If you just bought a new RFO house and lot, you may want to spend a lot more time there to adjust, clean, and arrange your furniture. However, coming to the office may prevent you from settling in quickly. Luckily, there’s a solution to that.
More Firms Are Expected to Make Hybrid Work for All by 2025
Prepare to spend a lot more time in your new RFO house and lot, because last September 23, 2022, Business World reported that more than half of organizations in the Asia-Pacific region are considering making remote work more available to their employees by 2025. According to some real estate consultants, this has prompted companies to rethink their office spaces.
As hybrid work is more likely here to stay even if a physical office is still essential to conduct a lot of business operations, companies are beginning to invest in new technology and prioritize sustainability.
According to the Philippine Country Head of Jones Lang LaSalle, Inc. (JLL) Joey M. Radovan, they can see organizations accelerating strategic investments in the next three years so that they can realize their long-term workforce and workplace priorities. The remaining four months of this year will be critical for the corporate real estate strategy of businesses.
JLL — a Fortune 500 professional services firm that specializes in real estate and investment management — conducted a “Future of Work” report and found that 56% of organizations are more likely to keep remote work available to all of their employees within the next five years. Meanwhile, some executives said that one of their most important strategic priorities in the next three years includes successfully operating the hybrid work model — this includes flexible space options.
Additionally, JLL also found that 80 percent of organizations agree that quality workspace is one of their top priorities to “facilitate the kind of workplaces, health and wellbeing amenities, and sustainability credentials employees and corporates increasingly need.”
Although offices still continue to be an essential component for collaboration and business operations, companies will have to invest more in creative spaces to make the workplace more comfortable for their employees. Moreover, real estate strategies should be focused on enhancing social interaction because of a more geographically dispersed workforce. Offices should be more focused on a “we” space rather than the “me” space office design that the majority of corporate offices apply.
According to JLL, companies should invest in collaborative, high-quality spaces to ensure the success of their hybrid work setting.
Clearly, the fast-growing shift to hybrid work has become a catalyst for change in the workplace, as companies are now placing more importance on how they can support the mental well-being of their employees, all while maintaining productivity.
For real estate investors, JLL said that 71 percent of organizations are willing to pay a premium for green building credentials in the future. Buildings should be capable of supporting a sustainable and inclusive space, as environmental ambitions are also increasingly becoming the cornerstones of a workplace.
What Are the Benefits of a Hybrid Work Setup?
With more and more companies applying remote and hybrid work schedules for their employees, they must be seeing a lot of benefits that you might be curious about. If you want to explore the hybrid work schedule in your business, here are its benefits:
Hybrid work improves the quality of work
On September 13, 2022, Malaya Business Insight reported that hybrid schedules improve the quality of work. This is based on the latest Hybrid Work study conducted by Cisco.
According to the study, eight in every ten employees in the Philippines believe that the quality of their work greatly improved since working in a hybrid work setup. Employees also said that they are getting more work done when their companies apply for hybrid work.
Meanwhile, 89 percent of employees said that this type of work setting improved their overall well-being because of more flexible work schedules and a significant reduction in commuting time. Consequently, 92 percent of employees can attest that the hybrid work setup has made them happier.
Unfortunately, only 29 percent of employees agree that their company is prepared to transition to this kind of work setting, with internet connectivity issues being one of the most common reasons why companies can’t fully commit to the hybrid setup. According to the managing director of Cisco Philippines Zaza Nicart, having stronger networking infrastructure and cybersecurity investments can solve this issue.
Reduced operational costs
If you’re finding ways to reduce costs in your business so you can buy a new RFO house and lot, then applying the hybrid model may be your solution. This is one of the best advantages of the hybrid work setup, especially from the perspective of companies. The less time your employees aren’t working in the office means you can minimize energy bills, office supplies, and other business expenses. Additionally, businesses can opt for smaller office spaces, which means cutting costs on rent.
Moreover, online training and seminars tend to be cheaper online. Hence, employers can just use online learning content and tools instead of having to send their employees to event forums and expensive training courses.
More productive employees
You already know about Cisco’s study about hybrid work, but they’re not the only big company that sees the importance of this new work setup. Accenture released a report last April 30, 2021, called “The future of work: A hybrid work model.”
In the report, Accenture found that 83 percent of workers prefer hybrid work and 40 percent felt they could be healthy and effective in both onsite and remote settings.
Meanwhile, another 2021 survey conducted by Sungard Availability Services found that 78 percent of employees believe that their productivity increases when they have the choice to work remotely or in the office whenever needed. Overall, 74 percent of employees, regardless of their current employment status, want to have the option of working in the office and working remotely.
There could be a lot of reasons why and how the hybrid work setting improves productivity. However, it is likely because the hybrid setup offers a lot of flexibility which, in turn, empowers employees to work to their strengths, which then eventually boosts productivity.
So, basically, allowing your employees to have a sense of control in the form of where they want to work encourages them to become more productive.
