Navigating the Hybrid Work Model with Digital Learning

During the course of last year’s large-scale migration to remote work, employees discovered that they could, in fact, use shared tools to communicate and collaborate. This discovery was a silver lining in the pandemic cloud, opening up the possibility to re-imagine more accessible ways for people to work and develop their skills.

As workers have experienced full-time remote work, their experience of it and preference for it have varied. Some want to remain fully remote, some partially on-site and some want to return to fully in-office positions. Gartner found that 94% of organizations are allowing employees more flexibility as to where and when they work.  Microsoft’s report on Remote Working and the Platform of the Future found that 35% of employees prefer fully in-office work, 18% fully remote and the remainder preferring a mix of both.

The emergence of hybrid teams is imminent as the hybrid work model emerges with a partial return to the office. Microsoft’s report noted that onboarding and innovation are two of the biggest challenges to come with this hybrid model. Equipping employees with the knowledge to effectively use collaborative technology and other cloud-based tools is critical for maintaining productivity.

Therefore, organizations have a business imperative to offer effective training programs that ensure all employees are up to date and equipped to navigate the technology that comes with hybrid teams. Organizations must integrate a training strategy that can be rolled out to employees, both in-office and remotely, ensuring they can continue to collaborate and grow as a team.

Training has been insufficient

For many organizations and employees, the transition to remote work brought with it a significant learning curve.  It brought new tools, new technologies and even new methods. Some companies held training sessions to help employees along the way. According to Microsoft’s report, more than 75% of employees feel they are prepared to use remote working tools, yet managers estimated that only 41% of their team is trained to use them.