Hybrid working model – How it can be applied

                                              

The covid-19 pandemic has created a new normal life for both people and organizations despite the dynamic changes taking place in the organizational environment due to emerging sophisticated technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Robotic Process Automation, cloud computing, data driven culture and much more. The new operating models have been created for today and future by this sudden unexpected Covid – 19 pandemic, making plans made prior 2019 outdated. (Przytuła, S. et al, 2020)

The follow-up survey done based on 80,000 Fujitsu’s Japan based employees revealed that 55% of them preferred a mix of home and office working model after they were working from home for two and half months despite the fact that 74% employees considered the office to be the best place to work not long before the pandemic. (Gratton, 2021). The Graph 1 shows the graphical representation of the result of survey.

                             

Google, CISCO, Apple, Accenture and American Express are some of the companies that allowed hybrid working model in their workplaces. Hybrid does not only mean a choice between working in an office or remote working from home, instead “It’s about the seamless alignment of both in-person and virtual settings in innovative ways designed to strengthen both individual and collective performance capacities” (Roy, 2022). Further it is a blended model where some part of the employees work from office and some employees work from home in same organization (Beno, 2022).

Hybrid working model will have both plusses and minuses for the organization and for the employees it-self. It will eliminate the physical space that require for the organization to facilitate employees to carry out their tasks leaving organization to take care on the space that require for administrative work. However not every organization can be benefitted out of this and not every employee can enjoy working from home facility. Further some organization may have to facilitate both type of working styles depending on the nature of the work they do.

To understand this, Gratton (2021) has created the model showing under figure 1 using two dimensions, place and time and identified four categories.

                                            

                   Figure 1 – Work arrangements in place and time (Gratton, 2021)

Employee preferences, inclusion and fairness are some of the most crucial factors to be look at by HR of an organization when deciding the best working model for the employee (Gratton, 2021). Employee needs to be felt energized and well-functioning either in office or working from home. Employee should not feel that there will be any discriminations for promotions just because they are working from home (Roy, 2022). On the other hand, there must be a method to compensate the employees who are not benefitted by the remote working facility to make them motivated.

Employee disengagement, mental health and stress, missing social interactions, lack of peer advice, decreased efficiency are issues that employees may undergo due to this hybrid working model and to overcome those organization HR can use HR practices such as focus on having virtual engagement activities, make remote workers feel included in the company culture, empower employees, promoting job satisfaction and personal well-being, giving intrinsic rewards, give more training and developments specially focusing on social skills, emotional skills, adaptability skills, resilience skills and cognitive skills. (Przytuła, S. et al, 2020), (Sanders and Malik, 2021), (Roy, 2022).

References –

Beno, M., (2022) Differences Between Managing Face-To-Display Workers and In-House Workers (Hybrid Work Model): A Qualitative Study from Austria. Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 11(2), pp.30-30.- Available from https://www.richtmann.org/journal/index.php/ajis/article/view/12865 [Accessed 3 April 2022].

Gratton, L. (2021) How to do Hybrid Right When designing flexible work arrangements, focus on individual human concerns, not just institutional ones. Harvard Business Review,(May – June). Available from https://hbr.org/2021/05/how-to-do-hybrid-right [Accessed: 1 April 2022].

Hamouche, S., (2021) Human resource management and the COVID-19 crisis: implications, challenges, opportunities, and future organizational directions. Journal of Management & Organization, 1, p.16. Available from https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/6857481FD64558659EE4C17C6DAE9AB9/S1833367221000158a.pdf [Accessed: 1 April 2022].

Malik, A. and Sanders, K., (2021) Managing human resources during a global crisis: A multilevel perspective. British Journal of Management, 10, pp.1467-8551. Available from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/pb-assets/assets/14678551/bjom12484_Rev_EV-1613058926.pdf [Accessed: 1 April 2022].

