Blog: Why The Future Workplace Has To Be A Hybrid One

What 2020 had shown us is, balance is everything. It’s shifted perspectives and forced new ways of living, working and connecting. In business, the difference between digital leaders and laggards has become even more marked.

While industry survivors are just about managing to balance the books, those thriving in their respective categories are already seeking next generation technologies to help them work even faster, smarter, leaner.

These set-ups tend to have size and agility on their side. For the enterprise, implementing change at a pace has always been problematic. Amid a public health crisis, it can feel almost impossible – especially as stakeholders strive to keep any further disruption to a minimum. In such instances, quick and easy implementation wins-out over best-in-class solutions.

As the UK contemplates another ‘lockdown limbo’, we consider why organisations should not necessarily see hybrid solutions as a stop-gap but start leveraging them as a legitimate way forward. Because, sometimes, ‘best-of-both’ does actually represent ‘best-in-class’. Whether it’s supporting office and remote working; using on-site and off-site resources; or relying on a blend of internal and external expertise.

Hybrid the here and now

Combined home and office working have become normalised. Swathes of research conducted throughout the pandemic suggest very few employees want to be permanently home-based. In a recent poll, however, the vast majority (75%) want to continue some degree of remote working – splitting their time between the workplace and being off-site.

This suggests that, while rumours of the office’s demise have been greatly exaggerated, the traditional 9-5, clock-in; clock-out days are all but done. The mobility and flexibility that has long been craved is becoming more widely accepted and organisational infrastructures need to accommodate this new outlook.

On-site, off-site and near-site solutions will play an important role in servicing this reality as people remove the daily commute. Consequently, cutting back office energy and consumable usage. Also contributing to lower carbon emissions. The hybrid workforce will, overall, be expected to outperform the previous working model – given the right tools to work with.

Stacked in our favour 

For many businesses, a hybrid of on-site and off-site solutions will best balance the requirements of the future workforce – helping businesses adapt to disruption, support increased levels of remote working and save on information storage costs.

With select data sets stored on-site for greater speed of access and security, and others stored in the cloud for greater flexibility and connectivity, cloud-migration means an improved employee experience: enabling workers to work the way they want.

These friction-free workflows are the future not least because businesses get it their way too. On-boarding cloud-based infrastructures offers greater scope for agility and scalability. Suddenly, even the most cumbersome of set-ups can spin up, spin down and take on new technologies as and when they emerge. Harnessing the transformative power of the hybrid stack is a savvy move for businesses that have found themselves stalled by an over-reliance on sluggish, on-premise computing solutions during these most critical of times.

Technology delivers possibility; people drive success

Technology choices may not have been the only on-site bottleneck experienced. A smarter sourcing strategy could also help free up time, money and already severely stretched resources. Forming a hybrid workforce with a well-structured outsourcing programme can be an innovative way of cutting overheads while filling skills gaps.

Employing a TUPE transfer of staff in manual business operations to a trusted supplier may help achieve greater workflow efficiency. Importantly, allowing the business to focus on what it does best. Freeing decision makers to drive digital transformation and even leaner ways of working.

Marry the right people, with the right technology and best-of-both can be best-in-class. Especially as organisations strive to strike the right balance between steadying the ship and going for growth; dealing with the here and now and future workforce needs. Hybrid doesn’t mean non-committal; it means more agile, secure, connected environments that can capitalise on – not just accommodate – new ways of working.

For a balanced view on how technology can help you deal with disruption, talk to a vendor neutral independent, like SCC Document services. Our breadth and depth of knowledge across print, IT and document-related digitisation arms workplaces with intelligent infrastructures built on the freedom of choice that successful hybrid solutions demand.