The hybrid work model has significantly increased in popularity in recent years, and there has been a shift in how employees want to work. While a hybrid workplace can offer an improved work/life balance, increased productivity, and better employee retention, many companies have yet to shift to it.
As an employer or manager looking to establish a successful hybrid workplace, you may be concerned about ensuring high levels of communication, staff collaboration, and good culture in a remote context.
Therefore, we have put together our top insider tips on how you can create a winning hybrid workplace that meets employee needs while upholding overall company productivity.
1. Focus on employee engagement
Employee engagement is an essential part of doing business. If your workforce doesn’t feel engaged and committed to the company, you may find that customer engagement suffers as a consequence.
You can ensure that your employees are engaged even without proximity. To do this, you need to provide your employees with all the tools they’ll use for work and ensure they know what you expect of them.
Some employment myths state that company culture and employee engagement levels suffer amongst remote and hybrid work models. However, in reality, hybrid and remote employees have some of the highest engagement rates, as you can see from Quantum Workplace’s graph below.
While proximity isn’t an essential requirement when maintaining employee engagement, keeping in contact with your staff is. That includes making employees feel like their opinions matter to you while ensuring that they receive the recognition they deserve for regularly driving results and creating good work. Even though this may require more effort from managers in a hybrid work model, it is sure to deliver the best results.
2. Ensure flexibility
One of the main motivations behind a shift in employee expectations towards hybrid workplaces is the increased flexibility it adds to your workforce. Therefore, if you want a hybrid model to work for you, then you must ensure flexibility for your staff at every opportunity.
Attempts to create a hybrid workplace through programs such as work-from-home Wednesdays or four-day workweeks still exclude staff members and do not offer the desired flexibility. Therefore, you should trust your employees with the choice to decide where and when they work. You are more likely to enjoy increased productivity from loyal employees by doing this.
3. Be inclusive
When creating a hybrid workplace environment that works well, you always need to consider being inclusive of your entire workforce. You will likely have staff from a wide range of backgrounds. Some may still live with their parents, and some may have their own home.
When creating your hybrid working environment, you should keep this in mind and ensure that all offices have the suitable space and technology required to create a high-quality working environment. Remember that if a staff member is not happy with their home office, it wouldn’t be conducive to their productivity to force them to work from home.
As a company, it is crucial that you also consider equity in your winning hybrid workplace. Research collected by the Office for National Statistics found that work-from-home employees were around 38% less likely to receive a bonus than those who only worked from within the office.
Another disadvantage that you should consider when creating your hybrid workplace plan is that staff who work from home may find themselves completing more unpaid overtime than office staff, as shown in the graph above. That can have a considerably negative impact on employee morale and loyalty.
4. Manage time well
If there is one thing that money can’t buy, it is time. Good use of time is essential for having a successful hybrid workplace. That means you need to think carefully about how your workforce’s time is best spent.
It is poor management to bring your staff into the office so that you can see what they’re doing. Instead, managers need to be better equipped at identifying which environment is best for individual tasks. For example, if you want your staff to be collaborative, you could suggest a face-to-face meeting in the office then let them work at home the rest of the time.
5. Optimize your meetings
Improving how you conduct your meetings can make all the difference in achieving the perfect hybrid workplace. If you would usually have a meeting that would last an hour, aim to complete it in 30 minutes to save time. Not only will this help you boost productivity, but it will help your staff remain focused on the task at hand.
Working remotely means that you and your team should use all of the digital communication tools you have at hand, such as instant messaging programs. For example, Slack has become an increasingly popular tool and provides quick and convenient communication for hybrid workplaces.
But at the same time, if doing a face-to-face meeting is easier, don’t try to force a remote process as this could waste even more of your time! Instead, think carefully about how you can best work on a task, whether independently in a team setting.
In closing
When creating and managing a successful hybrid workplace, you must overhaul and rethink how, where, and why work gets done. Whereas you may be inclined to think that your team will work better in a physical environment, with the shift towards remote working, you must have the facilities in place to provide your workforce with the choice to work from home.
By making the right choices and providing a winning hybrid workplace, your entire company can benefit from increased productivity, a happier work experience, and greater employee engagement.
