In this guide, we will cover everything you need to know about the hybrid work model.

What is hybrid working?  

A hybrid work or a hybrid job is a flexible work arrangement that allows employees to work remotely and in-person. It combines the benefits of both work styles, giving employees more freedom and flexibility to work how they want.

The difference between hybrid and remote work is that hybrid work allows people to choose their own working style, while remote workforces employees to work in a fully remote position.

Why do workers need to go back to the office? 

The followings are the reasons why people would need to go back to the office:

1. Collaborate and work with colleagues: Employees can do better because they can collaborate to work with live dialogue.  

2. Immediate problem solving: In the office, there are lots of senior staff, and the junior can get instant help from the experienced, so ensuring the new workers work smoothly.    

3. Provides high-quality resources to support better work: In fact, employees need to have regular meetings to set strategies at work, and an office can provide a meeting room for them to have a better presentation with equipment, such as a projector and a professional monitor.  

4. Promote employees’ understanding of their company’s unique culture: The office provides a place for employees to meet. Through regular conversations with experienced employees, new hires can learn more about the company culture. This approach can help them adapt to their new environment and strengthen their sense of belonging.   

5.  The best place for learning and improving skills: An office has many resources available to new employees to enhance their abilities, such as learning knowledge from experienced workers and studies from research reports. 

What are the advantages of hybrid working?

Hybrid working is the best working model to combine the two sides’ opinions, provide both sides’ benefits, and provide workers with work in the office and remote work.

The benefits of the hybrid work model offer for both employees and employers, including:

• Increased flexibility and work-life balance for employees
• Reduced commute time and cost
• Greater productivity and job satisfaction
• Cost savings and increased talent pool for employers

5 types of hybrid work models 

KPMG International Limited (KPMG) conducted research on hybrid work and published the report “Employer trends in the remote work world”. The aim is to help the directors measure the results of implementing the latest work mode and drive better tax outcomes for businesses and the workforce. 

According to that report, hybrid work models can be divided into 5 types: 

1. Permanent hybrid work type: Domestic Remote Working  
   For most hours of remote work, some employees may occasionally be shifted or rotated back to the office. The main purpose of going back to the office is for training, regular meetings, or gatherings.
   
   Example: American Express. 
    

2. Workplace-first hybrid work type: Cross-Border Short-Term Remote Working < 90 Days 
   This type of work means that employees can be abroad for a short period of time for travel/visiting relatives or other reasons within 20-90 days, they can also handle official business at the same time. At the other time, they should go back to the office. 
   
   Example: Google. 
    

3. Workplace-first hybrid work type: Virtual Assignments  
   This approach is most commonly used by people who work in the media or information. Employees might live far from the office/need long-term care at home, then use various virtual tools to conduct online meetings and collaborative work. They finish their work with the cloud system and do not require a return to the office.
   
   Example: Twitter adopted this approach and will allow all employees to work from home. 
    

4. Flexible hybrid work type: Temporary Cross-Border Remote Working > 90 Days  
   This approach provides employees with sufficient flexibility in their work, and even allows employees to work outside of the country for more than 90 days. However, this is not a common practice.
   
   Example: NTT does not require the employees to reside within commuting distance of the office and allows them to decide their work location by themselves. Moreover, NTT will allow employees to commute by plane if they are required to come to the office, and will even pay for their accommodation. 
    

5. Special hybrid work type: Hiring Talents in Another Country  
   Recruiting talents globally, allowing them to work across borders, and not requiring them to return to the office.
   
   Example: Spotify and Airbnb. 

To summarize, the common point is that these models are employee-oriented work styles.

The top priority of the styles is taking care of the well-being of employees, also building a culture based on inclusiveness, empathy, and trust. This is also one of the most important aspects of the hybrid effort. 

How to implement hybrid work model?

Implementing a hybrid work model requires careful planning and communication. Here are some steps to follow:

• Define clear policies and guidelines for remote and in-person work
• Ensure employees have the necessary technology and equipment to work remotely
• Set up regular check-ins and meetings to stay connected with remote employees
• Monitor and measure performance to ensure the hybrid model is working effectively

Setups for employees

To help employees can easily collaborate with others everywhere, these tools are suitable for them: 

Slack: It is a communication platform designed to help teams collaborate and provides a real-time dialog window. It also provides the free version to use, but only has a few functions. 

Teams: The hub for team collaboration in Microsoft 365, integrates the people, content, and tools a team needs to be more engaged and effective.

Microsoft Viva: Powered by Microsoft 365 and it is an employee experience platform that brings together communications, knowledge, learning, resources, and insights in the flow of work.  

Setups for admins

For the admins, the systems should help them take control of all the office equipment and services easily, like the hot desk, rooms, support & service functions, front-desk service, and IoT auto-release functions. 

Hot desking: It provides a flexible working model for your office to adopt a hybrid workspace. Using hot desk booking can greatly reduce your office size, which can save operational costs. 

Meeting Room Booking System:  This software includes capabilities for managing, optimizing, and streamlining the meeting room booking process.   

Support & service functions: Provide full support and service for your office that gives everyone a great smart office experience. 

Front-desk service: It refers to the visitor management system. It can help your receptionists to reduce their workload and provides a streamlined visitor experience for your dear guests. 