Przytuła, S., Strzelec, G. and Krysińska-Kościańska, K., (2020) Re-vision of future trends in human resource management (HRM) after COVID-19. Journal of Intercultural Management, 12(4), pp.70-90. Available from https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=924409 [Accessed: 29 March 2022].

Roy, J., (2022) COVID-19, DIGITIZATION & HYBRID WORKSPACES. Available from https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/faculty/management/school-of-public-administration/HybridCovid_jroy_Dal_Jan2022.pdf [Accessed: 3 April 2022].

 

 

Comments

  1. Navod Galabada Arachchi13 April 2022 at 00:01

    Human resource management is a critical component of corporate performance, and each employee should be responsible for the management of people and their needs and wants in addition to their job responsibilities. Human resource management is a part of every manager's job, and it can't be separated from it. Initially, this area was simply a way to keep an eye on the organization's personnel, but in today's world, this notion has evolved to include a global context, and many trends and difficulties may be discovered in the global environment.
    When we examine the global picture, we may identify the following trends and future challenges that are pertinent to human resource management.
    1. Development of the human side in the business.
    2. Requirement of the integrated workforce management system
    3. Change Management
    4. Continues learning and Succession Planning
    5. Diversity
    6. Labour Laws and compliances
    7. Data Security and Data Integrity
    8. Hybrid work model
    9. Cloud-basedsed HR Systems
    10. Artificial Intelligence in HR

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ayesha Udani Sudusinghe13 April 2022 at 00:55

      Thanks Navod. It's very insightful and you have confirmed me all the topics I have thought of.

      Delete
  2. maduwanthisilva.blogspot.com14 April 2022 at 21:30

    Hi Ayesha, your article is very timely and I would like add small fact for your article. Due to covid pandemic the hybrid working system has been popular all over the world. But there are some challenges also. According to Haas, M.(2022) there are 5 main challenges can be identified as communication, cordination, connection, creativity and culture. To make hybrid working system more effective and efficient these challenges should be overcome by organizations.

    ReplyDelete
  3. sampathJ14 April 2022 at 23:12

    Following the lifting of lock downs due to COVID -19 pandemic worldwide, a wide range of hybrid arrangements have emerged, granting employees flexibility that was seldom offered before. In this context, HR has taken the central stage within companies in developing a safe, productive workplace for employees and creating policies regarding how employees can continue to work. The hybrid working model is a location-flexible arrangement, allowing employees to combine onsite and offsite work as they and their employers see fit. It is reasonable to believe that, employees working hybrid tend to feel that their HR teams have adapted better to the pandemic’s effects on their companies. Further it is believed that workplace flexibility is positively associated with increased productivity and job satisfaction.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kasun Warnapura18 April 2022 at 13:09

    The hybrid model means employees work partly on-site or in the office and partly remotely depending upon work requirement and productivity. Certain industries are thriving on the back of the hybrid model amid the pandemic challenges and the companies are expected to tweak the model to get the best out of it in the next year, experts opined.

    ReplyDelete
  5. GaminiHemachandra27 April 2022 at 11:48


    Yes Ayesha. It is timely topic. The hybrid model used to be seen as an alternative style of work. But as more employees demand flexibility, it’ll become even more common. Hybrid work will bridge the remote and on-site environments so employees can work together with ease. An organization need to invest in technologies that enable this, such as communication tools and on-site video conferencing equipment which is extra cost. There need to be systems for bridging in-house to remote in all senses of the concept. Employee-to-employee communication. Access to, files, and technologies. The connection needs to be robust.
    The advantages and disadvantages of the hybrid work model come from not only the structure of the workplace itself, but in how remote and on-site employees collaborate. To get better hybrid workplaces below factors;
    • More difficult to communicate in real-time, especially between distributed teams
    • Access to technology and applications may differ from office to home
    • Employees may find it difficult to adapt or develop new habits
    • Employees may feel alienated if not supported in their choice of work style
    • Hybrid requires more processes of control to allow for freedoms in work

    to be eliminated with thoughtful design, planning and management.

    ReplyDelete

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