The Benefits (and Risks) of Hybrid Work

If one fact has been proven true, it’s that remote and hybrid work are not temporary trends; they are future operating models that help businesses achieve greater flexibility and talent retention. Of particular interest is hybrid work, an approach that mixes the demands of in-office work with the benefits and flexibility of remote work. If you want to build hybrid work into your operational infrastructure, there can be no denying that your IT infrastructure has to be locked in—particularly if you want to stay productive, secure, and competitive.

Let’s review the benefits and risks of hybrid work as an operational model for your business.

The Benefits of Hybrid Work

There are three main reasons why your business would want to implement a hybrid work model: access to and retention of top talent, cost efficiency, and resilience.

Not only will you have access to more talent, but your employees will be far more satisfied with their work arrangement, thereby reducing turnover rate. Additionally, since your entire team won’t be in the office at the same time, you’ll save money on office space and utilities. Since your business will be equipped for remote work as a side effect of implementing hybrid work, you’ll be ready to adapt, even if a major disruption makes going to the office impossible.

You never know when you’ll need to be flexible with your operations, so it pays to be ready, even if it’s not a major part of your operations model.

The Risks of Hybrid Work

There will always be risks associated with good things, so here are three to consider for hybrid work: security, productivity, and compliance.

The biggest challenge, security, stems from an increased attack surface. Since employees will be using their personal wireless networks and devices, there’s a greater need for advanced security measures and training. There’s also the issue of employee productivity: some employees struggle to manage their time effectively when out of the office and may experience connectivity and collaboration issues. Furthermore, compliance becomes significantly more challenging because your sensitive data is accessed from uncontrolled locations.

All that said, these issues are manageable and addressable with the help of the right technology (and the right expertise, of course).

The Technology That Mitigates Risk and Enhances Benefits

Technology can fuel your business’ hybrid work policy. Here are some of the most well-regarded solutions:

• Tools that control access to important data, like multi-factor authentication (MFA) and cloud computing solutions.
• A unified communications tool that helps your team stay on the same page (like Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace).
• Centralized endpoint management that helps your business secure every device used by your employees to access company resources.

Whether you like it or not, hybrid work is here to stay, and your business will likely have to at least consider it in its future plans—especially as top talent makes hybrid work a priority. Regardless of how you implement it, hybrid work is something your business should be prepared for. However, what if your business doesn’t have the IT knowledge and expertise to handle managing all this technology? That’s where we come in.

Interested in finding out more about how managed IT services enable remote work and allow your business to flourish, all without worrying about technology? To learn more, please contact us at 607-433-2200.