The pros and cons of hybrid working

Talking to clients and prospects in the contact center area, I keep hearing how much attention work models are getting these days from C-level executives.

Here at VCC Live, half of our team consists of developers and other back-office employees while the other half works in client-facing roles. Therefore, we also considered many options and started to compare what it’s like to have people physically present in the office versus working from home on a regular basis. These two models have their distinct advantages and drawbacks, so for some organizations, the most suitable solution is to keep both options open, and operate in a hybrid working model.

I’ve been hesitant about remote and hybrid working during pre-pandemic times; as CXO and Head of Sales, cooperation has always been an important part of my roles. However, we already had team members working from other countries back then. Navigating an international team and dealing with the post-pandemic changes in working models has given me valuable insights into the pros and cons of hybrid work. In this article, I gathered the ones I found most relevant in my roles.

But first, what is hybrid working?

Hybrid working can mean lots of different things. The level of flexibility may vary in each organization, but generally, hybrid working means that the company has an office (or multiple ones) for the employees to work in, but they also have the ability to do their job remotely. According to a study, 30% of the U.S. workforce has opted for a hybrid work arrangement.

Some popular hybrid working options include:

• Working 3 days from home and 2 days from the office
• Having one designated office day each week per team or department
• Spending at least one day in the office per sprint (especially popular among developer teams)
• Spending at least one day in the office per month
• Having an in-person team meeting once a quarter
• Choosing the amount of office days and WFH days according to personal preference
• Having some team members in the office while others join remotely

Benefits of hybrid working

Depending on which hybrid working option you operate in, these are some of the benefits you may enjoy in this setting.

Reduced cost

Renting an office space, the utility costs, and providing all the necessary items and facilities to accommodate all members of a company are expensive and limit fast growth. This is especially true for international teams that would need an office in each country.

The cost of daily commute and employee catering can also be lower if only a small number of people work from the office.

Happier employees, increased productivity 

We all have different personalities. Some prefer to work alone, while others can’t live without the buzzing office life. Studies show that remote workers tend to be happier because they can focus better, get more done, and have a better work-life balance. 

Remote work can eliminate a number of stressors too. To give you an example, contact centers are often in noisy, open-plan offices with no personal space and way too much distraction, which only adds to the already hectic nature of working in a contact center. 

That being said, some people have a stronger need to be social during the workday, and working remotely can make them feel lonely and unmotivated. Or, in some cases, the working conditions are not ideal at home due to distractions or lack of space. Having an office to go to can be a great solution in these situations.

In short, the company can tend to different needs and personality types, which improves employee satisfaction. Everybody wins: happy employees are more productive and more loyal to their companies.

Saving time and stress on commuting

According to some studies, commuting to work tends to make employees even more anxious than the work itself. Sleep deprivation due to the extra time needed to travel, and the noisy traffic, delays and other unexpected situations can make workers feel miserable. Recently, there’s the rising fear of catching an illness as well.

An average commute is around 26 minutes one way, which means that we spend nearly 9 days (!) of our lives per year commuting back and forth. Reading, listening to podcasts or catching up with friends who share the ride with us can be great ways to pass the time, but it’s not always possible.

Getting rid of the daily commute saves up time for personal life and recharging, or even just catching up on sleep, which makes your employees healthier, more relaxed, balanced, and therefore more productive at their work. 

Hiring without borders

Another great benefit of hybrid work is that you can expand your team without any limitations. 

Do you need an agent that speaks a foreign language at a native level or can cover a shift in a different time zone? You can add any talent to your team without worrying about the distance from the office. This aspect has been especially useful for us, as we have clients from all around the world and need customer support to be flexible.

Remote work is an option, not an obligation

Unless the commute would need to involve plane tickets, your employees can still decide to work from the office when it’s more convenient. Some employees might want to work from home every day, while others would prefer to be remote only three days a week.

