Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 40

Hybrid Working
The Synchronized and
Seamless Dance of Hybrid Working
When it's handled correctly, hybrid
is inarguably a superior model for
organizations that want to be future
ready. By David Smith
SUMMARY: Hybrid working requires prioritizing people,
flexibility, the right technology tools and workspace design in a
synchronized and seamless dance to positively impact well-being
and business outcomes.
Hybrid working is not some distant future of work; instead,
it is truly our present reality. It combines remote and
in-person work, where employees can work remotely or
at home for part of the week and come into one or more
physical office locations the rest of the week. This mixed- and
distributed-work model begins to blur societal and business
impacts. Because of this, organizations planning and executing
strategies must understand the benefits and challenges
of hybrid work, as well as the technology tools and infrastructure
required to support it. Organizations that think it is solely
about throwing webcams at employees and mandating that
they come into the office three out of five days a week are
destined to fail.
The world's workplaces and work cultures have dramatically
changed. As we all know, the global pandemic shifted
where and how people work. More specifically, it brought
greater power to people to decide for themselves how they
want to work. Organizations must be future ready by understanding
the potential impacts of this shift. It will be a
balancing act of trying to reap the benefits while mitigating
any adverse effects.
Hybrid working has a complex and multifaceted set of
direct implications. Organizations must communicate upfront
with employees, sharing their plans and goals for hybrid working.
There must be clear definitions so that everyone is on the
same page. This new way of working is a cultural shift, and the
culture is the people. Organizations must set expectations
and clearly outline not only technology and equipment but
also what new policies, processes and procedures they will
implement.
Get the Technology Right
From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, videoconferencing
has been the universal communications medium for business
continuity. It was the solution when we were all forced
to work from home. I've been a communications and collaboration
analyst for many years, and, during that time, many
other technologists and I have been touting the benefits of
video. Still, it took a global crisis to expose a collective need
and serve as the catalyst for widespread adoption -
specifically, video facilitated virtual meetings when face-toface
meetings were not possible.
But in order for hybrid working to be successful in the face
of historical resistance, organizations must act. One critical
component is providing access to the right technologies and
networks to easily enable employees to work equally well
from remote and corporate-office locations. Another essential
element is retraining supervisory staff on how to manage
hybrid-working teams.
To ensure successful hybrid-working environments, organizations
must make investments of time and money in the
following tools and areas:
○ videoconferencing for real-time collaboration
○ team chat and messaging for persistent and contextual
collaboration
The goal of hybrid-workspace design should always be to
create a flexible, comfortable and inclusive environment
that supports the needs of all employees.
40
Commercial Integrator MARCH 2023
○ cloud content and storage services for easy access to
shared collaborative documents, files and outputs
○ remote-access tools (virtual private networks) so employcommercialintegrator.com
GORODENKOFF/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
http://www.commercialintegrator.com

Commercial Integrator March 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Commercial Integrator March 2023

Commercial Integrator March 2023 - Cover1
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - Cover2
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 1
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 2
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 3
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 4
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 5
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 6
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 7
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 8
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 9
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 10
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 11
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 12
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 13
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 14
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 15
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 16
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 17
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 18
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 19
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 20
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 21
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 22
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 23
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 24
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 25
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 26
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 27
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 28
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 29
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 30
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 31
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 32
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 33
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 34
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 35
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 36
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 37
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 38
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 39
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 40
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 41
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 42
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 43
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 44
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 45
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 46
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 47
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 48
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 49
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 50
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 51
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 52
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 53
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 54
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 55
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 56
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 57
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 58
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 59
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 60
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 61
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 62
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 63
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - 64
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - Cover3
Commercial Integrator March 2023 - Cover4
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/august_2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/july_2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/june_2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/may_2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/april_2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/march_2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/february_2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/january_2023
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/december_2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/november_2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/october_2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/september_2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/august_2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/july_2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/june_2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/may_2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/april_2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/march_2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/february_2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/january_2022
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/december_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/november_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/october_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/september_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/august_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/july_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/june_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/may_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/apr_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/march_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/february_2021
https://www.nxtbook.com/emerald/commercialintegrator/january_2021
https://www.nxtbookmedia.com