Knowing what it means to operate entirely from office and to work fully remote, A Akshay was happy to function in a hybrid work arrangement his company adopted last December.
Of course, with the surge in Omicron cases the office had temporarily switched back to fully-remote mode.
Though Akshay, whose company deals with investment and financial services, has not got to work sufficiently long in the hybrid work model to be able to rattle off the pros and cons of it, he instinctively feels there is more of the former.
One challenge of being in a hybrid work arrangement is that you have to maintain two workspaces, but the edge of that challenge can be blunted by putting the right technology in the hands of employees.
Amar D, who heads a large team at a multi-national company, echoes that thought.
For Akshay, having a “virtual-desktop” solution on tap, has been helpful in navigating the two-office situation.
On the floor Akshay works on, there are designated desktops marked in green for employees working on a particular day.
Akshay notes that in hybrid work, managers have a lot on their plate, having to draw deeply upon their skill of planning and coordination.
“Managers are allowed a certain number of seats on a particular day depending on the team size. So I once made it a point to inform my manager that I wanted another colleague also to turn up on the same day as me,” says Akshay.
Manager’s task
“More than in a remote-working model, in a hybrid arrangement, managers have to take the effort to reach out to their team, through video conference or phone call,” says Amar.
At present, hybrid model has many cheerleaders for it? Would it fall out of favour, sooner than later?
Maintaining company culture and team camaraderie and ensuring overall employee engagement at all levels are decisive factors in determining the success of any form of hybrid work arrangement, says Amar.
Says Amar: “Hybrid will work if the manager makes it a point to increase the frequency with which they reach out to the team because one cannot always count on running into them in the office. You have to make that time, specifically and individually. Be much more emphatic.”
