Over the last 18 months, remote working models were rapidly rolled out with varying degrees of success. Now as offices can reopen in the UK many businesses find themselves in the middle of a debate: should they continue to support remote working or revert to office work?

Instead of all or nothing, many employees and companies have their minds set on hybrid working. Below we explore why this approach might be the answer and what organisations can do to ensure the success of hybrid working models.

The case for keeping home working

Customer service complaints are at their highest level since 2009 according to The Institute of Customer Service. Its study of 10,000 people found a quarter of consumers felt Covid has been used by companies to justify poor service.

Over 60 per cent of CEOs surveyed by Gartner revealed they believe digital transformation will spur an economic boom in 2021. To capitalise on this, leaders will need to navigate transformation projects with speed and precision.

Digital transformation and skills will be crucial for the UK’s economic recovery. But this success will be underpinned by addressing the current digital skills gap.

To keep their businesses resilient, many organisations fast-tracked transformations as the COVID-19 pandemic hit. While some senior decision-makers got a proverbial bruise (or two) during the rapid changes, they also provided valuable lessons for leading change without the safety net of certainties.

When the government introduced the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), they created a critical lifeline to many struggling businesses. But for the lenders offering these loans the schemes have unearthed a number of internal administrative problems related to processing and servicing loans at the speed and scale required.

By the end of March 2021, over one and a half million small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) had borrowed through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) – amounting to a staggering £46million. This means 29 accredited BBLS lenders have thousands of new customers to service, as well as a sizable level of debt to collect.

While the financial services industry is no stranger to business transformation, the pandemic forced businesses to expedite the pace of change. Eli Rosner, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Finastra said: “It feels like the fast forward button has been pressed. I think it was burgeoning even before COVID-19 hit us, but the pandemic has just taken it to a whole new level; it’s forced everybody to think differently about their business.”

New challenges and opportunities will emerge for lenders servicing UK COVID loans in 2021. While Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) are providing the much-needed lifeline to struggling organisations they are also adding a strain on financial institutions.

The HFS Research provides an analysis of how digital optimization with Firstsource’s 3P’s framework will drive business outcomes for healthcare firms and how Firstsource is bolstering its Digitally Empowered Customer Experience (DECX) and industry-focused capabilities with its recently announced partnership with Zappix and Uniphore.

Access the research to know more about Firstsource’s partner strategy to unlock deep customer and employee value for healthcare organizations.