What is Crisis Management?

According to a new McKinsey survey of 100 executives* from various industries and across different locations, nine out of ten firms will combine remote and on-site working in the post-pandemic future of work. During the epidemic, production and consumer satisfaction have both concurrently increased, according to the report.

In light of this news, Microsoft is working on a new version of Outlook, its email service, in anticipation of the broad adoption of hybrid working, in which people split their time between home and work. A new MS Outlook feature will ensure staff can collaborate across different working environments. Every day, it seems, a major corporation makes a new announcement about its ‘future of work' plan, and experts seem to agree that hybrid is the way to go.

At Ascento, we have embraced remote working and now we’re moving towards hybrid working when required. Many companies and their teams have spent months analysing policies and strategising on how and, more critically, where the workforce might resume some kind of normalcy following the pandemic.

So to help you and our client base, we’ve put together 10 tips on how to make hybrid working work for you, so here goes:-

So to help you and our client base, we’ve put together 10 tips on how to make hybrid working work for you, so here goes:-

1. One to one sessions - To begin with, schedule one-on-one sessions with your personnel in order to better understand their requirements. While some people benefited from the flexibility of working from home, others might require face-to-face interaction in the workplace.
2. HR policies - Ensure you communicate clearly with your employees or partners. Communicate your expectations and develop HR policies to clarify how and where your employees could work, and established flexible working hours, all while ensuring that employees were held accountable at specific times.
3. Technology that serves - Put money into the right technology to ensure employees have more autonomy, whilst bridging the physical and digital worlds so they can work efficiently no matter where they are.
4. Virtual and the physical - On an office-by-office basis, tailor your policies to the wants and needs of our employees. We now have a full understanding of remote working, virtual gatherings and online meetings. Now is the time to consider flexible practices and solutions that can work for teams and collaboratively within companies moving forward.
5. Personal development no matter what - Continue to train staff no matter where they work the most ‘hybrid wise’, this is in light of a survey by Lane4 consultancy* suggesting that almost three in 10 employees received no training to support their professional development while working in a hybrid environment.
6. Treat everyone right - Consciously remember staff who work remotely within your business structures and practises, since the Office for National Statistics suggested employees who worked predominantly from home were less likely to receive bonuses or pay rises.
7. Flexibility matters - Try to think differently or outside of the box as physical space and remote interactions will continue to play a significant and relevant role in our workplace culture, thus for the time being, a model that gives individuals more flexibility in where they work is likely to be the best option. It is also critical that businesses alter their workplace environment to make it a place where people can collaborate rather than just work for the sake of working.
8. Cyber proofing - As a matter of urgency, business leaders must examine corporate resilience and cybersecurity initiatives. It is critical that they consult their personnel. According to IBM, 'human mistake' is responsible for 95% of successful cyber-attacks. Ensure this process is consultative to strengthen working relationships with staff, thus meaning less costly mistakes happen in future.
9. Customers needs and wants - If you work in B2C, try to evolve everything as leaders must think more like customers and assess if current products and services are satisfying changing demands and expectations.
10. Survey your staff - Ensure that you field the opinions of your staff via employee opinion surveys and digital focus groups to understand how our people are feeling, what matters most to them and what support they may need. This means you are always in touch with how people are feeling and you can work quickly to resolve anything that arises.