Post-pandemic discussions regarding returning to normal work operations mostly circulate around hybrid, remote, or in-office business models. Even though all these models have their pros and cons, there is another aspect that is not being so widely talked about but needs a lot of focus: flexibility. Whether companies decide on remote work, hybrid, or in-house work models, they need a working internet connection like Spectrum internet or any other ISP to carry out their routine tasks efficiently.
Approximately 7% of the workforce had the opportunity to work from home before the onset of Covid-19. This percentage boomed to nearly two-thirds in the initial months of Covid lockdowns. Due to the pandemic, age-old traditions of working from the office were replaced by remote work, making the companies face many new challenges.
What Are Remote, Hybrid, and In-House Business Models?
Before determining which business system will work best for a company, let’s try to understand the differences between the three.
Remote Business Model
The term remote work is quite common these days. In this business model, employees work from home instead of working from traditional offices. They communicate and collaborate with their teams through multiple digital software and tools. Remote employees can work from a designated place. The flexibility is such that they can be anywhere in the world as long as they are doing their work and meeting deadlines. The terms Work from Home (WFH) and Work from Anywhere (WFA) don’t sound unique anymore. Employees can be sitting in a restaurant, a friend’s house, or practically anywhere. The only requirement is that they must be fulfilling all job objectives.
Remote work policies vary from company to company. While some companies employ workers from other geographical locations such as other cities or even countries, others do not. Moreover, some companies demand specific working hours to streamline team processes and improve collaboration across different time zones, others don’t have any stringent work hour requirements.
In-House Work Model
This is the typical office model where employees are compelled to spend designated hours at a physical office to meet the employment criteria. They work together in a shared physical location and communicate with other team members in the office to meet company goals collectively.
Hybrid Work Model
This business model offers a bit of both; remote and in-house work. The workers can choose to work from the physical office or their homes. It is a very convenient model for employees. Where some businesses require the workers to work from offices for a certain number of days, others may require them to visit the office once a week or once a month only depending on the company policy.
Some companies keep their workplace doors open for workers so they have space anytime even if coming to the office is not a requirement of the company. These workplaces are quite similar to co-working spaces for occasional collaboration instead of the old-fashioned cubicles.
Hybrid offices are increasingly becoming the norm these days owing to the great digital collaboration technology.
Also Read: 18 Small Home Office Design That Boost Your Work Performance
Which Model Is the Best?
According to a survey of around 1200 US office workers and nearly 120 executives, approximately 83% of the people agreed that remote work is a success and around 77% believed that an option of working from home can make them more content. These results show that productivity is expected to be higher with remote work.
All companies are different with different processes. It is important to understand that the perfect working model cannot essentially be the same across all business industries. For companies to decide on an appropriate working model, the following questions need to be answered by employees.
- How much time would they be willing to work remotely?
- Would they be interested in working from a co-working space?
- What resources are required to work remotely from home?
- Do they have any environmental concerns regarding the remote working model?
- The advantages and disadvantages of all three working models?
Once the companies get responses to these questions, they can draw a conclusion based on their employees’ specific needs and how to fulfill them adequately to improve their productivity which will be beneficial for the company in the long run.