A recent study found that 27% of employees would prefer to work remotely full time, and 62% would prefer to work in a hybrid arrangement. Many businesses have listened to employee feedback and have spent the last few months planning how a hybrid work model can be introduced.

The move to hybrid aims to offer all the benefits of working in the office and working from home, such as collaboration, ease of communication and a stronger organisational culture. The hybrid work model can also significantly increase productivity, leading to a better work-life balance and increased employee satisfaction.

Below are 4 ways to boost productivity when employees are hybrid working.

1: Learn how to run an effective hybrid meeting

After 18 months of online meetings, most employees have found an effective and productive way to run meetings. Starting to work from the office will require a change in the way meetings are run, especially when some members are in the office and others are working from home.

Two methods of running an effective hybrid meeting are having all members using Microsoft Teams, or office workers all using a single computer, talking to remote workers on Teams. The former enables the experience to be the same for all attendees and may be a better solution for some businesses. The latter can aid in collaboration, however it is important to ensure that remote workers are included and the audio and video equipment used are sufficient. It will take some time to adjust to the new method of meetings, but from trial and error businesses will find the most effective way to run hybrid meetings to increase productivity.

2: Stick to your hours both at work and at home

For some employees, whilst working from home they find it easier to close their laptop at the end of a day and finish on time, whereas others struggle to set clear boundaries between work time and home time. Similarly, some employees find it difficult to leave the office on time, especially when there is more work to do. Spending more time working may seem like it would increase the amount of work completed, however, in the long run this leads to a poor work-life balance and puts employees at the risk of burnout which will greatly decrease productivity.

It is important that regardless of where employees are working, they stick to their start and finish times. When working at home a way to ensure this is to set and alarm for when it is time to finish work, and turn off all work related notifications on mobile phones. In the office if there are multiple employees that finish at the same time colleagues should encourage each other to leave at the same time to ensure no one is forming an unhealthy habit of prioritising work over home life.

Workplace analytics can help identify employees who are regularly exceeding their working hours. Line managers can use this information to encourage them to switch off at a sensible time.

3: Minimise distractions

For many that have become acclimatised to working from home with few distractions, going back to the office may be difficult to manage the distractions. This can decrease productivity, make work more stressful and leave employees feeling less motivated. In the office a great way to decrease distractions is by setting aside time that will be focus time and let colleagues know that during these times you should not be disturbed. It is also beneficial to set aside time dedicated to checking and replying to emails, rather than replying to all emails as soon as they arrive.  

When working from home it is typically easier to avoid distractions, however having meetings too often can cause distractions that decrease productivity and can lead to an unhealthy work-life balance. In Microsoft MyAnalytics it is possible to view how much of a week is dedicated to meetings and automatically set times in your calendar that is dedicated to focusing without distractions.

4: Use the office for collaboration and keep up communication at home

One of the more common problems with working from home has around collaboration on projects. Even with collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams, it’s still easier to do in person. For this reason, take advantage of working in an office for collaboration and tapping into other employees’ knowledge and skills to drive productivity and business growth.

Similarly, it is important to maintain communication when working from home and include those who may be remote only. One way to ensure this is to hold short meetings with all members of a department throughout the week to keep all employees in the loop. Effective communication increases productivity as it enables employees to better understand each other and increases morale.

As the workplace is fundamentally changing, employees and businesses need to consider what changes need to be made to ensure the move to a hybrid work model is seamless and productivity doesn’t suffer. If you want to find out more about hybrid working productivity, or how technology can be used to increase productivity, get in touch today!

Most of the nation has now been working from home for over a year. As employees were forced to adjust to the new normal, initially the balance of home-schooling, baking bread, and constant online meetings was hard to manage. A year on, and many employees now prefer remote working. Not having to commute, and saving money, the extra time in the day, and being more productive are common reasons people want to continue working from home. When it comes to productivity, two thirds of workers claim they are more productive when WFH. 

