The growing demand for hybrid working creates a challenge for leaders who care about employee engagement. A hybrid workplace can lead to greater employee satisfaction, but they only work when employees have complete access to the tools and systems they use at work, no matter where they are logging in from.
Your business needs smart, agile, cloud-enabled connectivity solutions that bridge the gap between workplace and remote work to enable a hybrid work model.
The good news is there are solutions to meet every challenge, from virtual desktop infrastructure like HPE GreenLake VDI cloud services to SaaS productivity suites that are infinitely scalable.
Supporting a hybrid work model
The right tools for supporting a hybrid work model depends on how your employees perform their work. Ask yourself: Do they work in the cloud or use apps that run on your servers? Maybe they do both?
Connecting remote workers to workplace apps
If you have apps running on servers, upgrading to Windows Server 2022 gives you Remote Desktop Services (RDS), which lets multiple users connect simultaneously to work servers to access work applications anywhere in the world.
Windows Server 2022 is great at connecting workers because you can use Privileged Access Management (PAM) tools to control who can access what.
Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is another option available, where a hypervisor segments servers into virtual machines that host virtual desktops delivered to a remote worker’s PC or laptop.
If you need to securely connect employees to work while keeping IT in control of access rights, monitoring and security, a dedicated identity and access management (IAM) tool like Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) will come in handy.
Cloud-based productivity app suites
Solutions for hybrid work can be as simple as embracing SaaS productivity app suites like Google Workspace and Microsoft 365.
The beauty of these products is they are cloud-based and available anywhere, enabling real-time collaboration, feedback and updates.
Meetings and project management
Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Skype, TeamViewer, GoToMeeting and Google Meet are all good options for hosting virtual meetings.
Slack is a great option for instant messaging because you can create groups and forums that keep all conversations to specific topics. Discord is a similar product, and you might find it better if you have a large workforce.
Slack is again a great choice for project management, but Microsoft Teams, Asana, Basecamp and Trello are even better. Todoist is an excellent app for cloud-based to-do lists with desktop, mobile, and online apps for all devices.
