HOW TO EFFECTIVELY MANAGE A HYBRID WORKFORCE

What will the office of the future look like? Potentially very empty. According to a survey by FlexJobs, 65 percent of employees would prefer to continue working from home, 31 percent are interested in occasionally working from home — and only 4 percent would like to return to the office full-time. For many businesses, this means a hybrid workplace model of office management is the only realistic choice.

THE CHALLENGES OF A HYBRID WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT

A hybrid workplace model integrates both a physical workplace with a digital one. In many respects, this isn’t that different from what businesses have already been moving toward. With cloud technology becoming ubiquitous, many employees find themselves working on-the-go — whether they’re eating breakfast and reading emails or having a conference call while on the road. So in many respects, we already have a kind of hybrid workforce. However, businesses are used to having a physical “home base,” a location where employees are able to connect and collaborate. These locations are going to increasingly become digital, rather than physical, spaces.

According to Microsoft, 61 percent of leaders are “thriving” under the new remote model of work. Perhaps more importantly, up to 40 percent of employees are considering leaving their employer.

Under a hybrid working environment, employees and managers experience enhanced levels of freedom. They are able to work where they want and often when they want. But there’s a complexity involved; it’s harder to communicate, more time-consuming to touch base and easy to feel alienated and apart. 

Nevertheless, embracing a hybrid work environment has some substantial benefits for an organization, not the least of which is the ability to downsize its physical infrastructure. But how can you manage a hybrid workplace? What are the best ways to focus on managing a hybrid workforce who you see infrequently, if ever?

HOW TO MANAGE A HYBRID WORKPLACE

With any new model, there’s some level of experimentation and innovation. The hybrid workplace is nothing new, but it’s coming at a tumultuous time—and many companies are finding what works and what doesn’t work for them. Depending on company culture, there may be some tactics that need to be adjusted, and there may be times when a hybrid model simply doesn’t work.

With that in mind, here are some important tips for managing a hybrid workforce:

• Consider switching from “hours worked” to milestones and deadlines. When remote work first became popular with IT companies, it seemed to be an abysmal failure. It appeared as though the employees were “slacking off” and not working the right amount of hours. However, the truth is that most employees who work an eight-hour day in the office aren’t working for a full eight hours either; the human brain cannot focus for that long. An in-office employee is usually only fully productive for about three hours. Remote employees are often more productive than in-office ones, but they need to be able to work when they can focus. It’s better to measure productivity and milestones than raw time.
• Utilize a consolidated communication and collaboration system like Office 365 and Microsoft Teams. Under a hybrid workforce model, you have remote workers, hybrid workers and full-time employees all communicating. There needs to be a consistent method of communication, which can be done through a consolidated system such as MS Teams or Slack. MS Teams has an advantage in hybrid systems because it can be fully integrated into Office 365 for a complete collaborative solution. Employees will never have to wonder about how to communicate with someone regardless of whether they are remote or in-office.
• Encourage team engagement, exercises and shared goals. Remote employees in a hybrid workforce frequently feel alienated and alone. They are disconnected from each other and fail to form connections with their team members. Moreover, fully remote workers may feel as though their flex-time or full-time peers don’t take them seriously. Fostering engagement and communication is the best way to defeat this.
• Frequently check in with employees to ensure that they are getting what they need to get. Because a hybrid workplace model is inherently experimental, it may not always be obvious that some employees are getting left behind. Employees should know who to go to if they feel adrift or as though they are missing key information they should have.
• Build trust between employees and management. Micro-managing simply doesn’t work under a hybrid workforce model. Managers need to instead focus on giving employees what they need to succeed, rather than questioning their abilities to self-govern; ideally, organizations should hire employees who are self-motivated and independent and who are able to achieve their goals without external pressures.
• Have processes in place to govern communication. Let’s say an employee receives a customer complaint via email. What is their next step? Should they call the team responsible for the customer? Should they forward the email? Or should they upload a help desk ticket with the email attached? Employees should never have to wonder “how” they should best communicate; there should be processes in place that outline which communications go where. This will help employees determine whether communications should best be an instant message, email, phone call or even video conference.

In a hybrid workplace model, it’s important to have the right people. Not everyone thrives as part of a hybrid workforce and not every industry is well-suited to workplace flexibility. But once a hybrid workplace can be achieved, businesses can find themselves free to attract the best talent, attract talent from anywhere and reduce their overhead. We hope that these tips on managing a hybrid workforce are useful to you and your business.

Is your business ready to transition to a hybrid workplace? Don’t go it alone. Contact Red River today to find out more about the benefits of a hybrid workplace and how to make the workplace work for you.