If the pandemic has taught us one thing, it is that most people do not necessarily have to work in fixed places. What began as a protection against infections is now increasingly establishing itself as a completely new working model. We shed light on the new hybrid forms of work and present the advantages and disadvantages of home office vs. physical presence in connection with an efficient management structure and culture. 

Is home office the new work trend?

Those who had their employees work regularly or permanently in home office before the year 2020 were almost a rarity. Before the Corona pandemic, the trust of most employers in their employees was seldom strong enough to allow them to work completely unobserved and autonomously from home or another workspace. In some cases, this was hardly possible due to a lack of technical infrastructures and only half-hearted digitalization in the company. Those who no longer wanted to work (only) at a fixed workplace in the office needed good reasons and usually a good standing in the team and with the employer. As a result of the infection control measures that forced most employers and employees back into their own four walls during the pandemic, it suddenly became clear: home office is not just a nice benefit for long-time employees, but an essential building block for any company that wanted to continue to exist after the pandemic. 

This plunged many companies into difficulties, because some were not technically prepared to let their employees work outside the stationary company network. For other companies, especially in the digital sector, this was not a problem. 

But this also presented new challenges for the decentralised work of all employees: 

• How can we be sure that everyone is really doing their job? 
• Do server accesses work at all times? 
• How do we maintain a positive team spirit? 
• Do important customer meetings also work virtually? 
• What do we do if one of the tools or the internet is down? 

Every company has certainly found its own solutions here. The fact is that communication has always been the key to a constantly successful cooperation. 

However, with the (temporarily) decrease in the number of infections and the high infection rates, entrepreneurs were now faced with a new question: do we stay with the flexible home office arrangement, or do we bring all the teams back into the office? Not an easy decision at all, and one that is worth weighing up by means of a pros and cons list. 

So, ask yourself the following questions:

How did the company financial results develop? 

Was your company able to generate the expected profits or even increase them during home office phases? Can this be attributed to the new working model? 

Can you adapt the office space to a new way of work? 

Depending on how flexible the premises are where your business is located, this may even offer a savings model. Many companies offer their employees the flexibility of choosing to come into the office or work from a different location each day. However, those who choose to work in the office no longer have a fixed desk and instead find all their work utensils in a private compartment in the office, there things such as their laptop, job folders etc. are ready and can be taken out at any time. Work is then done where there is still a free space. This can even strengthen team cohesion, because while certain people used to always sit in the same room now you have a constant stream of different colleagues around you and get the chance to talk to each other more quickly.  

This model also brings with it the possibility of reducing existing office space or generally moving to a more compact office. After all, if out of 50 employees only 20 work in one office at the same time, this naturally saves space and all the associated ancillary costs. 

Here, however, a precise agreement with the employees is essential so that not more people want to work on site than available workstations.

Tips for leaders in hybrid working teams 

Certainly, every team finds its own solution on how to deal with hybrid forms of work. But it is fundamentally important that leaders in particular make sure to "keep the team together". Regular (either daily or weekly) team meetings, in which everyone should have their voice heard, personal meetings in their free time, team events and selected team-building measures help to ensure that employees do not lose sight of each other. In general, it is also necessary to develop a feeling for the motivation and efficiency of each individual person. Of whom do you have the impression that he or she needs a little more support? How accessible are the individuals? Do you have the impression that in individual cases the work performance changes a lot? One can’t forget, hybrid working doesn't just mean a risk of employees working too little. Many tend to work in home office beyond the agreed working hours in the evenings, at night, on weekends or even holidays. This also is not a healthy work culture and should be discussed. 

No matter what you may decide: Whether a flexible working model is suitable for your entire company or individual teams depends not only on economic factors, but also strongly on human factors. So, observe your teams closely and keep an open communication with employees. This way, you too will find the perfect working model for your company.