Much like the past two years, the office will look a whole lot different than in 2019, however, now it is through choice, and with employee convenience and health in mind. That’s because while working from home, corporate employees across the globe realised they are more productive and have extra time for other things, like exercise and doctor’s appointments during the workweek.

According to iAfrica, 50% of South African workers have been working from home full-time since June 2021. But is there longevity in this?

Maybe, for some job roles, but experts believe that in order to be truly productive, office workers need to network and engage with each other and clients on a regular basis. They also fear that working from home could have a negative impact on company culture, making it harder for employers to retain talent.

Greg Schwebig, Founder & CEO of AfricaWorks believes there is another, more flexible approach that could be better suited to the future of work.

“The office will never be “consumed” like before,” Schwebig says in a Business Insider Africa interview.  “However, it is erroneous to think that the Office is dead! At AfricaWorks, we believe that the future is hybrid and will be a mix of ‘Work from Home’ and “Work from Office”.

Companies selling “space as a service” will be all the rage in the year ahead. Co-working and shared offices started out as a solution for entrepreneurs, start-ups, freelancers and small businesses, but can now very well be suitable to all size businesses. It is cheap, convenient, scalable, and offers businesses and their employees great, creative, and engaging locations from which to work.

In America, large corporations are moving into suburban locations to offer near-home offices. That’s because they have found that employees miss the work environment but not the commuting. This plays well into the 15-minute city concept, where the ideal is to create suburban-cities where humans will be able to satisfy all their daily needs by biking or walking there and back.

What Hosted PBX in the Cloud by Domains.co.za can do for your hybrid workforce?

While there are multiple benefits to the hybrid workforce, productivity and company culture could become negatively affected, as well as the effect on health, security, infrastructure and managers.

However, for each of these challenges, you will find there are a number of solutions because remote work has been a trend long before Covid-19 forced it to become one.

One such solution is Hosted PBX in the Cloud by Domains.co.za. Also referred to as Cloud PBX or VoIP, and the answer to a fully streamlined, highly productive and super-efficient hybrid workforce.

Your employees can make and take unlimited* phone calls from anywhere via an app on their cell phones or desktops. Due to Vox voice and Domains.co.za’s leading hosting atmosphere, calls are crystal clear, secure and reliable.

Award-winning 3CX software on the other hand allows for 150 features including video conferencing and Live Chat.

It is important to remember that one company’s hybrid needs will be different from the next.  Business owners would need anonymous input from all their employees to create guidelines for the entire company, bearing in mind that some roles may not be suitable for hybrid, and working from home may be difficult for others.

*Terms and Conditions apply.