Many companies have reopened their offices and invited employees back to work in person. While some are transitioning to completely on-site office culture, many companies are opting for a hybrid office solution.

To make this a successful transition, your organization will need to optimize a hybrid office design. Lucky for you, we have tips and tricks to make this happen. Keep reading to discover what makes an effective hybrid office layout.

Stay Consistent with Culture

As you transition to a hybrid workplace, consider how often you require employees to work in the office. Keeping the company’s culture in mind can help you make this decision. If the company has an employee-first culture, perhaps you give employees more freedom to choose which days or how often they come in. If your company is more focused on results, you may require more days in the office. Overall, your culture should direct your hybrid plan, but you’ll want to consider several other factors.

Location Matters

Young professionals work in a modern, open-office environment

Where are your employees located? If most of them still live near your office, it is reasonable to expect them to come in several times per week. If a large portion of your workforce lives all across the country, ask yourself if you expect them to relocate. If you don’t want to force relocation or commuting, you can delegate the decision to individual teams and respective managers. Some teams may be mostly in person, while others remain completely remote – that’s okay. If anything, the last couple of years have taught us that we can maintain good communication through remote work.

Leadership Tells the Story

Build a narrative around the return to office. Have your upper management explain to employees that the pandemic took us all by surprise in 2020, which sent everyone to work from home. Now that some things are slowly normalizing and companies are taking certain precautions, explain that you feel comfortable making the change to hybrid work. If your employees understand the cause and effect associated with the story, they will be more inclined to heed to it.

Communication Is Key

Use effective communication to bridge the gap between remote workers and in-person workers. If you allow some teams to work remotely and others to work in person on any given day, your communication channels must be sharp. Email and Slack can help with this; Slack enables you to create different channels for different teams and reach out to individuals on a user-friendly interface. If you announce something in the office, don’t assume it will automatically be communicated to remote workers. You are in charge of communicating, so establish a consistent communication channel and delegate as needed.

Open Workspaces Are the Future

An open workspace is a major trend in hybrid office design. Eliminate cubicles and bring in large shareable tables to encourage collaboration. Don’t assign desks. Allow employees to show up and claim whichever desk they find available. Alternatively, you can use desk booking software for employees and teams to reserve tables before they come into the office.

Balance Individual Productivity and Team Collaboration

Young professionals collaborate in an industrial, open-office environment

After two years of the ongoing pandemic, we have all had our fair share of video calls and found that they are arguably less effective than in-person meetings. On the other hand, people can be more productive at home without distractions and chatter in the office. Plan your team schedules around in-person collaboration so that your employees can use at-home time for individual productivity.

Add Loop Phone Booths for the Best of Both Worlds

While the perfect balance of in-person and remote work is ideal, it is not always easy to achieve. Sometimes, you’ll be working in person and need to call a remote worker or a client. Instead of bothering people around you in your open workspace, walk into a Loop Phone Booth.

Loop office pods are the perfect asset to any hybrid office layout. With soundproof walls, they offer opportunities to connect with the digital world while working in person. As you design your hybrid workspace, get a quote for a Loop Phone Booth.