Remote or office work? Try to make a hybrid model work | Employment & Management - North Bay Business Journal

For some companies, allowing remote work to continue can produce better results, writes Nicole Serres of Star Staffing.

A lot of employees are happy with their new remote work arrangement, but what about the other half that would rather go back to the office?
Photo: Vera Petrunina / Shutterstock

It’s been more than one year since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 an international emergency and mandatory lockdowns were enforced across the world.

Many companies that weren’t already accustomed to working remotely were forced to leave their offices and digitize their workforce and processes. Needless to say, hiring was majorly affected as well.

In a lot of ways, this March doesn’t feel too different compared to the year before...

Transitioning back to the office

The feasibility of continuing to operate in work from home protocol will determine the future of many companies’ working structures.

The fact is, some industries simply don’t support remote working environments as much as others do.

For those preparing to return back to the office, consider bringing in some habits from the “work from home era” such as:

1. Trust your employees

If there’s anything that the pandemic has demonstrated to us, it’s that managers have needed to become accustomed to not physically being in-person to oversee projects. They’ve needed to instead look to project completion as a determinant of hard work, rather than relying on in-office presence.

2. Communicate, communicate, communicate

Continue over-communicating and offering support once “things are back to normal” - you never know if a coworker might need extra help transitioning back to in-office life after being away from it for so long.

3.Consider a hybrid model

It’s true that a certain level of freedom is provided when employees are given the opportunity to work from home. Instead of taking that fully away from them, consider allowing a day or two out of the workweek for employees to work from home if they’d like to.

As long as the productivity levels remain the same, it shouldn’t cause too much of a difference for your company’s operations.

Besides, it may be beneficial to have in-person meetings and collaboration to take place in the office, and focused, independent work to be completed at home.

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Source: North Bay Business Journal