Internet of Things (IoT) functions: Supposed the IoT works with workplace hardware, the two items integrated could enable healthy space and occupancy management and provide a great employee experience. 

Tips for successful hybrid work

To make the hybrid work model successful, consider the following tips:

• Establish clear communication channels and expectations
• Foster a culture of trust and autonomy
• Provide opportunities for team bonding and social interaction
• Prioritize mental health and well-being of all employees

Hybrid working: the best solution for the future workplace 

Hybrid work model is a flexible and innovative way of working that can benefit both employees and employers. By following the steps and tips outlined in this guide, you can successfully implement this model in your workplace and enjoy the many benefits it offers.

Implementing hybrid work has lots of benefits for your company and employees, therefore lots of countries and places are implementing hybrid work. So, what are you waiting for? 

Contact us for implementing your own hybrid working office:hello@ones.software, or visit ONES Software official website for more information: https://ones.software/. 

The post Hybrid Working: Definition, Benefits, and Best Practices  first appeared on ONEs Blog.

SNEF Advises to the Singapore companies

The SNEF(Singapore National Employers Federation) recently suggests Singapore companies implement flexible working arrangements (FWA), which is also supported by the Singapore Government.

As we gradually move to a post-vaccination world, working models will likely evolve from remote work to flexible, hybrid work.

This means that employers will have to strategically plan their workforce and work patterns, identify new skills requirements, rethink physical workspaces, and enhance productivity through a greater work-life harmony approach.

SNEF

FWA is a new set of tripartite (Policymakers, employees, and unions) guidelines and the aim is to require employers to consider flexible work arrangement requirements fairly and properly by 2024.

The meaning of a fairly and properly flexible work arrangement is that reminding the directors to decide on the working method should be balanced between the needs of the companies and employees, not only benefits one side.

By the end of 2022, the Singapore Government hopes to increase the voluntary tripartite norm on flexible work arrangements, which is now adopted by companies and covers 27% of all employees, to 40%.

How important is flexible working in Singapore

The Singapore Newspaper – TODAY has interviewed 10 firms, 6 firms said that they would retain their present hybrid work arrangements after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The reason is FWA allows the employees to work more flexibly so that they can arrange the work location, work schedule, and workflow by themselves, which can ensure their workflow is smooth and work efficiently.

Based on the result of TODAY’s survey, Mr. Sim Gim Guan, executive director of the Singapore National Employers Federation, said that there “is no one-size-fits-all approach to work arrangements“.

He also mentioned that the environmental factors and employees’ job demands are changing. Singapore companies need to adopt an approach that can balance the needs between employees and companies.

They can build on the work-from-home arrangement and introduce other types of flexible work arrangements such as staggered working hours and part-time work to cater to the different needs of employees.

Mr. Sim Gim Guan, Executive director at Singapore National Employers Federation

A study by the Institute of Policy Studies in Singapore showed that 83% of respondents said they were more concerned about work-life balance and 81% wanted to spend time with their families. 

42% of workers who prefer flexible work arrangements would consider quitting if they were forced to go to the office most days.

Mr.Sim advised the companies against reverting to pre-pandemic work arrangements, they might face the loss of lots of their talents if the companies don’t implement hybrid working.

This shows how important flexible work is to most employees and that hybrid working can meet the flexibility to work both for staff and companies.

(Learn more about Hybrid work trends in Singapore)

The advantages of hybrid working benefits for the companies

There are lots of Singapore companies that have followed the advice of Mr. Sim that implements hybrid working.

Achieve work-life balance

Mr. Suhaimi Salleh, chief executive officer of training consultancy SSA Group, said that his plan is to introduce an FWA because there are some departments that need to work at the office.

The plan can satisfy both the work-from-home(WFH) and office employees. FWA allows WFH employees to achieve work-life balance and addresses the needs of employees who need to work in an office.

Improve productivity

Ms. Lee Yan Hong, head of the group human resources at DBS bank, said the policy of DBS allowing employees to work from home 40 percent of the time now, also has introduced new initiatives such as “Focus Friday Afternoons”, which is allowing the employees to keep free from internal calls or meetings on Friday afternoons.

“This is our conscious effort as an organization to ensure that our employees have a few hours of protected time for focused work, learning, or even quiet reflection before transiting to the weekend,” Ms. Lee said. This shows that she believes hybrid working can increase employee productivity.

As you can see, hybrid working has many benefits for Singapore companies: it addresses the needs of employees who need to work remotely and in the office and allows employees to achieve work-life balance. Also, it helps to increase employee productivity.

A perfect system for hybrid working in Singapore

A hybrid office should use a comprehensive office management system, which helps Singapore employees use office resources efficiently, such as rooms, desks, and office equipment, and support them to have remote work and virtual meetings with their colleagues in the office.   

If you are the company director in Singapore, using the management systems can help you consider how to reduce the operational cost such as reducing the office workspace and fulfilling the expectations of both employees and administrators. 

ONES, one of the famous smart office management systems, can help you to easily implement hybrid working with ease.  You can easily perform virtual meetings, desk-hoteling, and digital office management with our Room Booking, Desk Booking, and Visitor Management features.  

Contact us: hello@ones.software, or visit ONEs Software official website for more information: https://ones.software/. 

The post The majority of Singapore firms now keep hybrid working due to SNEF advises first appeared on ONEs Blog.