You might have heard about the hybrid office and still wonder what is a hybrid office exactly. Let’s explore in this article with Paperspace. Flexibility is a quality worth embracing by any workplace and employee. Finding the most ingenious ways to complete tasks will help you stand apart from the competition that will result in resounding success. So it’s only right to take things a step further and apply that same flexibility to your company’s office through the Hybrid Office.
What is a hybrid office?
Hybrid Office is a workplace setup that is rooted in an organisation’s workplace culture, behaviour, activities, and connectivity. This involves the creation and evolution of physical office spaces that encourages the return to the office — given that a successful hybrid office design helps improve productivity, collaboration, and social interaction.
The Beauty Of A Hybrid Office Design
A hybrid office calls on organisations to rethink how their spaces can be used. There needs to be a perfect balance between company culture, business goals, and the employees’ needs and priorities. The office could become the ideal home-away-from-home workspace for conducive quiet time or a hub for small productive team meetings.
No longer will half of the office be taken up by individual desks and cabinets. Instead, make way for meeting rooms, extensive collaboration spaces and relevant technological improvements that will make your office space future proof.
There is no doubt the employees enjoy the comfort and convenience of working from home. Thus managing their expectations when returning to the office is just as crucial for organisations to keep in mind.
The Future Of Corporate Workspaces
What is a hybrid office? Well, to sum it up – it is the future that all organisations will have to adapt to. In 2021, Microsoft declared in a work report that “the future of work is here and it’s hybrid”, revealing that 66% of business managers were strongly considering redesigning their offices for hybrid work.
As life returns to normal, why should we retreat back to pre-pandemic norms? It is because although we have realised that working from home is effective, there are limitations to what employees can do remotely.
The physical office shifted towards a more virtual space, however, that also meant a loss in human interaction and natural team dynamics. Embracing a hybrid office design means delivering that perfect mix between our old and new working habits.
Nonetheless, this doesn’t mean that we can simply fall back to the old established routines. Returning to the office is an opportunity to induce new practices into habits that make full use of the hybrid office space, while reaching a compromise with work-from-home habits as well.
In our recent ‘What Office Type Are You?’ survey, 22% of respondents were concerned with losing their flexible work arrangements when returning to the office. A hybrid office can alleviate this. Furthermore, an open mind in design can serve as a strong case to attract new talents who are looking for more flexibility.
Digital transformation and accommodating new employee behaviours are the key factors to ensure employees have their needs met, while aligning added productivity with company business goals.
What is a hybrid office? Visit our Hybrid Office page here for information on its characteristics, designs and more. Or read more about the benefits of hybrid office
