After two years of remote work and staggered Return-to-Office plans, we still don't have hybrid work figured out. We understand the confusion. At SWAY, our singular focus is to build happy hybrid teams. Here are five of the most powerful questions we are asked about how to make hybrid work, work.
1. How can I trust that my team is working all day?
In a truly hybrid work environment, you'll realize that your team may work best at different times of the day. They have different needs throughout the day. Because of that, they may work different hours than you do: maybe they'll work early before waking up the kids, or they want to walk their dog at a certain time each day. Everyone is different, so "working all day" will mean something different to different people.
Communication and Outcomes
Our workshops teach you what communication tools you need to trust your team in a hybrid setting. In the early stages, you can never communicate too much. Your team should feel free to email you questions as they're working, and you're allowed to ask for daily (or twice a week, or weekly) updates.
But you will need to work to value outcomes over time spent at a desk. If an employee does their best work outside the typical 9-5 hours, then you want them to work outside those hours. They should communicate availability and meet their deadlines as you learn to trust they can get the job done flexibly.
2. How do I keep hybrid employees engaged?
You may need to re-evaluate what "engaged" means for your team. As mentioned above, an employee can still be committed to a role and get the work done without constantly being online. However, you still want a team to feel like a team, and you want them to feel free to chat with you like they would in the office.
Model engaged behavior
As a manager, you will need to model the behavior you want to see from the team. Share the hours you plan to be available online and when they can reach you (and those shouldn't be 24/7). Always show up with your camera on and ready to get to work. Regularly point out when teammates take the initiative.
In the new world of work, outcomes, not time spent at a desk, are indicators of an engaged employee.
3. How many days in the office is enough?
Many companies are building policies requiring two or three days in the office without a strategy for using those days. If employees show up on those days and sit at their desks all day, they might as well have been working from home -- and they know it. So here's the short answer:
It depends!
The longer answer is this: build a strategy for your days in and out of the office.
During our workshops, we surveyed participants and learned that most employees want to be in the office approximately two days per week. As a manager, business owner, or department head, you need to decide how they manage those days.
As your team plans the tasks for the next week, can some of the collaborative tasks be saved for a day where they can work together in person? Possibly eliminating the "you're on mute" and internet connectivity issues when planning a big presentation.
Of course, at some point, they may need to go back to their desks and work by themselves, but remember to keep those tasks limited to remote days, where employees can choose how and where they work.
You might find that your team only needs to be in the office once a week: do it. Then, your team will thank you for building a system that works specifically for them instead of following a suggested policy.
4. How do we avoid burnout?
You may feel like you hear about corporate burnout every day. Working from home has made some things easier, but many other areas have become more challenging. Even if the burnout has less to do with the job and more to do with the personal circumstances of each employee, you can find ways to avoid burnout on your team.
Setting a Standard of Empathy, Compassion, and Self-Care
If you're a team manager or leading a company, you need to set the standard, so employees feel safe to ask for the support they need. Start marking time on your calendar for a walk or the gym, and encourage your employees to take the time, too. Make sure your team knows that their families and health come first by rearranging the schedule when they need time and honoring their PTO. Yes, this may make logistics a little more challenging, but you'll have less turnover in the long run.
5. How do I fight proximity bias?
We all know how it feels to be on the wrong end of proximity bias: you miss a meeting and receive bits of information over time. Your coworker always walks in with your manager in the elevator, and you may feel that no one notices you arrived early. Even pre-COVID, you knew you could do parts of your job from home, but you didn't want to suggest it and risk looking lazy.
Location Inclusion: self-awareness and clear communication
Location Inclusion is the conscious shift to seeing no interdependency between person and place. Self-awareness means you actively notice when a remote worker is left out of the conversation and take a minute to fill them in. You notice who you reach out to with a problem: is it the person you happen to see the most often or the remote worker who has availability?
As a manager, you can solve many hybrid work problems with clear communication. In the case of proximity bias, the more you communicate, the more you can trust the work of your remote or flexible workers.
We discussed Proximity Bias in a blog post a few months ago, so look there for more solutions to proximity bias.
Are you ready to build a happy hybrid team?
At SWAY, we have a model for creating a flexible workplace with trust and freedom. Our coaches can help individual managers, teams, and departments develop a playbook for their company that results in engaged, productive, and fulfilled workers. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.