With COVID-19 and lockdowns, the world of work has changed drastically, as many people now work from home and spend more time at home overall. This change has been received in different ways.

Many have got used to this new life and have had a positive overall experience because they can spend more time with their family and have more freedom to organize their day-to-day life. Regardless, the transition has been difficult for a lot of people because many do not have a quiet workspace at home, being exposed to constant distractions and noise. In addition, not every company is able to provide adequate tools for remote work. 

Wisdom enables your employees to connect effortlessly with consistent communication while working from different locations, ensuring smooth collaboration. With Wisdom, there is no threat to your company’s productivity during the era of remote work.

1. What is the hybrid work model?

First we have to understand what the hybrid work model is exactly. 

When the world of work suddenly changed to virtual, organizations faced many challenges, as not everyone was prepared to manage their business completely online and a significant amount didn’t have the adequate tools to help their employees.

For various organizations, the change was too sudden and they would have needed more time to adjust. During the process of adjustments and changes regarding workplace policies, two parties evolved with different opinions regarding work. While one party was all for the remote work and its benefits that they had discovered due to the pandemic, the other party wanted to get back to their workplace and work on-site as soon as possible. As a compromise is often the best solution, the hybrid work model gained popularity, catering to both parties’ needs.

2. The benefits of the hybrid work model

This work model can have a variety of benefits for businesses and their employees. It has proven to have the potential to improve productivity and efficiency. 

More satisfaction thanks to more flexibility

People’s energy and motivational levels are very different, leading to differences in the way they prefer to work. Some are particularly motivated and determined in the morning, while others find the afternoon easier to get work done. A lot of employees also have to integrate their family life into their daily routine, especially if their children aren’t of school age yet. Then there are people who like to take breaks to go for walks and clear their minds or they squeeze in a sports session during their lunch break. Some also have to make private appointments. The hybrid work model gives people more freedom to do all of those things, which increases satisfaction and motivation while allowing them to continue to work.

Increased productivity for more success

Satisfied and motivated employees are key to improving a company’s productivity and thus its success. Working from home allows people to design their workplace the way they like. This way, they can feel more comfortable and relaxed. In general, being able to choose the workplace and having more flexible working hours are great ways to prevent stress and blockages. Employees can direct their energy and focus on their work when they’re at their peak, not forcing them due to set work hours.

Decreased costs

Since employees aren’t tied to an office, employers can reduce the costs of rent, air conditioning, office supplies and other business expenses. The saved money can be used to promote other business areas, for example to invest in their online tools, which in turn can help with decreasing more costs because there is less training needed with modern technology, less expensive hardware thanks to software as a service offerings, and tools that help improve or automate business processes.

Expanded job opportunities

Due to the pandemic and sudden changes, millions of people around the world were furloughed or lost their jobs. At the same time, however, there were more opportunities to work internationally and fully online as the world has become more virtual.

3. The challenges of remote work

There are numerous reasons why remote work can be a challenge at times and why some people prefer to work at the office instead of at home. As mentioned before, disruptions at home can be a big problem. 

Two things that can also happen when you stop going to the office are lack of exercise and isolation. Not everyone exercises during their lunch break. For some, the only exercise they get is a daily walk to and from the office. Remote work eliminates that physical activity, and people spend their days sitting around at home with no reason to leave their house if they don’t do sports after work. In addition, isolation is a problem for many who may not have family at home and feel completely alone because they no longer see their co-workers.

Some of the biggest fears of not working at the office are having technical problems or not having the sufficient equipment at home, as well as the fear of missing out. It’s important to know exactly what is needed at home, so that the work can be done smoothly, just like at the office. Moreover, it must be ensured that all the necessary devices like computer or laptop, printer, etc. are working without issues.

Another problem that has surfaced is the sheer amount of applications being used by businesses and their teams. You need tools to communicate with your co-workers, a digital workspace, a cloud-based storage like google drive, and often many more. In an effort to facilitate remote work, businesses are trying to find software products that help them ease processes and transform them. This effort has been getting out of hand. According to a survey from 2017, the average worker uses 9.4 different apps a day. It is fair to assume that this number has since increased. The mental energy and time consumed by repeatedly switching back and forth between those apps has been taking a toll on workers’ mental health.

4. How wisdom community solves problems

Now that we’ve talked about the challenges people can experience while working from home, we have to think about how those problems can be solved or prevented. 

As mentioned before, not many organizations have adequate tools to help their employees and couldn’t keep up with the change going from the traditional work model to fully remote so suddenly. However, when employees work from home or when part of them work remotely and part of them stay in the office, it has to be ensured that there’s good communication between them and that they can still work together, hold meetings and collaborate efficiently.

Motivated by our own experience and building on our competences, we have built a tool that helps with streamlining communication, ensuring efficient collaboration and most of all creating a sense of community, while integrating essential features from prominent apps to decrease the amount of apps needed, facilitating access and navigation at the workplace.

Wisdom is a knowledge community platform for both customers and employees. It combines knowledge sharing and communication while reinforcing a feeling of community. These characteristics make for great customer support. Wisdom helps businesses gain customers and connect with them, and can also increase engagement, efficiency and collaboration between employees. The features include the key functionalities of a social intranet software, an online community software and a wiki software to benefit the  users of the platform. With a focus on intuitivity and customization, Wisdom Community presents itself as a very attractive community platform with lots of use cases.

While Wisdom can’t possibly solve all of the problems that could occur due to remote work, such as a bad internet connection or disruptions at home, which at times are inevitable, it is able to facilitate work for employees, connect customers and brands and create a thriving community around your business. Even while being in different locations kilometers apart, they can communicate easily with each other through the platform and collaborate without issues. They will continue to be motivated and engaged, and there won’t be a decrease in efficiency. Additionally, the platform helps build a community and strengthens the connection between the users, which in turn can help people who are feeling lonely at remote work.

5. What is the conclusion?

Working from home is not for everyone. Some like the flexibility, others prefer to go to the office. Therefore, what is important is to make sure that everyone can fulfill their potential by having the right equipment and also the ability to connect with co-workers without any problems, no matter where employees are working from. Employers need to be able to provide their employees with appropriate tools to make this possible.

Wisdom Community proves to be an excellent platform to build a community as well as communicate and collaborate with each other. It facilitates remote work and in general, it is an exceptional addition to make the hybrid work model work.