With organisations embracing the hybrid work culture, CIOs are playing a critical role in striking the right balance between employees working from anywhere and working from the office.
Following the outbreak of the pandemic a year and a half ago, remote working became the new norm across the globe. While some organisations have allowed workers in limited numbers to re-enter the office in recent months, many still are uncertain to call back their employees in full strength.
While redefining teamwork for a hybrid world, upskilling the hybrid workforce and building a remote-first employee experience has been the foremost priority for any IT leader.
Moving to a hybrid work model presents several challenges for organisations across sectors. CIOs are giving their best to help overcome obstacles and ensure successful hybrid work culture, ensuring business continuity.
Upskilling for the future
From developing new models of work to meet business needs and employee desires to rethinking conducting skills and training, CIOs are leading the way to a workplace of the future. Skilling the enterprise workforce for Cloud is one of the topmost priorities for any CIO as Cloud technology allows organizations to build a centralized and remotely accessible hub of data, and tools that employees can access anytime from anywhere.
With remote working here to stay, enterprises are tweaking their IT budgets to invest in robust technologies and processes to offer seamless connectivity and a successful remote working environment.
Aligning the business processes with the shift to the new hybrid work model is undoubtedly placing the IT teams under lots of stress. While hybrid work gives employees greater flexibility, many organizations are coming up with new guidelines that specify which employees will work from home and who will be expected to come into offices, a decision that is critical to business success.
According to a CIO from a Fintech company, the hybrid work culture has proved successful at his company, and they are contemplating making hybrid work permanent for more than 70 per cent of the workforce while the remaining would report to work on alternate days.
"It is going well so far. However, we are looking into the long-term effects that permanent hybrid work will have on teamwork," he added.
What’s next?
The big question on every CIO’s mind is - What new technologies and processes should they consider in helping their employees be successful from anywhere? What they must do to foster innovation amongst their workforces? etc.
While hybrid work gives employees greater flexibility to work from anywhere, organizations must chalk out necessary, consistent guidelines for those working from home and those who come to work. Providing the right tools to ensure security is of greater importance and an integral part of their business continuity strategy.
Having looked into all the above aspects, the final takeaway is that culture is still the ultimate competitive advantage. The pandemic redefined what workplace culture meant for many. The right culture brings the best of both worlds in a hybrid future in enabling employee productivity as well as key business outcomes.
By taking the right steps in building alignment, bringing in digital transformation and innovations to ensure work continuity, IT leaders can be confident that a hybrid work environment would find its relevance for future success.
