want” to work in the office premises.

DeskFlex hot desk system can help organizations across industries create an agile office that everyone will be thrilled to come back to. The hot desking system organizes team members’ schedules to entice team collaboration in the workplace. Additionally, your staff can reserve desks near their other teammates while still adhering to the safe social distance among desks.

Using the online meeting room booking system, your team members can view, select, modify, confirm, or cancel desk reservations and team meetings. As collaboration is ever valued among teams, the conference room reservation system can help organize safe meetings among groups. DeskFlex comes with a web based desk booking software and mobile app interface that can speed up access to the desk booking system. With the vaccine management software feature, company leaders can monitor their employees’ vaccination status and next dosage scheduling.

Recent surveys revealed that employees want to work most days in the office and work at home for one or two of days. Failing to provide a great hybrid workplace experience will put you at risk of retaining top talents and high employee attrition rates.