Within professional sectors, hybrid and remote working is now the norm.
At last count by the Office of National Statistics (ONS), only 19 per cent of those in professional occupations did not have the option of home working at all, rising to just 28 per cent among those in more junior professional roles.
Hybrid and remote working are here to stay – but has this left your practice management behind?
Through helping firms plug the gaps in their practice management software, we have identified this as a major challenge facing clients which have seen a big shift towards hybridity.
How hybrid working changed the game
Thanks to hybrid working, when many staff are in the office just a few days per week and there may be little overlap with other colleagues, the days of assigned desks and parking spaces are over for many firms.
As a result, many firms are looking to optimise their office space and site-related costs including property rental and utilities.
This may include downsizing or reevaluating how they use the space that they occupy through data-driven decisions.
If firms haven’t made a conscious effort to keep their practice management up to date and integrated with systems to help them collate and analyse this data, then they risk significant operational inefficiencies.
A simple solution to a complex problem
There is a temptation among firms to reinvent the wheel when it comes to optimising their practice management software for hybrid working.
However, the approach that we take is more straightforward, cost-effective and timesaving, by plugging the gaps in existing software instead of bringing in an entirely new infrastructure.
For example, consider spatial planning and cost optimisation for office space.
Firms could adopt an entirely new practice management system with desk booking and parking reservations built in, at greater cost and requiring substantial investment of time for retraining and developing new workflows.
Or they could integrate our booking systems into their existing software, benefitting from capacity management, remote access and real-time insights.
This provides the capacity for hybrid working and space optimisation that firms need without the challenges and costs of a new system.
As an example, up-to-the-minute data and capacity trends allow firms, over time, to identify the potential for reducing the amount of office space that they occupy or for streamlining in-office and remote working days across entire teams.
This simple and accessible solution can therefore provide firms with the insights they need to make the big decisions that will impact cash flow and overall profitability.
Where will hybridity take us next?
While the trend towards hybrid and remote working seems to have stabilised, these phenomena are here to stay, meaning firms will need to consider carefully how they work and how their practice management solutions align with the reality of the teams they serve.
If your practice management software is not optimised to:
- Be accessed by remote workers and clients
- Support clients from across your region or country
- Manage in-office working for hybrid workers
- Rely on the cloud rather than on-site servers
- Store and manage records and communications remotely
Then you may find that a once efficient system quickly becomes outdated and unable to provide your practice with the level of insight and remote management that it needs.
To find out more about how we can help enhance your practice management, please contact our team today to book a demo.