Hybrid Workplace Model: Bridging the Digital Divide

So, if anyone ever told you some ten years ago, that you could literally “work from home”, I’m sure that you probably wouldn’t have given it so much thought. Well! Voila! We’re here doing just that today and that’s to say that a whole lot can happen in the space of a decade. Today, you could be attending a deal-breaking meeting from the comfort of your living room, all thanks to technology.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, creative adjustments to life and work came into being birthing the “new normals”, albeit with corresponding uncertainties. One of these innovations was the hybridization of the workplace model; the synchronization of remote work, and, in-office work models. Today, through the eyes of hindsight, it’s safe to say that the possibilities inherent in working remotely are more than could have been imagined. During the pandemic, remote work afforded employees the opportunity of spending more time with their loved ones and, saving up the time and money that could have been expended on commuting to and fro workplaces. Technology solutions such as the Cloud Hosted Virtual Desktops proved quite helpful for remote staff boosting their level of productivity. These benefits are still applicable in the post-pandemic era. However interesting as these privileges have been, there has also been the concern about how the remote work model is affecting employees’ work-life balance. Davoine (2021) shares that despite some form of improved productivity; there have been the complaints of inequality, neglect and the blurring of the personal and professional lives of employees who worked remotely. Advocates for a return to the full physical workplace arrangement have further stated the decline in social relationships and mentorship as setbacks of remote work.

Post-pandemic, many employers have come to fully embrace the hybrid workplace model on a permanent basis. An implication that an organization could wholly operate with some of its staff working from home and some others from the physical workspace, either on a permanent or on a rotational basis. This innovation has however resulted in a fall-out; a sense of inequality among the hybrid or distributed workforce. This digital divide has become a widening gap that’s fast threatening the sustainability of the future of work.

Digital Divide Explained

Digital divide as contextually used implies the ensuing gap, biases and inequalities between an organization’s hybrid workforce as a result of differences in where they work from, their work time, as well as the access to an organization’s resources and management’s support.

The hybrid workplace model proffers some flexibility but also calls for cautious implementation to prevent unnecessary issues of contentions and inequity. Organizations must ensure that work solutions that will enable seamless collaboration, access to resources and, equality are put in place for the satisfaction and productivity of the entire workforce (Akbar, 2022).

Shrinking the Digital Divide

Given the shift in contemporary workspace model, it is important that commensurate strategies are well devised and implemented to close the gap accentuated by these new realities. Here are a few strategies:

1. Provision of Collaborative Technology Solutions: Akbar (2022) posits that organizations need to advance technologies that improve the work experience of the distributed workforce irrespective of how they access an organization for efficient delivery and outcome. An organization should ensure the availability of collaboration suite that assures of tools for seamless activities such as whiteboarding, video conferencing, messaging, and external calling across workplaces. The collaborative platform should also ensure policy enforcement for the management of the workforce and their access to resources.

2. Flexible and Secured Access: Access to an organization’s resources and support is required for the optimal performance of any workforce. While it is important that the access is flexible it shouldn’t be such as compromises the security of the organization’s data.

3. Improved Employee Engagement: Building a sustainable workplace culture is a centerpiece of any organization. This is still achievable among a distributed workforce with the aid of collaborative technologies. Lazar (2023) shares that with applications such as Roam, Microsoft Viva, Workplace by Meta and Zoom Huddles among others, remote and on-site employees can recreate and share the social relationships obtainable in a physical workspace. Organizations are also leveraging team building games and informal conversational applications to foster engagements among employees irrespective of their locations.

4. Development of a More Flexible Schedule: Employers should encourage an in-house work arrangement that enables a beneficial work-life balance and accommodates the peculiarities and preferences of employees such as their individual level of technology compliance, job description and, their home-office commute time. MacBride (2024) posits that 74% of employees would prefer to work from home at least three days a week.

