What should a hybrid workplace software include: A comprehensive checklist

It is safe to say that the future of work is hybrid, but what does hybrid work really mean? A hybrid work model focuses on employees and mixes in-office and remote work capacities. This working model provides increased flexibility for workers, giving them the possibility to enjoy more autonomy and better work-life balance, as they can choose to work from home, at the office, or anywhere else they feel productive.

What is a hybrid workplace software?

A hybrid workplace software is a software platform that enables organisations to manage their operations and communication in a hybrid work environment, where employees work remotely and from a physical office location at the same time. It usually contains a range of tools that allow colleagues to communicate and collaborate seamlessly, no matter where they are.

Some common features of a hybrid work software may include video conferencing, instant messaging, task management, project management, document sharing, and time tracking.

The purpose of a hybrid work tool is to create a unified work environment that enables employees to work together efficiently, as they did in the physical office. This can improve productivity, increase collaboration, and provide greater flexibility for employees.

The following checklist will help you determine if a solution is suitable to support your hybrid work environment.

I. Permanent presence

When people had to work remotely due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the collegial connection they used to share with their teammates in the physical office was lost in time. Everyone was sitting at home, waiting for a scheduled video call, while generally working on a task alone.

The team spirit had to suffer and productivity decreased as a result. Seeing your colleagues at work has multiple benefits: you get motivated to work hard, you feel part of a community, and you feel at ease because you can ask for help as needed. This is why a hybrid workplace software needs to be able to keep this team spirit alive by moving the physical office into the virtual space.

People need to work together, not just connect with each other from time to time.

II. Social elements borrowed from the physical office

The office used to be a place where colleagues socialised in the hallway, knocked on each other’s doors, and shared creative ideas in the coffee room. These social interactions allowed for great work to be done and creativity to flourish. A hybrid workplace software must preserve these social elements to help hybrid teams not only stay connected but be close to each other and do creative work together.

The purpose of a hybrid work software is more than being another videoconferencing platform. It needs to be a virtual place where people feel like being part of the team again.

III. Videoconferencing and collaboration tools

Videoconferencing is an integral part of hybrid and remote work, and therefore a hybrid work software should include it in a more efficient way. Traditional videoconferencing tools such as Zoom or MS Teams require scheduling, which is a very inefficient way to handle a substantial part of the professional interactions we have during a working week.

This is why a hybrid workplace software should allow for a much simpler way to do a videoconference, even if it’s a 1-on-1 meeting or a meeting where the entire team gathers. A simple login to the virtual office should provide the ability to join a conference room or invite a colleague to a personal room for a chat, without any other extra steps.

At the same time, videoconferencing should be combined with permanent presence, as an integral part of it. Why is it better to work together in the same space than to connect (sporadically) via videoconferencing? Because working together is better than connecting several times a day.

IV. Moderation tools

A hybrid workplace app needs strong moderation tools, for enabling and disabling access to certain rooms, inviting or excluding people from a discussion, and generally handling moderation during meetings.

Moderation tools are needed to keep the virtual office organised and easy to use for all. Overall, moderation tools are necessary for virtual office software to help create a productive and respectful environment for all users. They can help to promote collaboration and teamwork while minimising distractions, mistakes, and negative behaviour.

V. Cross-company collaboration

A hybrid workplace software should easily allow collaboration between different companies, as directors and managers might be involved in multiple endeavours. This is where technology can help us improve collaboration practices.

If multiple companies use the same hybrid work app, the people involved in these companies should have an easy way to switch from one virtual office to another, without having to logout from one to access the other one.

At the same time, a hybrid workplace software must allow integration of external collaborators into project rooms with ease, as current videoconferencing apps make this step difficult.

Overall, cross-company collaboration in a virtual environment can help entrepreneurs to access resources, share knowledge and ideas, reduce costs, and build valuable relationships. These benefits can help to enhance their innovation, growth, and success.

VI. Customization

The brand image of a business is crucial for creating a good first impression with clients and partners. Traditional videoconferencing tools make it harder for businesses to create a powerful impression as they would in their physical office because they share the same design of the apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

In addition, the use of videoconferencing apps has resulted in the loss of distinctive design elements and organisational structure that shape a company's culture and identity, which can lead to a decline in employee loyalty. With hybrid work becoming the norm, businesses need a solution to maintain their brand image and preserve their corporate culture in the virtual space.

