Tools to help you embrace a hybrid workforce

“Hybrid workforce” seems to be the new buzzword floating about at the moment, and it doesn’t come as a surprise. After the past 12 months, it’s inevitable that the way we work has changed for the foreseeable, and in our eyes it’s changing for the better.

We’ve always been advocates for flexible working and we believe that one of the positives to come out of these lockdowns is that many organisations have seen that their business can function just fine without having all staff members in the workplace. So why should we all rush back into the traditional way of working? It’s time to embrace flexibility and shift to a hybrid workforce in 2021 and beyond.

In a survey conducted by Cisco, 77% of large organisations said they will now increase flexibility moving forwards. Smaller organisations can do the same with the right tools in place, which leads us on to today’s blog. Below are some tools we recommend to help you embrace a hybrid workforce this year.

Cloud

Blast from the past you might be thinking, but if you are still running infrastructure and services from your offices and dealing with clunky and slow connectivity over VPN, now is the time to make the leap to the cloud. A good IT solutions provider should be able to talk you through this, plus these services are generally great value for money now.

If you are worried about security, don’t be. Partner with the big brands such as Microsoft and the Google’s of the world and you’ll be in safe hands.

SaaS

If you are not familiar with the term SaaS, it stands for “Software as a Service” or software tools that are available from the cloud (last time we’ll say that in this blog). You have tools for everything from CRM, finance, stock management, communications, wellbeing, the list goes on - you name it there’s an app for it. Some of them are included below.

SaaS solutions will enable your hybrid workforce to achieve their tasks and collaborate with the business and their team wherever they are. It can be a time zapper looking for software, so address the important processes that may not be working so well in your current hybrid world.

Tip: Download some trials, then book in some demos of the ones you like.

Virtual communication

In the above Cisco survey, it was reported that 98% of meetings will expect to have at least one remote participant. Over the past year, we’ve all seen how productive virtual meetings can be (minus the odd child or pet distractions here and there), so let’s keep them going. If a meeting doesn’t need to be face-to-face, save time on travel by jumping on a video call. Plus, this will be a huge benefit to the environment with fewer vehicles on the road. Another bonus that came from last year.

There are so many video communication tools out there such as Zoom , Microsoft Teams and Google Meet, which are all great for meetings with colleagues and clients. For those quicker conversations with colleagues, Slack is another great tool, and one that we’d personally recommend here at Sign In App.

Task management

A fear many have with a hybrid workforce is that productivity levels will start to slip. But we believe that productivity can be boosted by embracing the new modern style of working and allowing employees to work where they feel most productive. Task management tools are an excellent way to keep track of tasks and projects, to see who’s working on what or what tasks are in progress, etc.

There are different task management tools on the market so find the one that works best for your organisation. A few that we suggest include Monday.com, Trello, Jira or simply get creative with a spreadsheet on Google Sheets.

Employee sign in

In the earlier mentioned survey , 97% of the workforce said that they wanted changes for a safer working environment. A visitor management and employee sign in solution can be the perfect tool to accompany your health and safety processes while managing a hybrid workforce. Some solutions have the capability to allow staff to sign in and out from their personal smartphone whether working remotely or on-site.

Health and safety features included in visitor management and staff sign in systems can also help to streamline your processes and help your employees to feel confident when returning to work. Features may include health screening questionnaires, sign in rejections or messages and policies.

Desk booking

As employees split their time between working remotely and in the office, you may find that having set desks is no longer a requirement. It’s likely to be rare that you reach full office capacity when embracing the hybrid working concept and so it’s the perfect opportunity to reimagine your office space. As part of this, you may decide to introduce hot desking in your organisation and a desk booking solution can make this easy to implement and manage; if the same solution also includes the ability to book meeting rooms, that’s even better. A desk and meeting room booking solution such as Spaces by Sign In App allows your employees to book their spaces in advance or on the day through the smartphone Companion app.

It’s time to put traditional styles of working behind us and start embracing the modern workplace where we can with new technology and hybrid workforces, and we’re encouraging our community to feel confident in doing this and creating a safe and enjoyable work environment.

To find out more about Sign In App visitor management and staff sign in, and how our solution can help you embrace a hybrid workforce, get in touch with the team; you can find all of the ways to contact us here.