5. Building a People-Centric Work Model: Beyond building a modern work structure, employers must focus more on its personnel. A sustainable hybrid workplace model emphasizes a top-down approach and an empathy-based management where meeting the needs of employees is prioritized (MacBride, 2024). For instance, the well-being of employees can be catered to when organizations enforce regular wellness programs and breaks (Quixy Editorial Team, 2024).

6. Adopting a Performance-Oriented Assessment Model: Employee assessment has often focused on indices like how regularly they were early to and present in a physical office. Maintaining an equitable work environment would require a shift towards evaluating staff based on their performance and productivity. This will present employers’ commitment to equity, diversity and, inclusion in an intentionally designed work environment.

Why this Divide needs to be Bridged

Research has proven that employee performance and the overall organizational productivity are dependent on work flexibility, equitable opportunities, workspace conduciveness, the independence to explore creative solutions and especially, a happy workforce (Lazar, 2023). One of the benefits of embracing the hybrid work arrangement is for the opportunity to balance the work-life experiences of employees. Extant studies show that many of the distributed workforce enjoy an improved mental well-being.

Moving forward, the shifts in contemporary workplace model means organizations have to put forward an intent-based workplace flexibility to attract and retain the best hands for the jobs. Consequently, office spaces with a combination of synchronous and asynchronous collaboration solutions must be developed to equally cater to the corporate and social needs of the distributed workforce for the best of employee-client experience and business growth.

Implementing a hybrid work model also affords businesses a reduction in overhead costs like real-estate, maintenance and, utility expenses.

However, it’s best when organizations can identify which of the hybrid work model works for them for easy implementation. Quixy Editorial Team (2024) highlights five types of the hybrid work model based on three perspectives:

1. Work Culture

• At-Will/ Remote-First 
•  Office-First 

2. Scheduling

• Week-by-Week 
•  Split-Week 

3. Categorization of Employees 

• Designated Teams (on-site/remote) 

Conclusion

Given the unreserved acceptance that the hybrid work model has enjoyed, there’s no doubt that it’s here to stay. It only behooves employers, employees, and, stakeholders to fully harness the potentials of this work evolution to build a balanced work system where equity and equality thrive for improved employee well-being and performance, client satisfaction, and, sustained organizational productivity. One of such ways is to leverage cloud technology and collaborative solutions for an efficient, productive, and inclusive work environment wherever and whenever.

Reach out to Telliswall Inc. for your secure and reliable cloud technology services, collaborative tools, and, other related solutions fitting for the work and social engagement needs of your workforce. We guarantee a policy-based structure for an efficient, adaptive, inclusive, modern, and, digital hybrid workspace for satisfactory staff-client experience and business growth.

References

Akbar, R. (2022). Minding the Gap – Navigating the Hybrid Work Digital Divide https://blogs.cisco.com/partner/minding-the-gap-navigating-the-hybrid-work-digital-divide

Andrade, S. (2024). Bridging the Gap: Achieving DEI through Hybrid Work https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2024/01/29/bridging-the-gap-achieving-dei-through-hybrid-work/

Davoine, Q., (2021). Is your Hybrid Working Model Creating a Digital Divide? https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/your-hybrid-working-model-creating-digital-divide-quentin-davoine

Lazar, I. (2023). Digital Workplace – Bridging the Hybrid and Remote Work Divide https://www.nojitter.com/digital-workplace/bridging-hybrid-and-remote-work-divide

MacBride, J. (2024). Bridging the Divide with Human-centric Hybrid Workspaces https://itwire.com/guest-articles/guest-opinion/bridging-the-divide-with-human-centric-hybrid-workspaces.html

Quixy Editorial Team (2024). Digital Workspace: 5 Types of Hybrid Workplace Model and how to Implement them        https://quixy.com/blog/types-of-hybrid-workplace-model/

Staton, N. (2022). How to Build Connections: Team Building in a Hybrid Workplaces https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/08/10/how-to-build-connections-team-building-in-a-hybrid-workplace/