Remote and hybrid working is a phenomenon that’s happening all over the world. As part of our Powering Remote Work Virtual World Tour, we dropped in on Sensée, a UK-based work-from-home specialist that has been 100% homeworking for over 16 years for an inside look at how their business is solving for remote work and helping other companies to do the same. Here are three top takeaways from the U.K. leg of the tour.

Watch the replay to discover how UK/EMEA organizations are navigating hybrid work.

1. The future is hybrid.

I recently sat down with Nav Riyait, Chief Technology Officer at Sensée and Michael Gray, Head of Marketing at Sensée for insights into their approach and philosophy of remote work. Sensée is a UK-based work-from-home specialist and has consulted other businesses on how to accelerate their journey and readiness for remote work.

One of the big questions companies and employees alike are now asking is, what will the future of the workplace look like? Michael points out that up to this point, companies have worked either remotely or in-office but not both, so we’re entering a period of unknowns. There really isn’t a clear model for hybrid working – every company is different, and every company’s hybrid model is different.

To succeed, organizations will need to overcome three big challenges:

Adopt a remote-first mindset across everything they do

Adopt remote work solutions that will work for hybrid work

Treat people consistently and fairly to combat proximity bias

2. Expect the unexpected.

Hybrid work presents new challenges, and even with the best infrastructure in place, there will be moments when things break down. Sensée’s IT team uses Rescue to remote in and help employees when there’s a problem with an application or a hardware issue.

In fact, it’s part of the employee experience from day one. The organization uses it as part of the onboarding process: IT remotely accesses the contact center agent’s machine to check prerequisite requirements. Nav says this immediate familiarization makes remote support a natural part of the workday, and that it would be difficult for Sensée to be able to remotely manage and support their broad agent workforce without it.

31% of EMEA workers are expected to use their own devices

47% are reliant on home Wi-Fi

60% say remote work has exposed them to some form of cyber risk

– Source: IDG study commissioned by LogMeIn, Ensuring Productivity and Security in the New Remote Work Era

3. Re-evaluate your tools.

Adopting a remote-first mindset requires evaluating whether your toolkit is up to the job. Organizations are now making cloud-first decisions to support hybrid work models. IT leaders are looking for solutions that are simple to use for their agents and easier to manage for their administrators but also scalable and secure.

Nav points out that one of the challenges that many organizations are facing is the portability of their security policy built around office-based operations. Security controls, people controls, device controls and process related controls must all be reevaluated to determine if they transfer into the homeworking space, and if not, it’s time to update or replace them.

93% of EMEA businesses are consolidating or re-evaluating the purchases they made prior to or during the pandemic

– Source: IDG study commissioned by LogMeIn, Ensuring Productivity and Security in the New Remote Work Era

Watch the recording and check out more stops on the Powering Remote Work, Virtual World Tour to hear how IT and line of business leaders like you are navigating the future of remote work around the globe.