There’s recently been a lot of back and forth for employees: working from home, back to the office full time, back to home, back in split teams, back to working from home, back to the office but only if you have a negative RAT test in the morning, and so on. This is exhausting.
According to a Future Forum report, 72% of employees said they do not want to go back to the traditional way of office working and desire a hybrid-remote office model going forward.
It’s time to move forward and build up a stable work model. The hybrid office model is a combination of remote and on-site work. Employees now expect the flexibility of remote work along with in-person time with team.
Here’s how you can make the hybrid model work for your team:
1. Select the right hybrid model. There are different options for the hybrid model: remote-first, office-occasional, office-first and remote-allowed. Choose the option that works best for your workforce and organisation. Then, work out a hybrid plan to promote stability.
2. Determine where leadership works. Leadership plays a huge part in a successful hybrid model. If leadership needs to be working on-site, the culture will unintentionally become an office-first culture, but having leadership work remotely, will help remote employees feel more comfortable.
3. Be aware of bias. It’s important to recognise and reward your employees equally, regardless of whether or not they are working in or out of the office. This can be mitigated by having leadership work primarily remotely.
4. Consistency is key. Organisations should try to give their in-office and remote workers the same consistency in experience, keeping the remote workers in mind when organising meetings so that everyone has the same experience.
5. Active listening. Organisations need to listen actively to their employees and plan accordingly. If employees feel that in-person meetings are more useful but don’t want to travel to the office, maybe it’s time to step away from the traditional working model. This also goes for non-verbal communication during meetings. Organisations should learn to pay attention to the employees’ non-verbal cues when discussing this topic because there’s still some sort of taboo around remote work.
6. Build a strong culture. For a hybrid working model to be successful, it’s advisable to build an organisational culture that everyone resonates with. It should be echoed frequently.
7. Team cohesiveness. It’s important to promote inclusiveness and conduct activities for everyone to get the chance to connect with each other. This can be done through daily huddle meetings, weekly incentives or one-off events like a hybrid team-building activity.
The future of work is not static, and people still need to remain flexible, however, there are ways to stabilise change and providing them with stability will increase their productivity and wellbeing. In fact, research has shown that when executed correctly, hybrid working models can allow organisations to recruit stronger talent, achieve successful innovation and build a productive future.
However, in order to make a successful transition to a hybrid working model, organisations should choose the right model for their workforce, stick to it and actively implement it.
Can you give your staff the best of both worlds?
Here’s to the future of work!
