2021 Guide to execute Remote Work & Collabs  

It’s 2021, and yes! – we plan a Return to Work. But technically, it’s not a Return to Work. It’s more of embracing a new way to work.

The word “return” indicates familiarity – puts one in a state of Nostalgia as to how we used to work.

No matter where you are in the world – the entire work culture is changed owing to the ongoing pandemic. On the one hand, most of us are at home (living + working) while others have started their Return to Work either wholly or partially.

2020 has changed our lifestyle, health, and work habits drastically. We may notice a few changes, but few changes are nuanced and subtle to be classified as change.

Take, for example, our 9-5 work routine. It no longer exists, and we didn’t get to give it a farewell. Our new & improved (debatable) work routine for over 4-6 months has wholly re-wired our brain when it comes to Work, Life, and Work-Life balance. The commute to work has been completely erased from our lives, and so is the time that one used to take to transition from Work to Home or vice versa.

The bottom line is – even if you have the same team throughout the pandemic. Fundamentally your same team (pre-pandemic) will not return to work – which you will greet instead is a team of re-wired individuals who have embraced the new way of work.

A home that was once a safe sanctuary from work has become an integral place where work happens. Distractions, Work-Life Balance Myopia, Shared Internet or Hotspotting (using internet data from mobile-phone), and Lack of proper infrastructure are the realities faced by your team members.

Home as a place for work is one of the main parts of “The New Hybrid Workplace.” However, it just forms 1/3rd of the part of the entire equation.

Let’s define the Hybrid workplace and see its components:

What do Businesses want?

COVID-19 exposed us to many Business challenges. We all understood and digested the fact that business as usual can’t be run as usual.

No two questions spotlight the worries of a Business as follows –

• Can my Employee be Productive and continue to impact the business positively?
• How do we ensure that our fragmented workspace unites and promotes Collaboration, Connection, and Company Culture?
  
  These complex questions require quite nuanced answers. For sure, Zoom calls are not the solution for every problem. And managing a team of people across countries, offices, and homes can be a tricky proposition.

It’s clear that technology is the solution. However, it must act as a layer on top of the human dynamics of a company.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at the Hybrid Workspace

There are 3 Main Parts of the Hybrid Workspace. It should facilitate Remote Work (Enable Employee Productivity)

• Provide Secure & Reliable Connectivity
• Share Access to Important Data
• Enable Streamlined Communications
  
  Remote work is a viable and much-needed solution. However, India has its own set of problems when it comes to Work from Home.

Why is WFH in India problematic?

The Indian Home is unoptimized for an actual “work from home.” We made it work. However, most of the team members are either not productive or facing burnout. The reason is small living space with little square feet only allows for so much furniture. For sure, you will not find a desk space in a typical Indian home.

The tech infrastructure – mainly a good internet connection is also a challenge and an added overhead to the Indian Household. Further, the entire family would use the internet owing to a limited bandwidth reserved for work.

In a typical Indian household, joint families exist. The living area is where everyone congregates typically, and that’s mainly the area most likely to be used as a home office. This means lots and lots of distractions such as family discussions, lunch, dinner, tea time gatherings, doorbell ringing throughout the day, and clashes between Work from Home or Learn from Home.

Solutions for the Indian WFH situation. Provide Secure & Reliable Connectivity

The budget saved on the commute can be utilized to get better internet connectivity. Certain companies can introduce a monthly budget towards an employee’s internet services, adding to the existing fee to upgrade internet connectivity.

Share Access to Important Data & Enable Communications The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of unified communication services like zoom, Microsoft teams, Slack, and cloud storage solutions used for storage such as Google Drive, Teams, and more.

It should allow one to work Anywhere (Agile workplace strategy)

Work from home is undoubtedly an essential piece of the puzzle. However, Work from Anywhere is the next iteration that can boost productivity in the Indian ecosystem.

The good news is the development of the real estate industry that has seen the emergence of Co-working places throughout the metropolitan areas. Co-working spaces offer a sanctuary for the Remote worker to access commercial spaces primed for providing the much-needed infrastructure with the proper ergonomics, internet, and unlimited supply of coffee.

One could also book in huddle rooms for a private meeting or even offer clients to come and meet them for a small discussion. The experience will be like your office, away from your office.

Here are simple ways in which Organizations can implement Work from Anywhere

• Introduce work passes for co-working spaces in the city
• A 50-50 payment plan to score a win-win situation for the company and the employee
• Invest in suitable hardware for employees so they can communicate on the fly

Safe return to work

The Modern Workplace has changed, and the office can become a place where employees gather on certain pre-scheduled days and times for a few full sprints of work. Rather than spending most of their time at work. Employees can schedule their times and meetings to be more productive while maintaining social distancing norms and more.

• To ensure Business Continuity
• Regular Health Checks
• In case an employee is unwell – it can be pre-detected and ensure safety for all
• Optimize usage of meeting rooms, devices, electricity

Modern Tech for a modern Hybrid workplace

The new hybrid office is a space that adapts, reconfigures space to implement collaboration, maintains social distancing, maintains a lower but healthy headcount, and allows for early detection of COVID-19.

Virtual collaboration spaces are also required to ensure a free communication flow between employees and those at home or anywhere.

This naturally calls for solutions that can enable Desk Management for individual employees attending the office, Room Schedulers for collaboration or meetings, and Visitor Management systems to help navigate the visitor or inform the team. A robust solution like GoBright provides this and much more. Take a look at the video, and you will understand – how the future of workplace collaboration can become a reality for you.

Some vital stats about the Hybrid Workplace

• 75% see the pandemic accelerating its transformation
• 60% say their current top concern is to keep employees safe and productively employed
• 78% employees want to Work from Home some of the time
• 56% of employees want to Work from Home all the time

The Hybrid Workplace is the need of the hour, and more importantly, it is the way we will be working for the coming few years. As long as teams can accomplish work, organizations will be more than welcome for this change. One significant upside to this is there are no workplace geographical limits, and one can now hire a global workforce. This means more perspectives, access to global markets, and international offices in the cloud.

If you are an organization transitioning from a conventional workspace to a hybrid workspace or doubt how you can implement the ideas mentioned above. Do get in touch – write to us at priyanka.dave@allwaveav.com