1. 1. The structure is the key – Individual guiding principles.

Companies that embrace hybrid working and support it with change processes have a clear competitive edge over other companies that only offer the technology. For me, the overall approach is a far more important success factor that’s so far been overlooked by many companies. Most companies have provisions in place, of course, for how often each employee can work from home, but few have gone on to define collaboration in a hybrid world of work. I find it important that these guidelines apply to the company as a whole. This loose policy needs to offer an initial framework foundation—especially for topics such as setting up meetings and using communication channels and technology.

The frame of reference first needs to be finalised and implemented by management. I see though, how hard it is for our customers to create blanket rules that make sense across their companies. A predetermined, centrally developed set of rules often doesn’t fit with the requirements of the various departments. The marketing department, has different needs than the shop floor, for example. The guiding principles should be more than just a stumbling block that gets departments and teams talking about the topic, as each team needs to adapt and optimise them to their ways of working. In my experience this approach gets the most employees on board and smooths the path to hybrid collaboration.

2. It’s about the people. Self-care is gaining in importance.

Hybrid working offers many opportunities. Employees now don’t have to travel to other sites or customers as much, can make better global connections, and do away with the long commute to the office—and that’s just for starters. But there are also many challenges. Many employees find themselves finishing one meeting, only to have to dive straight into the next one. And the result? Constant stress. Another even more important reason to take the human factor into account for hybrid working. Employees need sufficient breaks, to keep active, and not work too long hours.

Each and every person must keep their needs in mind. Working from home has blurred the lines between our personal and professional lives and the commute to work—a time which employees would traditionally use to mentally prepare for the working day—is also disappearing making the topic of self awareness ever-more important. I would say that companies are obliged to provide employees with the necessary tools and raise awareness of paying attention to their own needs. This can come in the form of seminars and workshops and team events, but also technologies can also help get a feeling for working hours. These days, tools such as Microsoft Viva Insights or Viva Suite are available to help promote self-reflection. At the end of the day, employees can see exactly how long they have really worked, the number of e-mails received and whether they have taken enough breaks. It’s important in this situation that the managers set a good example.

Another critical factor is for companies to get employees on board as quickly as possible because at the end of the day, it’s essential that employees make use of the new opportunities available to them. Larger businesses tend to leverage structured user adoption, but small companies don’t always have the necessary in-house resources. This is where we come in as an IT partner, helping our employees understand the new ways of working and technical support available and supporting them to use them profitably.

  1. 3. Top-notch technology for seamless collaboration.

Of course it’s the technology that’s crucial for ensuring seamless collaboration and modern communication. No matter where I’m working from, I need the right tools to be able to get the most out of hybrid working concepts. We can see that our customers—like most companies—are providing their employees with the tools the need to work flexibly, but hybrid working is creating new challenges, particularly when it comes to meetings. These days, for example, basic meeting room equipment is no longer enough to enable hybrid meetings. There is a huge room for improvement and many businesses would benefit from implementing modern meeting room concepts and ensuring their teams have the right tools sooner rather than later.

Another point to consider is the huge number of tools a company uses as the pandemic saw new communications channels such as platforms and chats introduced. Unfortunately, in the rush, nobody thought about connecting them or defining their strategic use resulting in chaos. The majority of teams become ineffective when they have to communicate with each other through a range of channels without a clearly defined set of guidelines. We help our customers to structure their communications and tools by analysing the status quo and working with them to develop some guiding principles.

In summary, I would say hybrid collaboration can only be successful by combining all aspects. That means the best software and hardware plus an up-to-date corporate philosophy that facilitates hybrid working and provides guiding principles. Last but not least, teams and each individual employee need to receive training and support in order to get them on board with this new way of working. This is the only way that businesses can ensure that teams can communicate and work efficiently together in the hybrid world of work.