The journey to the modern workplace has given business leaders the chance to reimagine the very essence of the way we work and the role technology is playing in creating resilient, future-proof organisations.
Across the Middle East and Africa, organisations are working to strike a balance between the digital and physical workplaces, in effort to establish a hybrid environment that both meets employee expectations while promoting business outcomes.
Getting that integration right is crucial to driving productivity, collaboration, and client and employee satisfaction. And while there is no one-size-fits-all approach, a sustainable hybrid work model goes beyond supporting remote work and new safety processes.
Giving your employees the right skills, tools, and culture can empower the entire business to be more creative, more productive, and more collaborative, while ensuring no one is left behind.
Clear hybrid strategy
Hybrid work requires a deliberate, thoughtful approach. To help employees work better and maximise the benefits of both in-person and remote work, business leaders should offer employees a flexible work policy that clearly outlines when and how employees can work from locations other than the office or on a flexible schedule.
By creating standardised policies for the workplace, your organisation can grow as an inclusive work environment.
As a starting point, business leaders can leverage insights and information that offer learnings from other organisations who are reimagining people, places, and processes for a hybrid world. There are also a number of hybrid work resources available to assist leaders in the design a framework that best fits their organisation.
Cloud-based collaboration tools
To build a successful hybrid work environment, business and IT leaders need to give employees the tools to succeed. Collaboration tools empower employees to easily work with others at any time, from anywhere, and stay in the flow of work without needing to switch across multiple apps and data.
Organisations can further unify workflows by integrating intelligent business applications into collaboration tools, enabling more people across departments and roles to find, view, and update records, ensuring the right individuals can take the next best action faster and more efficiently.
Zero-trust security protocols
With some users working remotely and others in group office settings, the hybrid work environment introduces more digital attack surfaces, complexity, and risk to an organisation than ever before.
To protect your organisation, data, customers and employees in our increasingly complex and dynamic digital world, it’s vital for your security team to enforce a Zero Trust approach and verify each request as though it originates from an open network.
Zero Trust principles verify explicitly, grant least privileged access, and assume breach, which helps maintain security amid the IT complexity that comes with hybrid work. This security approach helps organisations adapt to the complexity of the modern environment more effectively, while protecting people, devices, apps, and data wherever they’re located.
Skilled resources
In the hybrid workplace, trust and skills go hand in hand. Business leaders need to trust that team members have the necessary skills to perform their functions independently from anywhere at any time.
Soft skills like communication, leadership, emotional intelligence and taking initiative are all vital to ensure that work continues at an optimal level no matter where employees are, while simultaneously maintaining trust with leaders that business objectives are being met.
While there is still so much to learn, one thing is certain: hybrid work is here to stay. As workplaces and world events continue to evolve, so too will the needs of your employees and organisation.
Mohamed Mikou, Chief Operating Officer & Chief Marketing Officer: Microsoft Middle East & Africa.
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