Productivity and performance, not just clocks and calendars...
“How do we manage this hybrid work environment?”??is the question on everyone’s minds as COVID starts to get in the rear view, mandates are being lifted and companies are bringing employees back into the office.?
Here is the short answer – “there is no correct or easy answer”.
The workforce seems to like where most of these hybrid changes are headed. Currently, nine in 10 remote-capable employees prefer some degree of remote-work flexibility going forward (Gallup), and six in 10 specifically prefer hybrid work. Clearly, most employees have developed an affinity for remote-work flexibility that has grown into an expectation for the future. While permanent plans for remote flexibility are certainly trending in their favor, there are still a fair number of our team members who will not receive the flexibility they desire – think hourly, production or certain customer facing roles.
In fact (in the Gallup survey), when employees are required to work fully on-site, but they would prefer to work hybrid or fully remote, employees experience:
“In the right roles and with the right people, flex does offer tremendous productivity improvement. It gives people time to process properly, and it gets them out of the office in terms of being bogged down in day-to-day admin. So, there is more thought leadership that comes to the table, and that’s where your creativity and innovation come in.” – Osman Khan
Many companies will be allowing team members the flexibility to work on-site and/or remotely part of the week. While other team members may be working either full-time remote or full-time on-site based on their job requirements.???Industries will be different, countries will be different, companies will be different, functions will be different, and departments will be different.??Even individual jobs may be different.??This is ok.??No single answer is correct. The good news is that with hybrid work environments, we can get working groups together again for important projects, meetings, and events.
To better understand our “new world”, and quite frankly the 2022 workforce expectations, we need to be comfortable with team members not returning to the same workplace we all left behind two years ago. Our team members with the ability to work remotely are largely anticipating a?hybrid?office environment going forward -- one that allows them to spend part of their week working remotely and part in the office.??Defining when and why they need to be in the office (or remote) and making sure this is value add will be the key to companies being most successful. Leveraging the benefits of in person meetings: connecting with others, allowing for greater social interaction, enhancing innovation and brainstorming, greater focus on group projects, discussing important strategic decisions, and building stronger connections will all be enhanced as we return to the office.
Over the last two years we have learned in the hybrid work model, employees have more flexibility to get work done when they’re most productive. For example, some people work best early in the morning while others do better in the evening. Some work is best handled in the more collaborative office, while other work best done in the quiet and undisturbed home office. We can also choose to work with teammates on-site or do heads-down work from a remote location.?In fact a?recent study by Slack?found that flexibility is a key reason employees are attracted to the hybrid work model. Finding balance is easier in a flexible work arrangement.??(As a side note for those managers worried about non-performers -?my experience has been that the people who take advantage of this flexibility also take advantage when they are in the office, and we will need to find another company best suited to their work ethic).??
“People today really value workplace flexibility and remote work because it allows them to focus their energies on work and life as opposed to commuting or other complications due to geography.” – Ken Matos
?In a hybrid work setup, fewer team members are on-site at any given time. For many companies, this may mean we may not need to hold on to all our real estate investments, but we may need more investment in technology.?At its best, hybrid work will bridge the remote and on-site environments so employees can work together with ease. We need to enable this, with better communication tools, more on-site video conferencing equipment and greater IT bandwidth.??Additionally, work from home team members need to have better personal internet speed and system reliability.?
In any hybrid working model, regular and clear communication and expectations becomes paramount.?We should encourage our team leads to set clear expectations with their team members. For example, we may adopt a more open style of communication to accommodate employees working in different time zones.?The research suggests we need to not let the culture?slip. While our team members may not come on-site every single day, it’s important to ensure they don’t lose interest in going in some of the time. If they do, it could lead to more absenteeism and a lesser on-site experience for those who do show up.?
