Bytes Blog: Addressing the challenges that Hybrid Work brings to Leadership
Wednesday 5th April 2023
Writer: Al Cumberworth; Editor: Fahima Akther
Following the global pandemic and the resulting transformation of the workplace, we have entered a new era of how we work, collaborate, and communicate together. Speaking with many CIO’s and CTO’s, companies across the globe face similar challenges when it comes to hybrid working. These include the need to satisfy evolving employee needs and expectations in a post-pandemic world, where employees expect to be able to work remotely and on a flexible basis, at least some of the time.
Another challenge is how employers can support employees to allow continued in-person time with their team members, whilst providing tools that enable them to do their jobs wherever or whoever they are – in the office, at home, on the road, shift workers or contact centre employees.
Technology & Hybrid Work
These are hot topics for senior decision makers and in the new era of work where employees are demanding the best possible hybrid work experience, technology is a key enabler. Access to the right information, continual and proactive performance management of the tools utilised by employees, and ensuring security, are fundamental design principles in how to approach best practice.
The office network infrastructure was designed to enable a consistent user experience. When employees are working away from the office, either at home or remotely, IT departments have much less control. The employee’s network provider, working environment and computer setup can impact both the employee and customer experience. ISP performance issues, as well as network and device resource issues, all require management and support to enable effective hybrid working.
The technology already exists to enable all of this, with companies having access to more data lead insights than ever before.
Implementing technologies, such as proactive monitoring, addresses challenges of individual user issues across the network and their devices. Monitoring performance on user’s devices and collating Wi-Fi, internet, and device performance statistics can automatically determine problems that are affecting users, and provide alerts detailing the actions that need to be taken. This can range from simple advice like sitting closer to an access point or plugging into a wired connection, to replacing or upgrading a user device; or in some cases identifying a poorly performing ISP.
Microsoft Solutions for Hybrid Working
As well as challenges, the hybrid working environment provides an opportunity for change, and Microsoft are at the forefront of this. From Viva Goals to Teams voice, managed services and increased levels of security like Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and securing endpoints, ensures employees have the best possible hybrid working experience, wherever they are working.
Technology enables each business to achieve their goals. In order to stay ahead of the game solutions should be architected and deployed to meet the needs of the employee and customer alike.
Next Steps...
Here at Bytes, we are assisting organisations every single day to streamline hybrid working into their business model.
Have a question? Get in touch with our expert team via [email protected].
To find out more about Microsoft solutions for Hybrid Work check our our Smarter with 365 Event on-demand or visit our Smarter with 365 Web Hub.
The Bytes Team
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