How businesses can build digital bridges in the era of hybrid work

hybrid working

There has been a significant change in the workplace due to the pandemic, with ‘remote work’ becoming somewhat of an industry buzzword. As the country transitions out of lockdowns, a return to the office is expected in some capacity, however, the pre-pandemic business model will never be the same, with nearly three-quarters of Australians preferring to adopt a hybrid work model, thus redefining the workplace.

For a hybrid model to be successful, businesses must confirm that their technology infrastructure is set up to ensure digital bridges between physical distances.

Rethinking the hybrid work landscape

The abrupt compulsory transition to remote work in early 2020 rushed enterprise IT teams into implementing stopgap technology to enable collaboration between employees in remote settings.

Prior to the pandemic, the Small Business Digital Taskforce Report 2018 revealed that there was hesitation towards digital transformation amongst small-medium enterprises, with only 40 per cent using cloud services. Yet, lockdowns accelerated the adoption of modern technology, and as a result, 90 per cent of SMEs actively engaged with digital technology to support business continuity and an additional 13 per cent recognised technology to be essential to their operations.

Promisingly, with the 2021-22 Budget providing small businesses with $12.7 million to further their digital capabilities, business owners have the opportunity to reconfigure their temporary IT solutions from early 2020.

However digital transformation is not a one-stop journey. To ensure that their infrastructure is suitable for the hybrid working model, all businesses must continue to update and adapt technology suitable to match new ways of working. As employees work from dispersed locations, technologies like the cloud will continue to gain significance in fostering collaboration, improving productivity, enabling automation (where applicable) and strengthening governance.

Empowering employees through IT infrastructure

The onus to make technology succeed rests with employees, just as much as it does with the technology itself. Over four-fifths of Australians are confident in adapting to workplace technology with 75 per cent ready to learn new skills in regard to their business’ IT infrastructure.

This ‘reskill appetite’ comes as no surprise with the proliferation of digital transformation, specifically cloud, being a prevalent part of a business’s IT infrastructure throughout the pandemic. Moving forward, cloud infrastructure services will only continue to gain significance as a means to maintain business continuity.

Cloud is ideal for the hybrid workplace as it affords flexibility in working arrangements. It allows employees to contribute, distribute, use and trust their information from wherever they choose to work from – hence improving collaboration, productivity, and meeting governance requirements.

While these factors create a sustainable workplace culture, cloud infrastructure must be backed by the right cybersecurity technology. An increasing number of organisations are embracing the power of the cloud to give them and their employees the agility, flexibility and control that they need to succeed in remote working settings. Cloud remains an obvious choice for businesses looking to increase collaboration and boost productivity while ensuring employees work in secure systems.