by Leigh-Ann Athanasius & Kathleen Kibi
It isn’t news to anyone that the onset of the pandemic caused some major changes to how we live our lives. We now think twice before a handshake; have sanitisers accessible at all times; and probably have a mask in every bag or jacket pocket, just in case. And these are just the trivial effects of the pandemic. Not only were our personal lives affected but so were our work lives.
How, and more importantly where, we work saw a massive shift. As everywhere locked down and people needed to stay indoors, work needed to evolve. And that it has. “Work from home” (WFH) became the new buzz word across the globe. Everyone was forced to find a way to make it work for their companies to keep their staff safe, but still keep up with the demands of the working world.
When the work from home order was first put out, we obliged, much like every other company that could. Our only problem was that we weren’t fully equipped for it. Working from home had never been a consideration for us before 2020. As a result, as soon as we could, we were back to fully operating from the office. However, in keeping up with the times, we have realised that there is value in figuring out an effective work from home system that can easily be implemented. And so this year, we ventured into a hybrid work model. This has been our experience with it…
So would we recommend a hybrid model?
Absolutely! If your company can implement a hybrid model without disrupting your productivity, then we think you should give it a try.
From our experience, being able to work from home a few times a week is great for boosting morale, it saves your team members the commute which saves time and money. Working from home also helps you appreciate the interaction of being in the office more. It can help team members value those times that they get to be collaborative a lot more and as such build better bonds with colleagues. And this is the benefit of the hybrid model over fully in-office work or fully remote work. Team members get the best of both worlds.
And given the shock we all received in 2020, it doesn’t hurt to have a model already in place to be ready for anything.
