Our pre-pandemic working culture seems like a lifetime ago. For many of us, daily commuting has become a thing of the past, and actually going into the office feels rather novel. It’s no longer big news that Covid-19 put the brakes on business, but what remains big news is the total one-eighty many companies had on employees working from home.

The once widely negative perceptions of people actioning work remotely have been forgotten, replaced with acclaim. Where we previously thought it as an absurd idea that a whole company could function entirely from anywhere in the world, it’s now our reality. A reality that’s working well, and here to stay.

High Yields, Low Outgoings

Thanks to employees retaining (and often increasing) productivity levels, managers are seeing huge benefits in terms of business expenditure. Less employees in the office means less space required. Less space required means less overheads. Less overheads means less money spent. You get the gist.

Indeed, the advantages of a hybrid model are so significant that even the giants are rethinking their business formats. Cisco will no longer dictate how often their 75,000 employees need to be in the office; instead, they will be offered the option of permanently working from home. Expecting less than ¼ of their workforce onsite for over three days a week, they’ve gone as far to convert their office spaces into collaborative centres to be used by employees as and when required. Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, and a slew of FTSE 100 companies are also flying the flexible working flag.

Paul George, Product Manager, says that businesses have realised pre-pandemic activities, like meetings and associated travel, were inefficient. “Working from home, people can be more flexible and have greater availability in their day. It’s changed the scope of offices; many have scaled down or have more flexible spaces. The shift in focus is now about tracking and managing this new way of working.”

The scene is set, with only 20% of UK employers demanding employees be in the office five days a week in the future.

‘Hybrid’, the Word of the Year?

Just 1% of recruitment firm Reed’s job vacancies advertised remote working before the pandemic, rising to 5% in 2021. Nowadays, you’re hard-pressed to make it through the week without hearing or muttering the term ‘hybrid model’. It’s one of the post-holders in our ‘new norm’ and most definitely a game-changer, but its roll-out is no mean feat. You’re constantly juggling managing the practicalities of remote work (like equipment and assets) with employees’ wishes; some will love working from home, but others will struggle with the lack of face-to-face interaction. You’ve also got to ensure that integrity, confidentiality, and cybersecurity are maintained; it’s no longer a case of out of sight, out of mind.

We’re determined to make the hybrid model journey as easy as possible. We know that one size does not fit all; businesses are all unique and differ massively in their needs, operations, and employees. Whether you’re a large-scale organisation or a start-up just kicking your feet off the ground, you shouldn’t have to settle for something off-the-shelf that doesn’t quite bend to your needs, preventing potential.

A Shiny New Toy

Introducing TAAP SMART, our Staff Management Asset Resource Tracker. It hosts of a suite of TAAP’s no/low-code products to provide fully bespoke, hybrid working model solutions that are designed and built entirely around a businesses’ specific needs.

Features include:

  • TAAP Work From Home, to ensure employees’ WFH wellbeing
  • TAAP Visitor Book, the contactless, digital reception
  • TAAP Room Booking, the collaborative space solution
  • TAAP Desk Booking, for personal workspaces

Though many companies now have hybrid actions in full swing, there’s still a lot of work to be done. What happens if your model suddenly needs to change because your office space has been halved, leaving you with a queue of angry commuters at the door?

TAAP SMART is beneficial to organisations of all shapes and sizes that all have one need in common: the ability to easily navigate a hybrid model that is subject to modification. Through our all-in-one solution, you can be easily monitoring occupancy one minute and ensuring working conditions are compliant with standards the next. And that’s just the start. The ‘new normal’ is not immune to change; it’s time to get ahead to stay ahead.

Contact us today to find out more about how TAAP can SMARTen your business.