Hybrid isn’t the destination, its the starting point 

Business leaders are now so comfortable with the idea of hybrid working that its seen as a panacea – that’s a far too simplistic approach

An anywhere office brings “unreasonable” expectations: People are expected to work with the same speed, efficiency, and levels of security as if they were at their office desks—anytime, anyplace. It’s now up to IT to make the unreasonable happen.  

Take collaboration, for example. IT needs to ensure that every employee feels that they’re in the room, even when they’re hundreds of miles away. Or productivity: The emphasis must be on ensuring people are at their most productive wherever they find themselves working.  

At the same time, we must prepare for the future. If we’ve learned anything at all from the past two years, it’s that uncertainty is the only certainty.  

How do you plan for uncertainty? It sounds like a contradiction in terms, but many business leaders are already putting this premise at the heart of their corporate strategy. Gone is the five-year plan that employees follow without question; in its place is what economist and author Dr. Bill Conerly describes as “the flexible stance.”1  

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby embraced that strategy by scrapping all budgets for 2021. Instead, Kirby assembled “bounceback teams”2  whose role it was to detail what resources United would and wouldn’t need, and to anticipate blockers such as a lack of ready-to-fly pilots when demand resurged.  

Kirby’s is a simple message applicable to all business leaders:  

“Prepare for uncertainty or prepare to fail.” 

Every business is different, so there will never be a set of golden rules that apply to all. But there are four principles that apply to every enterprise: 

Connect Everyone 

It doesn’t matter where people work: their homes, a central office, a speeding train. You must give everyone the collaborative tools they need to be an equal part of the team 

Simplify Security

Cybercriminals thrive on uncertainty, as we have seen during the pandemic, with unprecedented numbers of attacks, so chief information security officers (CISOs) must prepare by concentrating on basic principles. 

Choose Reactive Workflows 

The future will produce more tools, more employee demands, and more demand for working anywhere on any device. You must prepare for this future. Interruptions are the enemy.

Embrace Flexible Planning  

A paradox? Flexible planning doesn’t need to be. You must embrace uncertainty rather than ignore it. 

Change your stance

There is no going “back to normal.” The world has shifted from being predictable to being wholly uncertain. This is true across all industries, all countries, and all aspects of our working lives. Whether it be our awkward emergence from the pandemic, supply chain difficulties, or environmental challenges, no one knows what next year holds, never mind the next five.  

Forward-thinking companies must embrace this new era. They must plan for this uncertainty with a flexible stance. With the support of forward-thinking technology providers such as HP, today’s challenges can be turned into tomorrow’s opportunities. 

Combining HP’s fleet of the right devices with Datacom’s range of flexible cloud solutions and managed IT services is the ideal way to create the agility you need to support a hybrid workforce.

Download the eBook to learn how to prepare for uncertainty. 

Get in touch with us today to discuss the solutions your organisation needs for powering a hybrid workforce into the future.