Hybrid scheduling: the 3 benefits of using an employee scheduling app

Are your employees entitled to work remotely some days a week? Smart move! Flexible work arrangements are one of the top priorities for today’s workforce. For this reason, offering hybrid scheduling is essential to boost talent attraction and retention. But how often do your team members come on-site to work on an important team project to realize their colleagues are all working from home that day?

When it comes to hybrid work management, having a clear view of who is working from the office and when is crucial. From the point of view of HR, managers, and employee, a transparent and organized calendar is essential to foster collaboration and productivity.

So, how do you effectively plan hybrid weeks and keep track of who is working where? An employee scheduling app is the solution. Because deskbird is all about user experience and efficiency, this feature is already included in your desk booking software. However, the benefits of hybrid scheduling go beyond having a clear timetable. This article highlights the three superpowers of a user-centric hybrid scheduler.

Efficiency: the impact of a well-thought hybrid scheduling system

Weekly planning: arrange your calendar in a few clicks

A few years ago, most workers did not have the option to plan their work schedules themselves. In a traditional working model, being at the office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily was simply the norm. This is absolutely over. If you’re still doubtful about this, we recommend you read our article regarding hybrid workplace statistics.

Employees now have more flexibility at work. Some are only required to be on-site a few days a week or a month, and others can simply come when they want to. But how often you have to be on-site doesn’t matter. What does matter is that they can now schedule their own calendar and keep track of their weekly schedules.

A hybrid scheduling tool like the deskbird feature gives them a quick and easy solution to do so. Once you and your collaborators are all set, they only need a few clicks (1 click per day) to plan their work week! This is that simple.

Change of plans: easy and quick modification from anywhere with push notifications 

Unplanned events happen all the time. How often have you forgotten about a medical appointment you booked long ago? Which parent has never requested to work from home because their child is sick? It can also be that your team members decide to come on-site, although they were initially planning to work remotely.

We’ve all been through situations when we need to change our plans. With an employee scheduling app, this is super easy. Let’s say Ricardo is a bit down on Monday and feels that seeing his colleagues would help him get motivated again.

He can adjust his calendar from his laptop or mobile phone from anywhere and anytime. His manager and workmates receive a push notification informing them that he will come to the office the next day instead of working from home.

Integrations: access your hybrid scheduling app from your favorite tools

All the future of work trends show that using technology in the workplace has become and will be a core pillar of our work environments. For this reason, each feature we develop is thoroughly conceived to help companies create a thriving hybrid work landscape and put employees’ needs at the center of their strategy.

Therefore, to improve productivity and optimize time, being able to integrate your hybrid scheduling app with other operating systems is a must. For example, all data can be directly synchronized to your communication tools (Slack, MS Teams, Google Meet, etc.) and HR systems. 

Imagine people have just finished an online team meeting where they decided to work together in person next week. Without leaving their digital meeting platform, they can schedule this day in their calendar. In a few clicks and seconds, everything is set and saved! This asset simply makes your favorite tools even better!

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👉Start a free trial of the deskbird app and see how our weekly planning feature benefits hybrid teams!

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Employee experience: the benefits of a hybrid scheduler

Workplace analytics: key data about employees’ preferences help improve the hybrid experience

To constantly improve the workplace experience, it is key for you to understand how employees use the workspace. Are people coming to the office in the mornings more than in the afternoons? Would they rather work a full day on-site or split it into two half days? When they have the choice to be on-site whenever they want, how often do they come?

Administrators can get this key information by collecting and analyzing data from an employee scheduling app. This, in combination with the observations made according to the desk booking habits of the workforce, enables you to support your staff’s needs better and optimize your flexible office space.

According to the outcomes of your investigation, some layout changes may also be made to cut office costs. Those savings can then be invested in other crucial aspects of the company, like employee well-being initiatives or hybrid workplace technology.

Calendar overview: valuable feature to reduce Zoom Fatigue and other downsides of remote work

While working from home has many advantages, it also has some downsides. Zoom fatigue is a direct consequence of remote work and the increasing time we spend on screens. With a hybrid scheduling tool, your employees have a clear vision of the days spent “on-screen” (remote work) and those implying more real-life interactions.

