Whether you think you should have more days in the office, or you want to move and work remotely, you’ve noticed the workplace has changed. At SWAY, we’re working with companies to build happy hybrid teams, and the first step is acknowledging that even the meaning of “hybrid work” has changed.
What is Hybrid 2.0?
Maybe you didn’t realize we’re entering Hybrid 2.0. What was the original version, and what makes 2.0 different?
Originally, hybrid work may have been called telecommuting. This was the version we started with in 2020: you worked the same hours and used the same tools as when you worked in the office. Nothing was different except the location, and leadership led with an “office-first” mindset.
As we look ahead to the Future of Work, we see Hybrid 2.0 as the virtual-first workplace. Time together doesn’t always happen at the company headquarters, but it’s always intentional and well-planned. Employees no longer tolerate doing the same work at home and at the office: why waste time and money commuting?
We’re basing productivity and performance on outcomes, not the hours spent in the office. If you can do a great job on time, hybrid workers don’t want managers asking how long it took or what time of day they worked on it.
As companies adopt a Hybrid 2.0 mentality, we’re assessing employees’ hybrid readiness.
How do you score?
How to assess your Hybrid Readiness:
We believe there are a few key elements that make an individual Hybrid 2.0 - ready. Not surprisingly, these are primarily soft skills. But your physical work environment plays a vital role in how you get work done.
Building Empathy-Based Trust
Empathy-based trust is key to any workplace, especially in hybrid environments where employees have more freedom to work at different times and locations. When your team trusts that they will not get penalized for asking questions or sharing problems, they will come to you faster with issues.
Ultimately, empathy and trust create open communication, so you can be proactive and productive.
If you want to learn more about building trust on your team, we’ve written articles here, here, and here.
Encouraging Personal Responsibility
Employees want to take ownership of their tasks without constant monitoring. The biggest shift in workplace strategy is personal responsibility compared with the previous priority of hours in the office. With clear communications and expectations, teams will feel free to do what they need to do as long as work is completed on time.
Constant monitoring creates employees who can’t think for themselves. When teams are free to work how they choose, they start thinking more creatively.
Fighting Proximity Bias
Proximity Bias is your #1 enemy as you prepare for Hybrid 2.0. You cannot prefer the team members you physically see more often. Each team must fight for inclusion: creating a single source of truth for information, regularly updating the team as a whole, and remembering to include remote workers in the conversation.
If a manager shows preference toward in-office employees, they will damage any trust they’ve built with virtual workers. As we mentioned in a previous blog post, proximity bias is natural and served our tribal ancestors well, but it has no place in Hybrid 2.0.
Creating Your Ideal Remote Workspace
What we love about Hybrid 2.0 is the personalized work experience. What works for you may not work for your coworker, and that’s ok. You need to find how you produce your best work. We have a few suggestions:
Do you have a designated workspace?
Is your space quiet enough and distraction-free for conference calls?
Is your chair comfortable?
Do you need noise-canceling headphones?
While you may think your home is too small for a designated office space, start thinking of how you can make it work. The couch is fine for some tasks, but good boundaries begin with an intentional workspace.
What is the Net Hybrid Score?
When we engage with an enterprise for any level of training, we begin and end with their Net Hybrid Score.
This proprietary quiz goes out to all the employees and gauges their trust level, empathy, remote work setup, and more. Then, 90 days after the training, we send the test around again to see how things have improved or where they may need more work.
Before we can discuss the training package a company will receive, we go over this data to come up with the best plan to train a Happy Hybrid team.
But for those of you who want to improve your personal hybrid work skills, we created the Hybrid Readiness Quiz! Find out if you’re a Hybrid Ninja, and pass it along to your coworkers to see if they have different results.