Reduced carbon footprint
According to Statista, the global transportation sector has become a major polluter and has produced approximately 7.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2020. While this is a huge sector, passenger cars were the largest contributors to carbon dioxide emissions in 2020, with it being responsible for 41 percent of total global gas transportation emissions.
Other contributors to carbon dioxide emissions produced by the transportation sector include medium to heavy trucks (22 percent), shipping (11 percent), aviation (8 percent), buses and minibusses (7 percent), light commercial vehicles (5 percent), two- or three-wheelers (3 percent), and rail (3 percent).
Unfortunately, in 2020, the pandemic motivated a lot of car purchases in the Philippines, with more than 1 million registered private cars just in that year, according to Statista. Although that number went down to about 536 thousand, that’s still a lot of cars producing carbon emissions.
As companies transition to the hybrid work setting, they are also contributing to a healthier environment by reducing the carbon footprint of their business; with fewer employees needing to leave their RFO house and lot and drive or commute for work.
Attract a wider talent pool
Offering a hybrid work setup gives you more access to the country’s talent pool as you expand your hiring criteria. Since fewer and fewer people are willing to work fully in the office, you get to tap into the growing population of workers who want to work in a hybrid setting.
Hybrid work allows you to fill positions that wouldn’t be filled if you require them to work office-based five to six days a week. Additionally, this lets you access a broader range in terms of location and demographics, which makes talent-seeking easier for your Human Resources department.
Encourages both collaboration and independence
According to Zoho, an online productivity tool and SaaS application, the hybrid work setup opens up communication and collaboration wherever your employees may be because of modern technology.
A hybrid work setup requires some form of adaptation to technology, like using online tools and software for project management, task organization, communication, and productivity tracking. As your business transitions to more communication channels, you indirectly train your employees on how to communicate and collaborate with their teammates.
At the same time, hybrid work also fosters independence, as employees spend more time out of the office, This can encourage them to find more solutions because they don’t have immediate access to a workmate. This also increases employee satisfaction, and increase morale when at work.
Maintains employee safety and overall health
This one’s pretty straightforward.
Fewer people coming to the office means fewer chances of exposure to illnesses. Not to mention, infections are more likely to happen in enclosed spaces like the office. By applying the hybrid model to your company, if one employee catches a contagious illness, they are less likely to spread the infection to your entire workforce.
This is beneficial to a business because a sick workforce won’t be able to work at their best. Sometimes, even, they can’t work at all. And when your employees can’t work, your company can’t fulfill the needs of its clients, which means less profit.
Promotes a better work-life balance
Hybrid work has become an essential tool to promote work-life balance. According to The Economic Times, professionals believe that the hybrid work setting can alleviate their distress because it helps them disconnect. Nine in every ten employees also think that the hybrid model can positively impact their work-life balance because they can spend equal time on their personal goals and professional lives.
There should be an emphasis on hybrid because The Economic Times also reported that long-term remote work can cause fatigue to employees, just as much as full on-site schedules do. 75 percent of employees believe that fully remote setups can negatively impact their career growth because they have less time with executives and company leaders. Additionally, a fully-remote setup makes it harder to learn from their workmates.
Companies should start to focus more on why their employees work and not just how they work, according to the India Country Manager of LinkedIn, Ashutosh Gupta.
According to Forbes, maintaining a work-life balance contributes to the reduction of stress in the workforce, which then helps prevent burnout and other work-related mental issues. Chronic stress is one of the most rampant health issues in the workplace, this can ultimately lead to a relatively unhealthy workforce because stress can cause a lot of other negative physiological effects, like hypertension, chronic pain, digestive problems, and more.
Types of Hybrid Work Model
If you’re trying to apply the hybrid work setup in your company, there are different types of work models you can use. According to Hibob, an HR platform that modernizes people management and work experience, there are four types of hybrid models:
Split-week model
This hybrid working model splits the week between working from home for two to three days and working onsite for two to three days. The split-week model was applied by the highest proportion of employees and companies use this model to split up the week between different departments.
For example, the Human Resources department comes into the office on Mondays, while the Creatives department comes into the office on Tuesdays, and so on. This type of schedule enables business leaders to stay in touch with their teams. Moreover, it allows face-to-face group collaborations and meetings.
At-will model
This type of hybrid workplace model gives full control to the employees to choose what arrangement works best for them on any given day of the week. This can be useful for employees who want to come into the office whenever they want or need to. Sometimes, employees choose this model because the office tends to be quieter in this setup.
As the company owner, you can set up a “work at the office” request so that you still know when and how many of your employees are working in the office. That way, you can also ensure that minimum health requirements are met.
Week-by-week
The week-by-week model involves alternating between working from home and in the office on a weekly basis. This can allow large teams and more people to use the office at the same time.
Shift work
In this model, employees work in shifts, which also alternates between working from home and working either morning or evening shifts onsite. This can be a challenging model to apply because a lot of people don’t like shifting work schedules.
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