The popularity of the hybrid work model has increased over the years for all the right reasons. Employees enjoy increased satisfaction, work/life balance, and productivity. Business owners benefit from the possibility of creating diverse teams and cost optimization.
Gallup research shows that 60% of employees would start searching for new job opportunities if their company didn’t offer the chance to combine office and remote work.
For all these reasons, it may be a good idea to embrace the hybrid model as the future of work. But, creating a productive hybrid workplace is a demanding process with many challenges that can come your way.
Here are some steps that you can take to adapt your management style and business practices and effectively run hybrid teams.
Define Clear Rules
Every business deserves clear structures and processes to succeed. This is especially true when embracing the non-traditional hybrid work model. If you want to help your employees transfer to the hybrid work model effectively and effortlessly, devise a detailed and clear Hybrid Work Policy, providing answers to the following questions:
- What teams and team members can work on their tasks remotely when they want to?
- What tools and apps do employees need to work effectively in a hybrid work environment?
- Do your technology and communication policies and onboarding documentation fit the changed work model, and what adaptations are needed?
- How will a hybrid work setting affect your company values, culture, and cross-team collaboration?
- How will a hybrid work environment affect your taxes and employee benefits?
By answering these questions, you’ll create a much-needed structure and a set of rules that will help your employees better navigate the changed work circumstances.
Provide the Right Tools
Creating a functional hybrid workspace wouldn’t be possible without advanced tools, apps, and equipment. If you want to ease the transition from full-time office work to hybrid, focus on providing effective video conferencing and project management platforms and apps to track remote employee management.
More importantly, cyber security needs to become your top priority. Shifting your business to remote or hybrid environments without providing top-notch security to protect your confidential data, you may become a victim of cybercrime that can potentially ruin your business.
Define Team Office Days
Seamless collaboration is key to business success. But achieving this can be challenging in a hybrid workplace. If you want to reinforce team collaboration, define the days when specific teams will gather in the office for learning or brainstorming sessions.
Teamwork in the office will give your employees the opportunity to build interpersonal relationships and bond on a personal level. Socializing and collaboration can be beneficial for your employees’ mental health and increase their satisfaction.
Engage Employees with Social Activities
The social moment is an important factor in boosting employee engagement and satisfaction. But the lack of social interaction can be one of the disadvantages of remote and hybrid work. Employees who work remotely most of the time may feel isolated and disconnected from the rest of your team.
If you want to bring your team together, and boost their engagement and sense of belonging, organize team-building activities out of the office. Also, by creating meaningful connections between your employees, you may increase your retention rates. According to several studies, 50% of employees think that they’d rather stay with companies where they’ve created meaningful relationships with co-workers.
Give Frequent Feedback
Building strong and productive hybrid teams is a demanding and lasting process. Give your employees time to adjust to new circumstances and rules. But keep track of their performance and use monitoring software for remote employees data to create detailed, objective feedback.
This will help your employees identify their strengths and weaknesses so that they can boast about their outstanding achievements or overcome specific roadblocks with additional support and training.
