The Future of the Workplace – the age of the hybrid workplace is upon us

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Pete Watson is CEO of Atlas Cloud, a multi-award winning managed cloud services company based in Newcastle. Having seen a huge increase in demand for their services as businesses transitioned to remote and hybrid working, they then embarked on a large-scale national research project asking people what they were expecting from the future of work. Here, as part of the Chamber’s Future of the Workplace report, Pete showcases their findings and explains the role of technology in enabling people to work the way they want.

Download our full Future of the Workplace report here, and read our launch blog here.

The age of the hybrid workplace is upon us. At Atlas Cloud we’ve always strongly believed a more balanced split between the office and home would become the future of work. However, we didn’t predict it being rapidly accelerated by a global pandemic. Covid-19 has shown that traditional working practices can be challenged without the world imploding. Thanks to technology, meetings can still take place, collaboration can still be achieved, customers can still get the level of service they demand… and the world keeps on turning. Some remain of the opinion that once we get on top of the virus that the status quo will be restored. However, employee expectations have shifted and many employers have had an epiphany. Some may revert to type, but for how long?

“Almost two-thirds of people (64.25%) would like to work in a hybrid fashion, splitting their work time between home and office.”

Our latest workplace survey revealed that almost two-thirds of people (64.25%) would like to work in a hybrid fashion, splitting their work time between home and office. On top of this, more than a quarter (28.30%) would prefer to work entirely from home. With this strong preference towards hybrid working it was no surprise to find that more than half of respondents (51.2%) would consider using a local remote working hub in the future. We expect that such hubs will become increasingly commonplace over the next couple of years, and we’re not the only ones – the Welsh government are actively exploring options for a network of remote working hubs in towns and communities.

In contrast to the overriding hybrid working preference of the UK workforce, 28.65% of our survey respondents believe that their employee would prefer them to work either mostly or fully from the office once the pandemic is in check. Even more worryingly, only 10.70% of respondents expected to be able to work their preference post-Covid. This highlights a clear disparity between employer and employee working preferences and, with almost half of workers (48.95%) stating they would consider looking elsewhere if they were unable to work their preference, this could lead to substantially elevated employee churn rates for companies that do not embrace a hybrid working strategy.

“Even more worryingly, only 10.70% of respondents expected to be able to work their preference post-Covid.”

So just how well placed are UK companies to run with a hybrid model? Our survey asked respondents how they rated various aspects of working, both from the office and from work. From collaboration effectiveness (down 9.97%) to the ability to access information (down 7.23%) and from work/life balance (down 0.87%) to the ability to stay focused (down 10.47%); scores were down across the board when working from home. Now many of these measures will undoubtedly have been skewed slightly by the impact of Covid-19 and lockdowns (think home-schooling, isolation etc.) so we do anticipate the lifting of restrictions to have a positive impact on things life work/life balance. However, the needle is unlikely to move as significantly for measures that are highly impacted by tech sophistication. Indeed, our respondents rated their overall tech effectiveness as being 5.49% lower when working from home.

It’s no surprise really with so many companies being forced to switch to remote working overnight, but the fact remains that there is a gap that needs to be bridged and it can only be achieved by improving your tech infrastructure and/or how your tech is applied. At Atlas Cloud we’ve utilised Microsoft Teams, a unified communication tool, to great effect since before the first lockdown. We use it as an intranet, a collaboration portal, a communication tool (chat, audio, and video), a work planner and much more besides. Many companies have licenses to use Teams but they don’t necessarily know how to best implement it and to secure it.

“Technology will undoubtedly be one of the chief enablers.”

Speaking of security, our survey found that only 21.85% of people are using a company device to work from home. This represents a huge security concern if personal devices are not maintained with the latest anti-virus protection when connecting to the work network. In addition, there’s a strong chance that sensitive data could leave the corporate network and end up on personal devices, creating a potentially serious data protection issue. Virtual desktops can help solve this by allowing all work to be performed and all traffic routed through a secure data centre (whether public or private cloud). The technology is so robust that you could even use your phone to fire up a virtual session with the right casting device and smart monitor.

For those with poor internet connections at home we expect to see a rise in the use of SD-WAN devices and services that will help to reduce the bandwidth required for accessing things such as Office 365 apps. This is achieved by bypassing data centres and directing traffic direct to the end source in a secure fashion. Such devices and services are set to become much more affordable, and therefore viable, for home users in the coming years.

There’s a real need to marry the desire to work in a hybrid fashion with the ability to work in a hybrid fashion. Technology will undoubtedly be one of the chief enablers of this and as a managed IT service provider Atlas Cloud are looking forward to working with UK businesses to help shape their hybrid strategies and bring their hybrid visions to fruition.

Pete Watson
@petewatson_ceo
atlascloud.co.uk

For more information on Atlas Cloud’s research, please visit their website: https://www.atlascloud.co.uk/research/

Download our full Future of the Workplace report here, and read our launch blog here.

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