How do you get your laptop to work and what about travel expenses?
Once back at the office on campus, it wasn’t so simple to get the laptop working properly. How do you know if you’re connected to the right Wi-Fi, and which cables have to be connected? Because SOZ participated in a pilot on hybrid working, it was possible to have an IT staff member in the workplace three mornings to help colleagues with these issues. The result is that staff can now switch effortlessly between their home workstation and their on-campus workstation. This lowers the threshold for hybrid working considerably.
Sandra indicates that her colleagues are still somewhat unclear about the combination of travel expenses and working from home allowance. * How exactly does this affect employees? It would be good if HR could clarify things by providing a few examples of how these payments are calculated. That would take away some of the barriers when making choices about hybrid working.
Advantages of working together on campus
After working from home for a long time, Sandra can now better appreciate the advantages of working on campus. “It’s much easier to coordinate little things that are nonetheless important. Things you might hesitate to call someone about, but that you can easily discuss when you run into them. And when you’re in the workplace, you pick up on things that you would never hear about sitting at your computer at home, things that are still relevant for your work. It’s especially good for new staff members to see their colleagues in the flesh so that they can coordinate their work,” she says.
For setting up meetings, Sandra uses the overview of meeting space at vu.nl/hybridworking >hybrid meetings. She has used this to make another document with a specific overview of the rooms and facilities that are the most useful for her team. She is really enthusiastic about the Owl webcam. That’s a 360 degree camera with microphone that allows people working from home to see everyone present on location. The speaker’s image is magnified. That works really well.
Making team agreements
Of course, working from home also has advantages. Sandra says, “Working from home gives you more freedom to plan your day and therefore to find a good work-life balance. If you have a morning with no appointments, for example, you can go to the gym and then work longer in the afternoon.”
The idea of hybrid working is that you can combine the advantages of working from home with the advantages of working on campus. Those are the things that Sandra’s team are now making agreements about. They maintain a joint Excel sheet that shows who is on campus and when, so they can decide whether it’s a good idea to come to campus on any given day. Every other Wednesday the entire team is present on campus.
The challenge now facing Sandra’s department is to make agreements about how to handle sharing documents, both from home and when on campus, so that everyone gets the right information.
Colleagues also have some doubts about whether they will be able to concentrate on their work at the office as well as they can at home. Each person still has to find his or her own balance in that respect.
The team will be taking a team training course in hybrid working to exchange ideas on the topic and make further arrangements with each other.
Tips
Last but not least, Sandra has some tips to help other departments get off to a good start on hybrid working:
- Take time to discuss it with each other.
- Be open about what you are apprehensive about and what you find really exciting about hybrid working.
- Don’t be afraid to state your preferences. Now is the time to have your say and help influence decisions.
*More information on the combination of travel expenses and working from home allowance.