Hybrid Collaboration & Analytics: Technology in the Hybrid Workforce

Our recent webinar, How Workforce Analytics, Physical Planning & Technology Are Shaping the New Workplace, covered the many changes workplaces will see in the near future and how organizations can prepare as this new paradigm takes place. In this blog article on hybrid collaboration tools and hybrid analytics technology, we’ll cover how to:

• Use workforce data analytics to inform decision-making, increase productivity and improve end-user experiences.
• Create physical office environments that support your workforce and complement your culture.
• Enhance the physical and digital workplace with hybrid collaboration technology while safeguarding the expanded perimeter through security layers.

What Does the ‘New Normal’ for Workplaces Mean?

The past eighteen months have changed the workforce more drastically than ever. Now, 73% of employees want flexible remote options to continue, but at the same time, 67% of employees want more in-person work or collaboration in the post-pandemic world. Employee interaction and collaboration is a key motivator for employers moving forward. 63% of leaders say their company is considering redesigning office spaces for hybrid work and hybrid collaboration to create the best environment for remote and in-office employees.

Hybrid Workforce Model: Benefits and Challenges

A Hybrid Workforce model is a flexible work arrangement that incorporates employees working onsite, employees who work remotely, and employees who alternate between the two.

The benefits are:

• Additional flexibility, which leads to increased employee satisfaction
• Decreased overhead and hiring costs
• Increased revenue and productivity

The challenges are:

• Committing to both employee experiences
• Space management
• Shared ownership and trust

Hybrid Analytics: Understanding & Utilizing Workforce Analytics

Workforce Analytics are used to measure the behavior of employees and analyze data points to improve business performance. This is crucial in making sure that you’re optimizing your organizations’ strengths. The first step to incorporating workforce hybrid analytics is identifying your organizations’ key goals. These can be:

• Cutting costs
• Increasing productivity
• Harnessing automation
• Tightening cybersecurity
• Transitioning to a hybrid work environment

Some questions you as an organization might ask yourself while examining your productivity and cost analysis are:

• Whether employees are more productive working remotely vs in an office?
• Which employees are at risk of burnout?
• How much time is spent focused on work?
• Can we consolidate tools that employees use?
• Which software tools are used consistently, and which can we discontinue?
• Are unapproved applications being used that could introduce compliance and/or data risks?

Once your organizational goals and key considerations are determined, the next step is determining which workforce technology platform and collaboration tools for remote teams are right for your organization and developing a plan for implementation. An IT service provider can work with you to determine the right fit for your organization.

Building and Planning the Hybrid Workforce Experience

To build your hybrid workplace for success, you need to use a data-driven approach to define the hybrid workforce model with better hybrid analytics. There is no cookie-cutter, one size fits all approach that your organization can take because all employees are unique. Developing Pilot programs to test and demonstrate value is key in this aspect.

Planning the experience involves defining HR and IT offerings to enable both remote and in-office employee experiences. By monitoring the hybrid work experience and hybrid analytics — and continuously improving based on successes and feedback, you can foster new forms of hybrid collaboration that were not previously available.

Creating a Physical Office Environment

With employees wanting to have a flexible work schedule between remote and the physical office, it is paramount for employers to create a physical office environment that caters to both groups of employees.

The new workspace should emphasize the qualities that employees cannot get from remote work. Organizations need to repurpose the office space for a more thoughtful shift to a variety of workspaces to support the diverse needs of the workforce. Organizations need collaboration areas and social spaces, quiet spaces, and meeting spaces with seamless technology integration and collaboration tools for remote teams that are easy to use.  

Here are some elements that will to foster a collaborative culture:

• Modern Audiovisual Capabilities Across the Space
• Mobile Spaces
• Modern Employee Hardware
• Unified Communications-as-a-Service
• Easy File Sharing
• Intuitive Knowledge Management

Organizations need to keep in mind that hybrid collaboration does bring additional security threats, so it’s important to assess risks associated with Bring-Your-Own-Device. This is where user and entity behavior analytics tie in as well, and why your HR and IT need to be aligned with secure collaboration tools for remote teams.

Final Thoughts on Hybrid Collaboration & Analytics

The successful workplace of the future will rely on workforce analytics and collaboration tools for remote teams. These hybrid analytics are providing data that drives business decisions forward. Also, giving people a choice about how they best they get their work done, and figuring out how to set up your physical workplace for that collaboration is going to propel your organization to excel.

This transition can be made easy with managed cyber security and managed collaboration services. Dataprise can ensure that your environment is effective and secure. Get in touch with our team today to learn more about our hybrid workforce solutions.

Learn even more about hybrid analytics and collaboration tools for remote teams by clicking through our Return to Workplace IT Guidebook down below.