Why We Don't Work Exclusively From Home
Hybrid working offers us the best of both worlds – flexibility and team cohesion.
We have opted for a hybrid working model for several THIS is us.reasons, where the entire team is on-site three days a week.
Right from the start of THIS, we set ourselves up so that we and the team could work flexibly from any location and at any time. Nonetheless, we have decided that everyone should be in the office from Tuesday to Thursday.
5 Reasons for Working On-Site
The crucial reason why the entire team is on-site three days a week is the informal exchange that we actively maintain and want to live. It is important to us that the team works together on tasks and thinks around topics. New ideas can emerge during lunch together or a chat at the coffee machine.
Moreover, being present in the office enables staff to communicate faster and easier with each other and to collectively advance projects.
Of course, one can also arrange a video call. But creativity does not just happen at the push of a button. The shared exchange fuels inspiration and the development of creative solutions.
The different levels of seniority in the team also play a role. An employee with less experience in a topic can simply sit down with a more experienced colleague and become actively involved in their approach or working method. The development of our employees is particularly important to us.
Another factor is company culture. When employees are solely in the home office and have nothing to do with the people in the company, the connection to the company and the team spirit is weaker, thus increasing the willingness to change jobs.
Not Everyone Wants to Work from Home
We have employees who have explicitly chosen us because we do not only offer home office work. In their previous jobs, they realised that they 'become isolated' at home and miss the exchange with colleagues.
And that's why we are in the office at least 3 days.
Conclusion
There are study results that show that efficiency and creativity of teams suffer when working from home. In a hybrid working model, efficiency and creativity are as high as when everyone is in the office, with the benefit of greater flexibility and thus it leads to more satisfied employees.