Follow These 4 Guidelines to Mature Your Hybrid Workplace

Optimizing digital workplaces and developing mature hybrid capabilities require processes streamlined to suit enterprise needs. Given the lack of hard and fast best practices, it is natural to experience uncertainty when directing efforts to optimize your hybrid workplace. Here are 4 measures to get you started on the road to maturity.

Lead the maturity process with a Digital Workplace Team

Led by senior leadership, the team should comprise stakeholders from across the organization to ensure every department is represented and enhance cross-functionality. Its goal is to coordinate the maturity process from strategic alignment and vision-setting to roadmap formulation and smooth implementation. Other primary responsibilities include:

By acting as a knowledge center and command hub, the Digital Workplace Team can guide efforts to eliminate inefficient processes and optimize effective ones, preventing silos from developing and ensuring enterprise cohesion.

Reconnect business needs and hybrid practices

With the team in place, the next step is to clarify the role of existing hybrid practices in achieving business objectives. Reviewing strategic business needs can reveal the degree of hybrid adoption required and whether current operational practices provide the needed capabilities. Sources of waste can be identified for elimination while efficient and productive processes are optimized. Critical operational areas for review include:

Once processes needing optimization have been identified, formulate specific KPIs and other target outputs to provide progress milestones and a framework for evaluation. Clearly defined performance trajectories will help keep adjustments on track to meet business outcomes and make dealing with evolving requirements easier.

Map and optimize processes with users in mind

Refine hybrid infrastructure solutions and operational practices with the user’s daily working experience in mind. The easier it is for stakeholders to access resources, collaborate remotely, engage with teams, and submit work, the more efficient and agile operational processes will be.

Specific measures will differ from user to user, as certain functions favor different working methods to operate efficiently. Business strategists may benefit from quieter home environments, while team managers are better located in on-premises workspaces designed for teleconferencing. Adjust facilities and solutions to suit.

Understanding the flow of information throughout your operations and how users access resources is critical to the optimization process. Mapping data traffic, storage, access points, and security measures provides a holistic map of activities to achieve maturity, complementing strategic vision with a ground view of user experience.

Cultivate a sustainable digital workplace culture

Unless users are given reasons to engage with hybrid practices, enforcement will provoke resistance, and process efficiency will suffer. By establishing a culture that rewards users for active engagement, businesses can gain full stakeholder support to accelerate adoption and drive innovation with the hybrid workplace. General guidelines to implement user-friendly practices and foster loyalty include:

The path to hybrid maturity is a continuous process of adjustment, and digital workplaces will continue to change with evolving business environments, objectives, and workforces. Although broad guidelines can help you get started, every enterprise’s capacity to develop hybrid capabilities will differ. If you’re uncertain about your enterprise’s exact needs, workplace state, or even desire to mature hybrid capabilities, consult an expert.