Hybrid workplace is not the answer

As images of Margaret Keenan, the first person in the world to be given the Pfizer COVID-19 jab, are beamed to every TV on the planet, people and businesses start to plan for a return to some form of normality. Many organisations and businesses, slowly coming out of their remote working hibernation, are talking about a hybrid approach to the workplace.

The Hybrid Workplace

A hybrid workplace is where employees typically still work in the office but are also enabled to work from outside of the office, mostly from their home. This has generally triggered the redesigning of office spaces around how many people will be in at the same time. Employers are seeing huge benefits to this as they reduce their real-estate footprint, or cancel building expansion plans. However, what most employers and businesses are missing is that in order for a hybrid workplace to fully work the business has to be run as if it was 100% remote-based. Here’s why…

In a hybrid environment, without the necessary changes, the office still remains the centre of information and operations. It’s the water cooler effect, almost as if serendipity was embedded within your business plan. In a hybrid environment, if you’re not in the office you start to feel that you are missing out, with power skewed towards those spending more time there until ultimately there are two groups within your organisation, those who spend all there time in the office and the rest. Subconsciously, employers reward and measure output based on who’s in the office, being visible more rather than who is performing the best, which incidentally most organisations are unable to currently measure.

Organisations wanting to adopt a hybrid approach need to have a remote-first approach to everything they do, if they don’t they will fail. Here at Bespin Labs we’ve been a remote organisation for over 10 years, we don’t always get things right, but we’ve learnt from some of the best and most successful 100% remote working organisations in the world from Aha, Github, Zapier, Basecamp and many more.

It’s true Google Workspace has helped us transform organisations into remote and hybrid workplaces with chat and video solutions built-in. Implementing a solution like Google Workspace with Bespin Labs, above any other office suite, forces an organisation to work in a different, more collaborative, fashion. But that’s just the beginning, you need to create a culture that is inclusive of the remote worker, turning internal documentation and discussion boards into the centre of information and operations making it a commonplace for both knowledge and communication for office and remote workers alike.

If you’d like to learn more about how Bespin Labs can help you implement Google Workspace and make your organisation ready for the hybrid workplace get in touch.