This is why a hybrid work software should be customisable to fit the brand image, the company culture, and the organisational structure of each business. Clients and partners need to be welcomed in beautifully designed visitor receptions and colleagues need to work in a virtual space that maintains the company culture they are used to seeing.

VII. Easy-to-use interface and accessibility

Identically replicating the physical office into the metaverse is not a solution. The gamification of virtual offices will simply create unnecessary screen movement, distractions, and wasted resources. This is why a 3D avatar approach where people spend time decorating their virtual office rooms and walking around the virtual representation of their work premises should be avoided. It is imperative to only keep important elements from the physical office to make the virtual office more efficient.

Another argument for avoiding excessive gamification of the virtual office is the over-complication of movement and usage resulting from it. If a user has to focus on their keyboard or mouse just to move around the virtual office and join a conference room, they have already wasted precious moments and energy on tasks that could simply be replaced by a simple-to-use interface.

As we move the working environment from the physical realm to the cloud, we need to ensure that the virtual office is intuitive for anyone to use, yet complex enough to allow for all the necessary interactions and exchanges between colleagues. In other words, we need an improvement of the physical office, not a clone.

Furthermore, having a virtual office that can be easily accessed from all types of devices and that can be used with a wide range of internet connections is imperative. As the hybrid work environment brings together people from different cities or even different countries, accessibility plays a vital role in maintaining a sustainable and healthy virtual work environment.

VIII. A secure environment

One last point of the checklist that encapsulates everything a hybrid work tool needs to have is a secure environment. All the discussions and files that are shared inside the virtual office must be secured.

And when it comes to companies inside the European Union, all data must be preserved under GDPR compliance, hosted on servers inside the EU, which automatically excludes many videoconferencing apps.

The hybrid work solution that completes the checklist

ivCAMPUS is a virtual office solution that enables daily collaboration, meetings, peer support, and social interactions, with immersive features and permanent presence to foster trust-based work. An all-day business platform that makes every working day as if everyone was in the office together. It no longer matters who is actually physically in the office: people work together again as they used to.

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We developed ivCAMPUS to fit all the requirements for a hybrid work software, and therefore here’s how we are completing the checklist.

✓ Permanent presence - working together (or: stop scheduling)

ivCAMPUS allow remote and hybrid teams to work together (not just sporadically connected), creating the level of closeness needed for trust-based work.

✓ Social elements - stay spontaneous

ivCAMPUS preserved social elements from the physical office such as knocking on someone’s door, sending a quick note, or interacting in the coffee room with your colleagues.

✓ Videoconferencing and collaboration tools - get your stuff done

Collaboration can easily take place by inviting colleagues to your personal room or by joining a room for discussions. Collaborate synchronously and asynchronously with your team and external partners for the duration of a project. Attachments provide direct access to project documents.

✓ Moderation tools - allow everyone to speak up

Many moderation tools allow for a proper use of ivCAMPUS. For example, the roundtable mode allows for controlled speaking turns, ensuring that all participants join the conversation and no one talks too much. It's a modern way to have engaging and controlled speaking sessions, complete with a timer and the possibility to add or remove speakers.

✓ Cross-company collaboration - stark networking with your partners

Integrate external collaborators with ease into your virtual office. The invitation manager allows users to easily create and share custom links to their campus.

✓ Customisation - stay on brand

From colours to logos, areas and rooms and organizational structure - Campus is fully customizable with a few clicks.

Receive your external visitors in a beautiful reception area and collaborate with your colleagues in a collectively designed office.

✓ Easy-to-use interface and accessibility - don’t break your head

Campus is made so simple, even people that are not digitally native can use it after a quick glance. Campus doesn’t need a software to be installed and it can be used from a browser, therefore anyone with an internet connection can use it.

✓ A secure environment - stay safe

Campus is GDPR compliant and all the data is hosted in Germany. None of your conversations on ivCAMPUS are stored. In accordance with the GDPR, we store as little personal data as possible. We only analyze anonymous metadata to improve our service and retrieve bugs.

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A successful hybrid work model requires an adequate technical platform. Current tools, especially schedule-based video-conferencing solutions fall short of implementing sustainable hybrid work models.  ivCAMPUS combines the benefits of physical offices with those of remote collaboration. We digitalized office interactions to allow people to intuitively work together, socialise, and be part of the company culture just as they would in a real office. And all of this in an immersive platform that they can access from anywhere they want.