Hybrid working: What does the future mean for employees?
Many businesses are keen to ensure they maintain the benefits of hybrid working that have been evident over the last 18 months worldwide. For businesses that implement hybrid working correctly, the employee benefits are plentiful. We caught up with M247 Chief People Officer, Jennie Cronin to get her view of the future of work and answer some of the most frequently asked questions around hybrid working and what it means for employees…
1.?????What are the benefits of hybrid working for employees?
Recent?research suggests?that workers who can choose where they perform their roles are happier and more productive than those who are forced to work on-site or remotely 100% of the time. No commute, a better work-life balance, and the ability to work when they know they will be most productive are all key to the enhanced employee experience of hybrid working.
Hybrid workers also benefit from reduced exposure to illness, whether that’s COVID-19 or the common colds that proliferate in offices throughout the year. Fewer distractions lead to increased focus, and the freedom to work where and when they choose adds to an increased sense of ownership, higher levels of motivation and general feelings of positivity towards their employer.
As long as the technology and tools are there to fully support hybrid working, team productivity is enhanced through streamlined processes, and collaboration platforms ensure company culture is able to thrive.?
2.?????What does hybrid working mean for employees?
Hybrid working for employees isn’t just about being able to log on from home a couple of days a week. If the employer has built the right environment and is leveraging all the power of collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams or Google Workspace, the employee’s working life could be transformed for the better.
Whether an employer implements a simple unified communications solution like 247Unified, or an all-in-one, strategy-based solution like 247Cloud, the opportunities for employees to connect, engage and innovate are virtually endless. Streamlined workflows and automated processes free up workers’ time, so they can spend longer doing the thing they’ve been hired to do, or on creating and innovating for the future growth of the business.
With a hybrid working model in place, employees often feel a greater sense of ownership over their roles, a deeper sense of team spirit and collaboration, a sense of commitment to the company they work for, and greater fulfilment in all spheres of their lives.
3.?????Hybrid working for managers
As a manager, a hybrid working model can give you the best of all worlds, allowing you better oversight of your teams and workstreams, enhanced budget predictability and cost optimisation, a global pool for talent acquisition, and happier, healthier teams in general.
Building the perfect hybrid workplace will take some planning, but with the right collaboration platform in place, and all the tools and integrations needed to optimise the environment, a hybrid model will allow managers to better recruit and keep talent, foster innovation, and create value for all stakeholders.
4.?????How should does overseeing a hybrid workforce change the role and responsibility of a manager??
A manager who knows and understands their teams, and the roles and responsibilities of everyone in them, is instrumental in the success of a hybrid working model. Here are some practises that a manager can implement to make the transition, and ongoing implementation, a success:
It’s important that team members working remotely are granted access to support from managers as easily as those working on-site. Ensure communication tools – email, chat functions, SMS, video calls – are used as standard, both in the office and when working from other locations.
One of the drawbacks of remote working is that it can lead to workers feeling cut off and left out. It’s the manager’s responsibility to ensure this doesn’t happen, and team meetings are an easy win for keeping all members of the team involved and engaged. Don’t, for example, have on-site workers in a conference room and remote workers dialling into a phone line, have all team members joining via video link, whether they’re sat just across the office or across the other side of the city.
Key to ensuring workers feel supported and empowered in a hybrid model is for everyone to know what is expected of them and what they can expect from others. Managers should have explicit discussions with teams about how and when they will be expected to get in touch, who needs to be where and when (and why), who has access to what information and who needs to be in which meetings. Managers will need to talk with individual workers about how they intend to structure their working hours when they are based out of the office, remembering that those working in the office may want more rigidity in their working day while remote workers may want more flexibility. Be willing to compromise.
It’s important for managers to ensure they are supporting their teams fairly and equally, whether they are working from home or in the office. Managers should pay attention to how they are partitioning their day and who they are spending time with – are the people in the office getting more input and support? Make a concerted effort to make sure all team members are getting equal access to their managers and think about ways every team member can be positioned for success.
It’s an increasingly outdated managerial attitude to see productivity and visibility as intrinsically linked, and a hybrid model will only work for a company if managers and team leaders are not constantly questioning the motives and commitment of remote workers.
It’s important for managers to keep an eye on the mental health and emotional wellbeing of teams, and to make them feel supported whatever their location of work is. If they are feeling overwhelmed, try helping them prioritise, and share tasks among the team. Above all, keep in regular contact and make sure support is available to all team members.
One of the things people miss the most when they’re not based in a physical office is the water-cooler catch-ups and the desk-buddy banter. It’s important to build some non-work time into the working week to ensure all team members feel engaged and positive about logging on, whether they’re at home or in the office. The key is to keep teams connected and engaged.
Inherent flexibility is one of the biggest benefits of a hybrid model. Ensuring managers and their teams have the ability to adapt quickly and seamlessly will stand everyone in good stead for the future. Managers should be open to new ideas from teams, listen to concerns and be responsive to feedback. Teams will only be invested in and motivated by hybrid working if it makes more sense than traditional models, so managers need to be willing to consider and implement changes employees are requesting.
5.?????Is hybrid working here to stay?
Countless studies and surveys have been carried out over the past year, and they all say the same thing: employers and employees alike have little interest in returning to pre-pandemic work models. Coronavirus has brought out the best in many organisations, magnifying strong leadership practices, the flexibility and commitment of workforces and the entrenched desire of everybody to keep working. Looking ahead to what remains an unpredictable future, it’s hard to imagine any company wanting to back-pedal on the progress in digital transformation made over the past 18 months and slide back into the same old hierarchical, risk-averse, siloed ways of working.
A top-down focus on meaningful business objectives, partnered with a bottom-up sense of empowerment, has the potential to create a workspace of the future that is both hybrid and lasting. By intertwining technology, tools, platforms and human capability, businesses of all sizes and industries will be able to power growth, innovation, efficiency and resilience for the long-term.