The word hybrid means a mixture of two things made into one. For example, a hybrid engine is one that can run on two types of fuels. A hybrid dog is produced from two different breeds of dog. Similarly, a hybrid office combines two different types of offices. Let us understand the hybrid offices in detail. In this post, we will see what is a hybrid office & its pros and cons.
Usually, there are two types of workplaces: a remote workplace and an office workplace.
Remote Workplace
In remote workplaces, employees do their from their home or any other place of their choice, and they do not need to be present physically at a particular place to do their job. This gives flexibility to employees along with the comfort of the place of their choice.
Office Workplace
The office workplaces are more conventional and common. People come to the office at a particular time, and they have to be present there while they do their job. This brings in discipline as offices are made to avoid distractions and promote professionalism.
Now, Let’s find out What is a Hybrid Office?
Hybrid Workplace
Hybrid offices combine these two types of workplaces. This means that the employees have the freedom to choose between remote work and office work. Many times they also have a choice to have a combination of both.
For example, you may be required to report to the office three days a week and work from your home for the remaining days. You may also have the choice to report every day in the morning with your work and then have the freedom to either work in the office or go back home.
Advantages of Hybrid offices
Let us look at some of the advantages of working in a hybrid office:
· Increased Productivity
Working in the same place every day may get boring, consequently reducing the interest in the job. This reduces the productivity of the employees significantly. Hybrid offices eliminate this situation by providing a combination of different workspaces. This helps to increase the overall productivity of the company, creating a win-win situation.
· Personalised to Deliver Best Results
As the employees have the freedom to choose where they work, they have the ability to create the best-personalised work environment. This makes them more efficient and productive, increasing the overall quality of their work.
· Reduced Operational Costs
Having fewer employees at a given time means that you need less office space. This reduces other costs such as electricity and other utility bills. Thus, hybrid offices reduce the overall cost of operation of an office.
Disadvantages of Hybrid Office
After looking at the advantages, let us now look at the disadvantages of hybrid offices:
· Increase in Communication Gap
As in a traditional office, people work together, laugh together, share their ideas and views, which increases the trust between them and reduces the communication gap, which leads to the overall integrity of the company. In hybrid offices, the communication is more purpose-focused as it requires additional efforts like making a call or sending a text message instead of just saying out loud what you are feeling.
· Less Collaborative
People working remotely have very little chance of interacting with fellow employees as compared to someone working in the office. Ideas can no more bounce off different people as they are not working in the same and communicating only when necessary. This reduces the chance for collaboration among the employees as they do not get to know each other or each other’s ideas quite well.
· Increased Cyber Risks
If the employees are working remotely, it means that the company’s resources need to be online. This increases the risks of data breaches from the company’s server as more and more information is exposed to the internet.
· Less Consistency
While working remotely can be more productive for some individuals, it can be a difficult task for many people to maintain a routine while working in the comfort of their homes. This may become counter-productive by decreasing the efficiency instead of increasing it.
Past, Present and Future of Hybrid Offices
Although the concept of hybrid offices has been present for the past several years, it was not embraced so much by the corporate world.
With the Covid-19 pandemic hitting the world, working from home was necessary to keep the companies alive. With the lockdowns relieved partially, the offices had to induce a hybrid-office culture to allow employees to attend offices for essential tasks. Hence, hybrid offices have become more common in the last two years than ever before.
For the future, hybrid offices seem to be more common as the advantages seem to overpower the disadvantages significantly.
Conclusion
Thus, we have seen that hybrid offices are a combination of traditional office workspaces and the modem concept of remote work.
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Which type of workspace do you feel more productive in? Let us know in the comments below.
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