With the COVID-19 pandemic exposing the cracks in the old work models and triggering an unprecedented great resignation phenomenon, a series of drastic changes affecting businesses is bound to follow.

A YouGov survey on over 500 C-level executives from the US and UK revealed that 71 percent of business leaders felt under pressure to change working models to make room for greater flexibility.

According to Linked, the “great reshuffle” is the result of both employees and employers rethinking and re-evaluating their needs and values while meeting each other halfway.

Like all changes, it may not come easy, but LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky believes it’s an opportunity to rewrite existing playbooks to create a more efficient and fulfilling work environment.

“It will allow people to gravitate towards jobs more suited to their skills, interests, and personal lives. It could change the fundamentals of not just how we work, but why we work,” he said.

A 2021 “Well-Being Report” published by LinkedIn showed that work-life balance and excellent compensation are the top two factors that employees consider when joining an organisation.

The demand for greater flexibility calls for a hybrid work model, where a certain number of employees at certain days of the week can either work onsite or remotely.

To date, more companies are accepting the hybrid work model, with around 58 percent of business leaders saying it will be good for both people and business.

Tailored hybrid solutions

At this point, everybody knows that the hybrid model works, but the larger question is how this solution fits into the organisation’s vision and goals.

Flexibility might be the main objective, but companies will still need to consider hybrid solutions that are tailored to their specific needs.

A McKinsey study on the post-pandemic workforce identified 4 hybrid models based on a company’s need for access to talent, individual and team productivity, and real estate cost.

• A partial remote model with a couple of big principal offices would attract more employees and increase productivity but would still have some hefty real estate costs.
• Meanwhile, a partial remote model with multiple “work hubs,” instead of a big headquarters, may lower real estate costs without limiting access to talent and reducing productivity.
• Another model, which involves having “micro hubs” or small-footprint workspaces located across different regions, would not only cut real-estate costs but also widen the reach for talent.
• Lastly, a partial remote work model using rented or temporary co-working spaces for collaborative work is seen to improve access to talent and reduce real estate costs the most.

Organisations, however, should understand that the perfect hybrid model will always depend on their size, goals, and nature of business.

Financial firms, for example, may need a headquarters to secure valuable data, more than “micro hubs,” but an education technology company can work with a hybrid setup consisting of co-working spaces.

A workplace that goes beyond work

A LinkedIn Insights report published in 2021 revealed that 87 percent of employees prefer to work remotely at least half of the time.

Given this, organisations may want to rethink the uses of their offices in a hybrid model, going from cubicle-oriented workspaces to a more collaborative area.

Inge Zwick, Executive Director at offshore outsourcing firm Emapta, expects offices to be utilised more for team meetings and social interactions since most of the individual work would likely remain at home.

“If you need to go twice a week to the office, those will be the days when you closely socialise with your colleagues, something you can’t really do at home,” she said.

Offices and work hubs will be crucial in sustaining social cohesion and eventually shaping company culture in a hybrid setup since employees are likely to go to the office once or twice a week.

Dave Hilborn, Managing Director at West Monroe Partners, said organisations should be very “intentional” about utilising their workspaces.

“Organisations need to be very intentional about bringing people into the office together for culture-building, team-planning, training, and collaboration,” he told Society for Human Resource Management.

The hybrid model would only be effective if it inspires confidence among the workforce, which means that organisations must update their company policies to suit the new normal of business.

There must be a clear policy on testing, vaccination, onsite sanitation, ventilation, and use of facilities to make sure the workplace, even if seldom used, is a safe space.

Adopting new technologies

While a hybrid framework sounds promising, it does not come without challenges, and in the list of hurdles in this model is technology.

Finding a system that will allow people to both work at home and report to the office on some days will require huge investments.

Organisations may have to transition to cloud-based storage and systems, collaborative digital platforms, mobile solutions, and home-office hardware as their new standard.

Desktops and strong office connections will no longer be enough in the new normal, and companies will have to focus on powerful laptops and multiple network redundancies to support hybrid work.

Moreover, businesses have to thoroughly evaluate the security merits of their on-site and cloud-based solutions to maintain cyber resiliency.

With more data access points, the risk of the breach on sensitive and private data will increase without an IT framework tailored for the hybrid model.

Some early adopters of the hybrid model implemented a zero-trust security framework, which uses multiple authentication and authorisation levels, among others, to secure assets.

After careful evaluation, what companies can do is to consult a cyber security specialist or a credible vendor to help them plan a secure hybrid and mobile work environment.

The ‘great skill gap’

One of the bigger challenges that organisations face in making a successful “great reshuffle” transition is the great skills gap.

A 2021 Mckinsey report revealed that 87 percent of companies are either facing or expecting a problem in lack of talent.

Most companies responded by “skill-building” – the process of reskilling existing employees to address their current needs.

Skill-building is a great way to address the talent gap, but organisations might overlook another solution that can fit well in the flexible world that comes after the “great reshuffle” – tapping global talent.

Since a hybrid work model leverages the benefits of both on-premises and remote work arrangements, companies can explore outsourcing to talent-rich regions.

Top outsourcing destinations like the Philippines offer a deep and diverse pool of talent that is otherwise scarce in the company’s immediate location.

Besides talent, experienced offshore outsourcing partners offer workspaces that can fit the exact hybrid setup an organisation wants to adopt. They can also build hybrid teams to address specific business needs and reduce manpower costs.

Because offshore providers source talent in countries with a relatively lower cost of living, companies could save resources and invest them in other important aspects of their business.

The bottom line is that the “great reshuffle” is already upon us, and since the “hybrid” is the way to the future, organisations might as well take advantage of all the flexible solutions available moving forward.

Emapta is an Australian-owned and managed knowledge-based staffing platform operating across the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Vietnam. We help organisations make successful transformations by providing access to premium talent and business outsourcing solutions.