Microsoft and the Rise of Hybrid Working

According to a report carried out by Gallup, pre-pandemic, 60% of workers worked exclusively from the office, with only 8% working exclusively remote.

By February 2022, those numbers had shifted drastically, with 39% of workers based completely remotely, and only 19% fully on-site. For the majority (60%) of people, however, the preferred location is a mix of the two.

The top reasons for preferring a hybrid work model are cited as follows:

• To avoid commute time / petrol expense
• It’s better for wellbeing overall
• Better flexibility to balance family needs and other obligations
• The option to work in-person with co-workers
• Feeling more productive and connected to the organisation

We all know what event triggered this shift in working, but without any lockdown rules enforcing home working, it’s interesting to learn that many people actually prefer to be away from the office. And organisations have found that the productivity of their team has increased, with 63% of high-growth companies embracing this with a ‘productivity anywhere’ hybrid work approach.

From the perspective of Guernsey businesses, embracing hybrid and remote working gives them access to a much wider talent pool. As local businesses continue to grow, it can often be difficult to find enough candidates to fill all their vacancies. If your company is able to facilitate hybrid working, you’re giving yourself access to an entirely new pool of candidates.

But of course, being productive at work is completely dependent on the technology you’re using, regardless of where you’re working from. Collaboration and communication is key.

With that in mind, our first hybrid working saviour is Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Teams is much more than a team messaging app. The application combines the best features of virtual video meetings and messaging channels, combining them to form a secure online work hub.

MS Teams has come a long way in the last five years, and the company continues to add more features to enable hybrid offices. Some of the recent feature updates include:

• The ability to do webinar registration
• Presenter modes that provide a more professional virtual presence
• Increased security through features like smart links and smart attachments
• A full business VoIP phone system add-on
• The addition of a “metaverse” component called Mesh for Teams

At Resolution IT, we make sure to put all our company announcements on Teams as well as discussing them in the in-person Friday meeting. This way, if anyone is working from home or out of the office on a Friday, they’ll still be in the know.

We have different Teams channels for the different departments of the company so that updates can be spread out and won’t flood one channel. You can also create private groups.
Although we do all love to talk in person, when people are working from home, the Teams chat function makes it super easy to shoot off quick questions, get approval or share files.

Our second hybrid working saviour is OneDrive.

Microsoft OneDrive backs up and protects your files and allows you to access them across all of your devices. OneDrive also powers file sharing and document collaboration, which is a key feature hybrid workers should embrace.

Microsoft applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, now include a ‘share’ button on the top right, which uses OneDrive to send your files to teammates who can collaborate on them in real time. This means there’s no sending documents back and forth, no need to save down multiple copies and struggle to keep track of which one’s which, and no risk of saving over / deleting each other’s work.

The Resolution IT team is always collaborating on projects. Whether it’s asking a team mate to proof-read something, getting someone from another department to add their expertise, or sharing work with the management team to get their input and approval. OneDrive facilitates collaboration and makes teamwork so much easier.

Those are just two of our favourite apps for hybrid working, but there are loads more you can make use of. If you’re looking to venture into the hybrid work model, get in touch with our Digital Transformation team for a free consultation. We’d be happy to help!