By Brandon Cohen.
Hybrid work has been all the rage since the pandemic. The combination of remote work and working in office appeals to many employees, as they feel they get the best of both worlds, as well as employers, who feel they do too. However, the hybrid work environment has many drawbacks that aren’t discussed enough.
Understanding the best fit for your company will allow you to make your employees happy, get the best work out of them, and create the most efficient workspace possible.
Before jumping to follow the hybrid workspace craze, consider these challenges about the hybrid workplace.
1. Utilizing your office space
When everyone’s working in the office, you don’t have to worry about getting the bang for your buck for the space you’re paying for. However, when only half of the company is on-site on a given day, getting the same assessment of your investment is hard. Flexible work may appeal to employees, but it can be difficult for employers to figure out how to utilize the workspace best and planning for those associated costs.
For example, on a given day, you may have three people from accounting, four from sales, two from recruiting, and…..oh wait, no one showed up from HR. Or, you could have everyone from every team!
Of course, there are ways to schedule who comes when, but that’s an extra task on top of the work you’re already doing, and you may face pushback from employees looking for maximum flexibility.
You do not want your investments in office space to go to waste, and unfortunately, utilizing the hybrid workplace often leads to a worse return on your investment for the space you’ve found for your business.
2. Logistical challenges
The hybrid work model has many advantages, but we often neglect the many challenges that come into play as well. For example, when you’re working from home full-time, team members are connected via Zoom or Google Meet, but when employees are hybrid there can be a mix of logistical challenges to manage.
Many companies need to keep the below in mind with a hybrid office:
- Trying to figure out who works remotely vs. who works in person and having adequate in-office coverage as needed.
- Navigating assigning those days to everyone or coordinating everyone’s schedules if they assign them to themselves.
- Connecting remote workers with in-office workers on a daily basis.
- Providing enough physical space for in-office workers without providing too much, to the point where you have tons of empty desks.
Navigating these various challenges can be time-consuming and can take your eyes off the prize.
3. Cultural challenges
When you’re in the office, team members are connected in person. However, when you’re balancing between the two, you may find that the employee experience suffers. Company culture is important, but there’s a high risk of employee burnout when people constantly shuffle between coming into the office and working from home.
Additionally, you’re likely to find a decrease in collaboration between colleagues. People who are in the office may not want to hop on a call with people who aren’t, and vice versa.
That’s besides the various holidays where only half of the team is in to celebrate, the birthdays half of the team misses, and plenty more.
4. Is it cost-effective?
Cost savings are always top of mind for CEOs and other senior leadership at a company. While hybrid work may increase the talent pool you can choose between, hybrid work arrangements can also create a large increase in the amount your company is spending.
Take a typical workday, for example. 50% of your workforce may be in-person, while 50% of your workforce may be online.
With that setup, you not only have to provide a lot of physical space for employees to come into, but you also must provide online tools for those not coming into the office.
Among the expenses:
- A large physical space with meeting rooms (that often won’t be filled) just in case in-office workers need them.
- Office supplies for those working in-office.
- Wi-fi for those working in-office.
- Messaging apps for those working from home to be able to communicate with those working in-office (and other remote workers).
- These can include anything from Slack to different Microsoft apps (such as Microsoft Teams) to plenty more. The costs add up!
As you can see, hybrid work may be enticing to employees, but for employers, it’s pricey. While you may be able to brainstorm some ways to keep the costs down, there’s only so much you can do without impacting the day-to-day success of your employees.
So, while we often banter about the pros and cons of hybrid working, the disadvantages of hybrid work are real. That may not be enough to persuade remote employees on their given remote days to come into the office, but if you haven’t yet committed to such an arrangement, there’s a lot to consider.
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Brandon Cohen is a writer at Biz2Cedit, an online financing provider that equips small businesses with the best funding options for each and every project or capital need, with technology that makes business financing easy to understand and easy to access.
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Tags: Firm Management, Payroll, Staffing
