The 2019-2020 pandemic has transformed many aspects of our lives. As we move toward normality, some of those changes have become so ingrained that they are now part of everyday life. Hybrid work is a good example of this, and business applications, such as workspaces, have been adapting to these increasingly common situations.

What is hybrid work

During lockdown, businesses that were better prepared for closures and restrictions on mobility implemented remote work in their offices. In many cases, this change happened overnight, with all the inconveniences that entailed. Months later, as the public health situation improved, we entered a new phase.

At a time when many companies have encouraged employees to return to the office, there has also been a shift in mindset among many professionals. Some, based on their experience, want to continue working remotely, while others don’t want to hear about it. There are also cases where the same employee prefers working remotely at certain times and taking advantage of the benefits of the office at others.

For these situations, employers have found a good solution in hybrid work—combining both worlds to offer greater flexibility and autonomy. The result is professionals who can maximize their productivity while perfectly adapting to their personal needs.

In short, hybrid work means achieving business goals through a flexible, personalized arrangement—sometimes even allowing employees to decide when they work—and carrying out their activities in the office, at home, in a coworking space, or anywhere in the world with an internet connection.

Benefits of hybrid work

The flexibility of hybrid work allows employees to achieve a better balance between their professional and personal or family lives. This directly impacts worker satisfaction, which clearly affects the company’s performance.

While that is the most important benefit for the employer, companies should also recognize hybrid work’s role in reducing costs (space, furniture, maintenance) and in attracting top talent from anywhere in the world.

How to implement hybrid work

As with any major change, the first thing a company should do is evaluate its specific situation and then look for the measures with the greatest impact, through a plan that includes everything needed—responsibilities, tools, procedures, and so on.

Communication is especially important here, since hybrid work is not just “total freedom.” Above all, it’s a better way of working. That means continuing to support collaboration and information-sharing through investments in tools, designated hours for full availability, and in-person meeting days.

Collaboration, communication, and project management are key in today’s work environment. The only way to keep all employees productive—whether on-site, remote, or hybrid—is to offer alternatives that avoid the potential downsides of remote work, asynchronous communication, and distance. This includes remote access to equipment, secure connections, and platforms like Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Teams for hybrid work

Teams is the most powerful collaboration solution on the market, with capabilities expanded through its integration with Microsoft 365. With it, you can create teams (for conversations and document management), set up channels (within each team to organize work around a topic), make calls (audio or video with up to 100 people at the same time, which can be recorded for later viewing and include chat and screen-sharing options), manage calendars (view and schedule meetings, organize your personal agenda), and manage files (share with the team or create collaboratively).

Available anytime, anywhere, from any internet-connected device, Teams also enables communication and collaboration with people outside the organization, even if they don’t have Microsoft Teams. You can send cloud-stored files, hold video calls, or create webinars, among many other options.

These capabilities make it the perfect tool for hybrid work:

• Quick access for meeting attendees, and simple access to all available options (presentation, chat, reactions, meeting and device controls, etc.).
• Scheduling from Outlook, allowing the use of email—the ultimate asynchronous communication tool—to better manage meeting attendance, responses, topic-specific content, calendar management, and more.
• Booking meeting rooms in the office, assigning a specific location for a meeting, or creating a Teams conference depending on each worker’s model (on-site or remote).
• Hybrid presentations with Cameo, combining slides and camera with design suggestions and different possibilities for making remote presentations feel like in-person ones.
• AI-powered suggestions to privately improve presentations, meetings, or talks, ensuring better pacing, data provision, alerts about interruptions, or suggestions to promote diversity.
• Sending meeting reminders and related content that might be worth reviewing beforehand.
• Automatic lighting and video adjustments to hold meetings anywhere, in any conditions.

These and other Microsoft Teams features enable your organization to embrace hybrid work with the assurance of not losing any of the benefits of in-person work, while fully embracing all the advantages of remote work—for every team member and the organization as a whole.