Tech Trends: What It Takes to Build a Hybrid Workplace

Feb 17, 2022

Blog

Over the last two years, employees and job seekers have made it quite clear that their biggest priority is flexibility. Workers desire autonomy over when, where and how to do their job, and organizations must adapt to meet this need in order to retain a high functioning workforce.

Establishing a hybrid work structure is a significant part of this equation, enabling employees to work seamlessly from any location. According to a recent Gallup survey, 54% of employees who have worked remotely, either fully or partially during the pandemic, would like a hybrid arrangement where they have the flexibility to split their time between working from home and the office.

As organizations are establishing this structure, technology must be reimagined and redesigned to support consistent experiences across locations. In a recent IDC survey, 44% of organizations reported that they were “in progress” when it came to redesigning technology, policies and processes for a hybrid workforce. Having the right technology in place is critical to providing corporate culture parity across remote and on-site workplaces, and generally ensures three key elements – productivity, secure connectivity, and collaboration.

Organizations must begin by identifying the right infrastructure to support their business and revisit this plan regularly to be sure that devices and technology are evolving along with the needs of their business. Having newer devices in place that can support a variety of productivity solutions is a major component to achieving seamless integrations between work locations. This may mean investing in new laptops for employees that support faster processing speeds or conference rooms equipped with smart technology to maintain connections between in-person and remote employees joining the same meeting.

Having newer devices in place that can support a variety of productivity solutions is a major component to achieving seamless integrations between work locations."

To ensure secure connectivity, having a proper device management strategy in place is critical in order to minimize cybersecurity risks, particularly among remote workers. For example, endpoint management software allows IT administrators to remotely manage a fleet of devices. IT teams can automatically push updates, deploy new software, resolve issues and ensure secure access to data through cloud-based applications. One solution to simplify device management is through a Device-as-a-Service agreement. In fact, IDC predicts one in five corporate PCs shipped in 2023 will be deployed through a Device-as-a-Service Agreement (read more about DaaS solutions in our recent blog post).

Virtual meeting software became a must-have by 2020, but organizations can level-up the way they’re taking advantage of their features to promote better collaboration. In addition to scheduled meetings, organizations may consider using virtual meeting software to facilitate open office hours with leaders, making them accessible to both in-person and remote employees. They may also be used to live stream in-person events so that remote employees can participate.

As organizations identify the needed infrastructure to support a successful hybrid workplace, having access to the right payment solutions may help align timing of the investment to budgetary cycles when acquiring the new technology. To discuss how payment solutions can support the build of a hybrid work structure, please contact us.