With the hybrid work model, you can let team members work where they feel most productive. Those who need peace and quiet to focus can stay home and those who thrive better at the office have a place as well.

As long as it’s possible to get the work done either way, the hybrid working model allows the employees flexibility.

The challenges of hybrid working

Of course, hybrid working has its own challenges and downsides as well. Here are some of the things you should consider about this model.

Communication can get messy

When a team is used to working from the same location, it can be difficult to adapt to a new channel of communication.

The information from an in-person meeting might not get to the remote workers right away, and if they work from a different time zone or have a more flexible schedule than those who go to the office between 9 and 5, the response time can get even longer.

Even if organizing hybrid meetings is possible, it can often get messy: it’s harder for colleagues joining remotely to hear everyone in the office, and it’s impossible for them to join spontaneous post-meeting discussions.

If the in-house team has to wait hours for their remote colleagues to approve an idea or get started on a project, it can slow down everybody’s work.

A possible solution to this problem is to stick to one channel of communication. Host every meeting online and record them, even for those that work in the office, and have every message go through the company’s own communication platform. This can make processes more efficient for every member of the team, because this way no information gets lost.

Working conditions outside of the office

Remote work might not be possible for some of your employees, but they might also be living too far to be able to go to the office. Maybe there isn’t enough space in their homes, or the internet connection is weak, so the calls they make keep dropping. 

If having a remote workforce is important for your business due to the location, language, or saving office maintenance costs, consider covering the internet bill or monthly coworking space membership fees of your employees.

Isolation from the rest of the team

When remote workers hear inside jokes and fun stories about the office life and the spontaneous after-hour get-togethers, it’s easy to feel like they’re missing out and will never truly be part of the team. 

Building strong relationships is harder online. Employees tend to feel that it’s harder for their opinion to be heard, because they will never just randomly run into their superiors by the coffee machine.

Organizing brainstorming sessions online, encouraging employees to share their opinions, having regular 1-on-1 feedback sessions with everyone, throwing Zoom parties and organizing company-wide meetups in different locations can all be some ways to tackle this problem.

Safety concerns

With everyone working from a different network, keeping company data safe can be a challenge. Your remote employees might connect to the open Wi-Fi in the coffee shop they work from or have their laptops stolen. It’s crucial that your IT team takes some steps to provide maximum security. 

These could include regulations like installing VPN on every device, making the use of two-factor authentication compulsory, encouraging work from mobile data rather than public Wi-Fi, restricting access to data and controlling company devices.

My two cents

In many cases, a fully remote setting can be more ideal than trying to tackle hybrid meetings and navigating a partly on-site, partly remote team. Hybrid works best if team members have a designated office day where they all show up (even if it’s only once a quarter), and they work from home the rest of the time, so everyone shares the same context.

Of course, working from home most of the time has its own challenges, especially for leaders. You have to come up with ways to establish trust and measure your team members’ impact without micromanaging. This can be especially hard in roles where it’s not obvious how to track people’s progress. You’ll also need to set goals that are achievable within working hours without overwhelming the team.

However, working in the office doesn’t solve these issues on its own. People can still take too many coffee breaks or spend the day scrolling through social media. It all comes down to individual differences and roles: while some people feel a sense of control when working on-site, others need to be alone to do their best.

Hybrid working in contact centers

Based on my conversations with contact center leaders, introducing remote work gradually works best for many of them. Agents need to get acquainted with lots of different tools and they usually have many questions which can be easily answered on-site.

In a remote setting, they might be hesitant to ask these questions (or they’re unsure who to approach), and it’s more likely that they’ll end up making mistakes. Onboarding and training them on-site and offering them the opportunity to work from home later on can help them get comfortable and confident with their tasks before they need to do it independently.

What’s your experience?

Has your company switched to the hybrid work model already? Did you adapt it because of the coronavirus pandemic, or the culture of allowing employees to work from home was already present? 

Let us know in the comments how it’s been for you, what challenges you’re facing or expect to face in the future.

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