Making The Transition To A Hybrid Workplace: What Finance Leaders Need To Know

According to recent studies, more than 70% of workers worldwide want to keep their flexible work schedules. With labor shortages and the constant shift of expectations in workers, businesses have very little choice but to comply with worker demands. 
Unfortunately, not all responsibilities are suitable for remote work. Thus, a hybrid work setup seems to be the ideal compromise for organizations across the globe. 
Before building an efficient and productive hybrid workplace, you’ll need a few tips and tools to ensure your company’s transition is successful. Here’s what finance leaders need to know when making the transition to a hybrid workplace.

Invest in Technology

Although further research is yet to be conducted to prove its efficacy, current studies show that the digitalization of work offers companies greater returns on investments in the long term. 
Integrating new technology into your company’s daily procedures can improve productivity and lessen errors. Additionally, it can encourage proper communication between teams. 
Emailing clients, producing expense reports, and filing invoices are a few examples of tasks that require a lot of time to complete. With the right tools and applications in place, employees can automate these tasks and save time and avoid mistakes in the process. 
As a result, they can focus on other responsibilities that require more mental gymnastics. 
Physical documents can be a hassle to monitor. It can also take up a ton of real estate in the office, which could cost companies more money down the road. 
Yet another way digitalization can help improve company efficiency is by storing all the paperwork in a secure non-physical location. 
If you ever need to access a certain file or contract, all you need to do is log onto the platform, type in a file name in a search box, and your file should appear in the results panel. 
 

Create New Workplace Policies

A new workplace requires new policies to keep the peace and order. Since everyone will be transitioning to an entirely different system of doing things, it’s wise to expect that most of your employees will find it confusing, perhaps even a little frustrating. 
Creating new regulations and policies that meet the new demands of a hybrid workplace can ensure that the transition goes smoothly. Furthermore, it gives team leaders and employees clear guidelines to follow that will ultimately prevent them from making costly errors in the workplace. 

Provide Leadership Training

Most leaders have spent years cultivating their onsite management skills. Although some of these skills may still be applicable to a hybrid work setup, leaders will need to develop new skills that are more appropriate to a digital environment. 
One of the best ways companies can help team leaders and managers ease into this transition is if they provide teams with leadership training geared towards hybrid workplaces. Doing so can help business leaders become more effective managers and, in turn, improve employee productivity and efficiency. 

Prioritize Communication and Empathy

Both employers and employees are traversing uncharted territory when it comes to starting a hybrid workplace. Everyone will need ample time to adjust and adapt to the new ways things are being done in the company. 
Thus, communication and empathy are two important factors to keep in mind. 
Leaders should create effective feedback channels for which they can easily measure employee thoughts and reactions about certain company policies or systems. Doing so can help you keep track of things that your employees are finding difficult to adjust to. 
Schedule regular check-ins with team members to give them the opportunity to raise concerns to you. One common reason that a worker might be underperforming is that they’re currently undergoing severe life changes that are ruining their balance.

Encourage Employee Recognition

Recognizing your employee’s hard work can improve your organization’s engagement rates by 2.5%. If you don’t currently have a recognition program for your employees, starting one now can help improve your current workplace culture. 
Host virtual meetings that involve the whole company or department. Award outstanding performers with prizes and other benefits for their great work. This is a great way to show your employees how you appreciate their hard work and dedication.

Final Thoughts

Making the transition to a hybrid workplace isn’t easy. However, with the right techniques and methods in place, you should be able to make everything easier for everyone involved. 
Investing in new technology to streamline procedures and systems is the first step to creating an effective hybrid work setup. The next step is to help your employees and leaders find their bearings as you journey together toward an entirely new way of achieving work and output. 
Empathy and communication should be at the forefront of your procedures. Doing so will help you understand your employees and team leaders better. And as a result, you can design systems and policies that will in turn help them become more effective participants in the organization. 

Streamline the Way You Do Business

Olivia is a next-generation AI that automates expense management tasks, so you and your team can focus on more critical organizational projects. 
Easily scan receipts and invoices, and store them in secure Cloud storage. Limit access to only appropriate team members or guests. Conveniently locate documents, files, and receipts—do everything using a simple and comfortable UI. 
For more details, you may leave us a message or reach out to us via Facebook.

Transform receipts and invoices into reports and digital assets, in seconds

START NOW!