Business leaders are currently in discussion as to what the future of the workplace looks like when restrictions ease. For some, this may be going back to the office 5 days a week, but many businesses are considering continuing to work remotely, or in a hybrid arrangement. Whatever your organisation decides is best, it is important to consider the productivity pros and cons for all working locations and how to quantify this productivity. 

Productivity pros and cons of working from home

One of the key productivity benefits of remote working is the lack of distractions. It is often easier to have a quiet space to remain focused, whereas in the office there are distractions from conversations with colleagues and the hustle and bustle of a busy office. Remote working also opens up the possibility of flexible work hours. If employers allow workers to start and finish when it suits them it means that employees can choose to work the hours they are most productive. Similarly, working remotely improves the work-life balance for many employees. With less time spent commuting it allows more time for activities with friends and family. This work-life balance improvement can also increase productivity through greater employee satisfaction and wellbeing.

A potential negative consequence of remote working is a lack of communication and collaboration within departments. When working in an office it is easy to approach a colleague to have a discussion or ask a question, whereas whilst many remote employees are forced to rely on emails, instant messaging and video calls which can be difficult to organise, leading to poor communication. Microsoft Teams has all the tools necessary for effective communication, but it is up to the individual employee to utilise these tools for communication and collaboration. 

Some employees also struggle with loneliness and staying motivated whilst remote working which can decrease productivity and employee wellbeing. When working from home it is important to maintain interaction within a team, both from a professional and social standpoint. There are also management concerns with remote working productivity. In an office space it is easier to physically observe productivity in a team, however this has previously been difficult to monitor when working remotely. Microsoft aims to solve this issue with their Microsoft Productivity Score.  

How does Microsoft Productivity Score work?

The Microsoft Productivity Score provides metrics, insights to help improve productivity and satisfaction, and recommended actions to use Microsoft 365 more effectively. These metrics, insights and recommendations are split into two areas: people experiences and technology experiences. 

1. People experiences include content collaboration, mobility, communication, meetings, and teamwork. 
2. Technology experiences show if the technology is being used to its full ability and the overall health of the organisation’s technology. 

For people experience data, you need a Microsoft 365 for Business subscription. For technology experiences, you require a Microsoft Intune subscription. The productivity score shows the your organisation’s score and compares it with peer benchmarks of similar sized organisations in a specific region. This data can then be used to track productivity over time and give recommendations to improve productivity, use of technology and employee satisfaction and wellbeing.

Is the Microsoft Productivity Score a workplace surveillance tool?

When the feature was launched in May 2020, Microsoft came into some criticism from privacy campaigners calling the Microsoft Productivity Score “full-fledged workplace surveillance tool”. Why the tool does allow admins to drill down on the activity of individual users, Microsoft assures critics that this is not the purpose of the score.

“We are committed to privacy as a fundamental element of productivity score,” wrote Jared Spataro, the corporate vice-president for Microsoft 365, in online documentation. “Let me be clear: productivity score is not a work monitoring tool. Productivity score is about discovering new ways of working, providing your people with great collaboration and technology experiences … For example, to help maintain privacy and trust, the user data provided in productivity score is aggregated over a 28-day period.”

Instead, IT teams can use the data to make the most of their technology investments by addressing common pain points like long boot times, inefficient document collaboration, or poor network connectivity; and to support user adoption.

Get the most out of Microsoft 365

For many employees remote working has been a positive experience with an increase in productivity and a better work-life balance. Regardless of whether businesses are planning to continue remote working or change to a hybrid arrangement when restrictions ease, it is important for employers to consider the difficulties of remote working and support employees to overcome these difficulties. 

A great place to start is by using Microsoft Productivity Score as it gives insights and recommendations to improve productivity and utilise Microsoft 365 apps to their full ability. If you want to find out more on how Microsoft Productivity Score can help with remote working productivity get in touch today!