“Women are working more, men are understanding their value as caregivers, women are primary breadwinners—I mean, we could go on and on and on. Things are different. So, we can’t keep operating like everything is the same, and that’s what many of us have done. And I think it’s up to us to change the conversation.” – Michelle Obama
As more team members return to our offices, we will need?to manage workplace desk space and provide employees flexibility. There are several ways to approach this. For example, we may decide employees will work on-site on certain days or weeks. Or we could allow custom scheduling where managers set their team’s schedules.?Team members may pair up and ensure “the desk” is covered every day.??Team members may all come in on Wednesdays to interact on group projects, social recognition events, and important strategy meetings.??We may have hoteling arrangements.??Or we may have team members come in for only monthly group meetings.??Endless possibilities.
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?The hybrid model used to be seen as an alternative style of work. But as more employees demand flexibility, it’ll become even more common. We must meet the needs of their workforce or risk losing talent to employers that do offer more flexibility.?The?current labor market?shows employees will vote with their feet and embrace more flexible workplaces. They want to live where they want and work how they want, and companies are under pressure to deliver on this ambition to attract the best staff. This will need to be reflected in hiring practices as an increasing number of high paying jobs?will become fully remote by the end of the year.
?In fact, Gallup directly asked workers if they would look for a new job if their employer stopped offering remote-work options going forward. An astounding 54% of employees currently working exclusively from home said they would likely look for another job; 38% of hybrid workers said the same.
?Failing to offer flexible work arrangements is a significant risk to our hiring, employee engagement, performance, well-being, and retention strategies.
Unfortunately for us, team members don't offer a clear consensus about their preferred remote-to-office ratio (Gallup). Four in 10 employees want to be in the office two to three days per week -- but that certainly isn't the majority. Another three in 10 employees would prefer spending roughly one or two days in the office each week.
?On the upside, most employees agree that a moderate amount of time in the office is important, and Gallup's research has consistently shown that work flexibility tends to be optimal for engaging employees and reducing burnout -- before?and?during the pandemic.?And the answer may be different this month versus three months from now.
?As a starting place, managers should consider how?interdependently?their team members must work. Highly interdependent teams need each other to do work, together, real-time. The more interdependent they are, the more explicit we must be about when people need to be on-site together, when they need to be available to their teammates, and how handoffs will be handled. These teams require a certain amount of guidance and more face-to-face time to keep everything moving cohesively.
?Conversely, when team members work?independently?-- performing tasks that require less real-time collaboration -- we can offer more autonomy and flexibility over work schedules because they primarily complete their work individually.
?In the hybrid environment, highly independent teams need to double down on communicating, overcommunicating, being accountable for performance outcomes and finding time for team building. Our biggest risk in this new hybrid environment for teleworkers will be working in isolation for too long or at the wrong moments. Highly independent teams also risk culture erosion, driving more isolation, reducing innovation and serendipity, losing connectivity, and neglecting our remote-working coworkers.
?While our hybrid work schedules will look different by organization and team, it is important to keep evaluating and adjusting how the current arrangement is working.???In the end, our team members and organizations will need clear answers to?why?people should come into the office or why they should work remotely. We may need to help define?how?they should spend that time together.?We should shape our strategies around productivity and performance, not just clocks and calendars. We need to assess which team activities are best on-site and which can be done remotely. (Considering the interdependency of the work.)?
Give our team members a compelling reason to come to the office. A policy is not an answer to why people should come to the office. Leaders need to develop a compelling?workplace value proposition that represents the culture, benefits and interactions team members will experience on-site.??We will need to allow for?flexibility within a framework.?There is likely no single hybrid work policy that will be ideal for all teams and all workers. Allowing leaders some authority to individualize work policies is likely necessary, given the different kinds of work and life circumstances across our global organization. It is also necessary to set boundaries for when employees are and are not expected to be available.
“Technology now allows people to connect anytime, anywhere, to anyone in the world, from almost any device. This is dramatically changing the way people work, facilitating 24/7 collaboration with colleagues who are dispersed across time zones, countries, and continents.” – Michael Dell
Flexibility and autonomy can create ambiguity and coordination issues. Gallup finds that managers tend to communicate less frequently and effectively when employees spend more time working remotely. However, hybrid team engagement can far exceed on-site engagement when managers proactively check in with their team members multiple times per week. As flexibility increases, managers need to increase communication about work priorities, progress, and handoffs between team members.
Together.??We.??Win.