What are the different Hybrid Work Models?

Hybrid Work Models for your Organization

The Covid-19 pandemic brought many new developments, including the hybrid work model. Combining WFH (work-from-home) and on-site work, hybrid models offer employees more flexibility when it comes to their individual management of time and locations. While 2020 saw a WFH model where many offices were closed, this year and beyond, it is expected that many companies will adopt the hybrid model to decrease costs and increase the productivity and satisfaction of their employees.

A survey in May 2020 showed that 55% of US workers want a mixture of home and office working. With the hybrid model's popularity on the rise, we've outlined a few different setups that embrace this thinking.

• Office-first

  Those working in an office environment will find that most of their time will be spent on-site working directly with their team. Working remotely will only take up a small portion of their hours, so the travel opportunities are smaller. In this setup, companies give employees an allowance for a certain number of home office days they can take monthly.

• Remote-first

  A remote-first job will mean you primarily work outside of the office by yourself. The company you work for will have a physical location that you will need to visit occasionally for reporting or meetings. The rest of your team and co-workers may also have remote work conditions, which would encourage remote meetings over popular platforms like Zoom, Skype, or Microsoft Teams.

• Split teams

  Split teams are a type of distributed workforce that manages to get the best of both worlds by collaborating remotely from two or more different locations. If you have a US company expanding into Europe, your development team may be based in New York, while your marketing team may be in Paris. The teams work in different locations, but together they work remotely to achieve a common goal. Team members could also work on-site in their respective areas, but remote connectivity to teams abroad is still unavailable.

• Hybrid teams

  A hybrid team is one in which most team members are working from a fixed office location, and less than 50% of the employees will be working outside of the office – the latter will occasionally have to come into the office to work with the rest of the team. This model is most flexible regarding collaboration with remote contractors and other third-party vendors. This is also becoming more popular with companies, especially in technology. While more established businesses can be slow at taking a full plunge into remote work, this can be an excellent way to get them started on the right remote track.
  
  Suppose your company is welcoming a hybrid model of work. In that case, it may be essential to adjust operations to establish and encourage group chats and 1:1s for employees to get to know one another, redesign benefits packages that support remote work, and adapt meeting practices to be flexible to team members' locations and time zones.

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