Hybrid work has made it easier to return to the office by offering employees the possibility of alternating between face-to-face and teleworking days. With a rotation of teams, the rules of social distancing and the respect of sanitary measures were more easily applicable and hybrid work quickly became the solution to preserve the health of employees while maintaining the productivity of teams.

Indeed, before the pandemic, telework was a minority practice in France, although it was provided for by the Labour Code, but with the health crisis, managers had to adapt their practices and organizations changed their corporate culture to allow a necessary but reasoned return to work.

While the hybrid work model was new, many companies discovered the many benefits of this new way of working and realized that it improves the employee experience by allowing for a better work-life balance, without affecting collaborative teamwork or productivity.
As a result, many workers and companies are now opting for a hybrid work mode, most often teleworking one or two days a week, with the rest done remotely.

Continuing to go "to the office" remains essential for employees: the social link with co-workers and managers, the collaboration between teams, the fact of having to get up and get dressed in the morning, etc. These are healthy habits that many employees want to maintain in order to continue to work well; telecommuting is a bonus.

Remote working is an opportunity for them to have more independence, more flexibility. Some see it as an opportunity to have a really quiet space, with no one to disturb us unless we decide to. This can lead to less stress and tiredness that can be accumulated at work.

On the personal side, it is an opportunity to have more time for oneself by spending less time in transportation, to better manage one's appointments with the plumber or the dentist. In their relationship with their work, some people may even feel more motivated!

For companies, it is an opportunity to reduce the number of offices needed: an opportunity to optimize the company's capital stock, to make it more profitable. For example, if two employees' work schedules are overlaped, they can share an office instead of using two separate offices.

Flexibility is attractive and being able to offer such solution will help you to acquire new and young talent who are willing to work from home once or several times a week. Offering a hybrid way of working is an additional recruitment argument.

Reshaping workspaces

If moving to partial remote work presents several issues and needs to get used to new digital tools, it also requires a change in the way offices are set up. It may require fewer open spaces and more meeting rooms.
Meeting rooms that will have to be equipped with all the necessary equipment to ensure videoconferences with remote employees for example. Also, for meetings between two employees, if one is working remotely and the other is working on site, the latter must have a space in which to discuss things quietly.

Deciding on the hybrid work arrangements

To ensure the transition, a company must establish a dialogue with employees to decide on the terms of the hybrid workplace. This mainly consists of agreeing on the
number of on-site days and teleworking days; for this, there are several options
:

• 1 day of home office per week: one day in the week, or a day that changes according to the tasks, the projects
• A " homeworking " package: the company gives a number of days that can be teleworked in the week, in the month
• Organize according to imperatives, especially for companies with a seasonal activity
• These modalities obviously change according to the tasks of the employees: are they all achievable remotely?

Organize information and secure it

You also need a calendar with the days when each person is present in the office and the days when they are teleworking: teams must be able to know at any time who is where and who is doing what. More than ever
More than ever, objectives must be clear between management and employees.
This permanent move to hybrid also brings with it a whole host of issues around the security of the data that passes between the home workstation and the servers that host it. If they haven't been studied along with the health measures, it's time to be vigilant on this point.

Beware of mental and physical risks

Beware the hybrid mode, can lead to some extent to mental and physical problems of employees. When they are in the company, they can be easily followed: we see them, we talk to them.
But when they are alone at home, they may not have a way of working that guarantees their physical health: training employees in the hybrid workplace is
important. We need to remind them how to set up their work environment to avoid musculoskeletal disorders (MSD), for example.
Psychosocial risks must also be prevented: changing the organization mode can have a psychological impact on employees. Here too, training and follow-up are important.

Use remote collaboration tools

Communication and collaboration are the driving forces behind the smooth running of a company: a few days of remote work should not be allowed to disrupt this. If you haven't already done so, perhaps it's time to use a shared calendar to note meetings, appointments between employees, outings to other companies, welcoming clients, etc.
Also, to best collaborate with telecommuting colleagues, you should use remote collaboration tools: Office, G Suite, Notion, Trello, Teams, Zoom, etc.