Hybrid Working

I have conducted several polls on Linkedin lately which tackle the subject of change in our working landscape, change in the way we will are working and change in the way we will work in the future.

One thing seems certain, there is finally a lot more conversation passing lips about the changing role of the office, what role shared spaces will play and what they will look like moving forward.

I don't want to cover that too much here but what I do want to talk about is what will we be looking at in terms of solutions if we find ourselves wanting to be a lot less fixed to one particular space in which to undertake our work.

I have just finished reading an excellent article by Dan Schawbel about Normadic Working.

I can see the appeal for many young people not sticking around in the country where they grew up when there is a world of opportunity across the globe if you are prepared to travel and digital access gives you the tools to travel and work.

Even for those of us who are already rooted to a location due to other commitments such as family and mortgages have discovered during this pandemic that there can be major benefits in terms of work life balance by being more adaptable about where we physically do our work.

Hybrid working for this group enables the best of both worlds between socialising with our colleagues and building team and spending more time at home where we can focus more on the grunt work and pick up the children from school.

In order to enable Hybrid or Normadic working companies will need to think carefully about what equipment is provided to workers.

We need tools that we can use on the move and when we touch base. Solutions that provide comfort, safety and functionality and are adaptable for different environments and different types of work.

In short we need to re-think what the worker will require in order to do their role and a lot more consideration will need to be given to more adaptive design.