They can consider this information to overcome virtual fatigue by balancing in-person and digital meetings. Workers can quickly have an overview of their week or month and observe if the balance between days at the office and days on screen is appropriate. If not, they can reshuffle their calendar to decrease online work and, hopefully, virtual exhaustion.

The same goes for other negative aspects of remote work, such as isolation. Some of your employees might feel lonely. Looking at their hybrid schedule over the last couple of months can help them realize that they’ve been working a lot from home and that spending more time at the office could help.

Hybrid scheduling: a core support tool to improve work-life balance

Work-life balance has become a top priority for many people over the last couple of years. As an organization, there are various ways you can enable your staff to reach this balance. One of them is offering flexible work arrangements, such as hybrid work and flexitime. Additionally, making hybrid scheduling part of your best practices is one of them.

In seconds, your workers have a clear overview of how they structure their weeks. This allows them to see changes that can be made to foster a better work-life balance. Using an employee scheduling app, they can easily reshuffle their schedule to improve this essential aspect with one click.

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🎬 Follow deskbird on YouTube and watch how Mr. Purple helps you fix your hybrid work issues!

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Collaboration: the advantages of using an employee scheduling app

Workspace availability: the must-have feature to plan on-site gatherings

Hybrid work can help you reduce costs by downsizing your workspace according to the number of people that are on-site each day. However, if not well prepared and supervised, this can lead to scheduling conflicts when employees come to the office and realize no more space is available. What are they then supposed to do? Walk to the coffee place on the corner of the street and do their meeting from there?

Making sure to provide enough room to meet your workforce’s expectations is fundamental in a flexible model. With a hybrid management tool like deskbird, not only can your staff notify their colleagues when and where they work, but they can also reserve the workspace they need for them and their coworkers. In the glimpse of an eye, they see all the working areas that are still bookable on the day they plan to come to the office to do teamwork.

Collaboration: keeping track of colleagues’ hybrid schedules

Now that people can work from anywhere, they tend to prioritize group tasks on office days. 

But with hybrid work, meeting co-workers can sometimes get tricky. Knowing when your team members are on the premises becomes essential.

Thanks to an employee scheduling app, they can see when their colleagues are on-site and plan their week accordingly. If most of the team indicates that they will be in the office on Tuesday, then it might be the best day to come and work in person on your collective projects.

A hybrid scheduler makes collaboration easier and encourages workers to gather and meet in the office whenever they can. This is not only great for facilitating teamwork, but it also reinforces workplace connection and team bonding, which are sometimes hard to sustain in a flexible work setup.

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🌐 Learn more about asynchronous collaboration and the best practices to work together remotely!

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Team bonding: easily find out when teammates are on-site

What’s the point of coming to the office if everybody else works from home? In most jobs, people talk to each other on a daily basis. So, how great would it be to plan to go to the office and work together in real life from time to time?

As you’ve read in this article, one of the main advantages of using an employee scheduling app is for your collaborators to find out when their team members or other workmates intend to be on-site. Seeing when coworkers come to the office gives them more chances to interact in person and get to know each other better. Informal conversation tends to be more natural in the physical workplace as people can have a little chat at the coffee break or go for lunch together.

Moreover, being able to plan to meet colleagues easily helps prevent loneliness and exclusion, which improves their mental wellness. We recommend you read our article about hybrid work and mental health to learn more about this key topic.

As experts in flexible work, our goal is to support and fulfill the needs of a modern hybrid workforce. Digital tools are very present in our professional lives and strongly enhance our skills and productivity. Hybrid employee apps are not only highly valuable for HR management, but they also enable team members to make the most of hybrid work. 

Overall, hybrid scheduling contributes to greater efficiency, increases employee experience, and boosts collaboration. But instead of having a separate tool to organize hybrid timetables, you can have it integrated into our desk booking software, among other user-friendly features. Do you want to see how it works?‍

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Request a free demo of the deskbird app!