Jul 2021

Hybrid Working is the Future

COVID-19 made working from home a necessity overnight, whether we preferred working that way or not. Unfortunately, many businesses had to close their doors as their work duties could not be completed at home. The COVID-19 lockdown was effectively a mass experiment in remote working, and one that many businesses and employees feel was at least a partial success. The world of work may change forever as employees want hybrid working to be the future by working some days from the office and some days from home. If businesses get it right, hybrid working has significant benefits.

Work/life balance

A recent study of 2,000 UK employees revealed that 67% of those working remotely since COVID-19 want to be able to split their time between the physical workplace and home working in the future. Working from home allows employees to spend more time with their partner, family or pets during lunch breaks and time they would have spent commuting. It also allows them to get chores around the house done or time to fully relax.

Employers and payroll processors can also enjoy hybrid working as they don’t need to worry about having to complete payroll tasks in one set location. BrightPay payroll files can be accessed remotely through cloud environments like a shared server, Google Drive or Dropbox. This flexibility will allow users to continue to operate their payroll as normal and can be installed on up to 10 PCs.

Communication

Keeping employees connected by effective communication is key. Employers must continue to provide multi communication channels for employees. It shouldn’t matter whether they are attending a meeting online via Zoom or in person face-to-face, the outcome should be the same.

One of the biggest frustrations for many employees working remotely is not having access to the physical paper-based files they had in the office. BrightPay Connect can help. BrightPay Connect is an optional cloud add-on to BrightPay's payroll desktop application. It offers a HR Document Upload feature which allows managers to share documents with individuals, departments or the whole company at the touch of a button anytime, anywhere. Employees can access it using their smartphone or tablet device.

Regular communication is essential for hybrid working. Without it, employees can feel disconnected, morale can dip, and priorities can become confused. The click rate of a push notification is 7 times higher than that of email, and BrightPay Connect is a great way of communicating with employees when it comes to important updates.

Productivity

It took a global pandemic for a lot of businesses to realise that productivity was not lowered by remote working.

Remote working can increase productivity. The top number of reasons include:

Fewer interruptions
Less distractions
Working in a more comfortable place
More time to get work done
Better daily routine

Working from the office can also benefit individuals as they are learning from others naturally e.g., overhearing a good sales call and getting tips to improve their own approach or building relationships with colleagues they might not work directly with.

Commute

A recent survey in the UK found that remote workers save the equivalent of 17 days when they don’t have to spend time getting to and from work with an average commute time of 50 minutes. This means less road rage and being late to work if you don’t have to commute every day! Remote working is vital to keeping air pollution to a minimum. Based on findings, working from home could cut 11 billion car miles per year.

BrightPay takes environmental responsibility seriously and is committed to developing our business towards ecological sustainability at both company and individual level. We are extremely excited to be opening our new carbon efficient offices in 2021.

Overall, a work/life balance can increase an individual’s happiness, fulfilment and job satisfaction.

Find out more about BrightPay and BrightPay Connect by booking a free 15-minute online demo.

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