Why Don't Standard Scheduling Tools Work For Hybrid Teams?

Scheduling hybrid work should be about the same amount of effort as scheduling

any other type of work. People work a certain number of hours on certain days in a

month. Those days are sometimes worked from home, sometimes worked from the

office, and sometimes worked from a third location like the local coffee shop, or a

holiday house in France (I wish!).

That's simple enough, right?

So why is scheduling hybrid work so complicated for so many people?

Just when you think everything looks right on paper, then somebody doesn't turn up

for a meeting because they didn't get the memo that day.

People who need to brainstorm for a creative project together, in-person, suddenly

find themselves lost for ideas alone in a coffee shop somewhere, while others make

long commutes to the office only to log straight back into Zoom for a remote meeting

as soon as they arrive.

In practice, scheduling hybrid employees can be an endless headache.

I'm going to help you wade through the woes of scheduling hybrid patterns, so you

can return to a world of neat schedules that stay well within the lines of predictability,

and don't cause any unruly stress in your day.

The Hybrid Schedule Itself Isn't Complex. People Are Complex.

What's complex, is our inherent human nature to avoid commitment, resist change,

and make things more complicated then they need to be.

This process of herding cats in the daily work schedule is putting immense pressure

on HR Managers, team leaders, people in collaborative teams, and the quiet types

who only show up for in-person work when they really need to.

Mis-communication causes confusion that makes everybody's jobs more stressful. It

fuels a toxic cycle of workplace frustration that erodes confidence at all levels of the

organisation. This makes the hybrid work schedule an undeserving scapegoat for

workplace chaos, when really, the onus is on people to communicate their plans

more effectively within their hybrid roles.

Ultimately, it's the organisers of the hybrid workforce who suffer most, because time

and time again you fail to deliver a seamless work experience to people you care

about - your employees.

Why Can't We Just Use Normal Scheduling Tools To Schedule Hybrid

Work Patterns?

This article looks at the flaws we've seen around scheduling hybrid work with

traditional scheduling tools, so you can avoid the common pitfalls and make your

hybrid work schedule simpler in no time at all.

1. Excel Spreadsheets Can't Overlap Schedules

Organised people do love a spreadsheet, but the problem with spreadsheets is they

don't know how to overlap data in a meaningful way. Spreadsheets work in columns

and rows, and also have the option to colour-code information into cells, but they're

limited by their structure.

The nature of tables means that each spreadsheet is capped at just three variables -

one data set goes into the rows, one data set goes into the columns, and one data

set goes into the colour-coded cells.

If you need more data sets, then you need to make more tables.

Normal rosters have just three variables, which is perfect for spreadsheets. The

names of employees occupy one data set, their days worked takes another, and

their required hours uses the third variable to make a perfect table.

In hybrid work schedules, the data sets include the employees's names, their days

worked, the tasks they're working on, their workplace location, and the hours they're

expected to be available for.

Hybrid work schedules have a minimum of five variables, often more, which means

you need to have at least two tables to successfully roster employees this way.

Two tables can make the information seem disjointed, which causes gaps in the

story. Gaps in the story cause people to miss their meetings while they're sitting on

the train.

2. Shared Calendars

People create a team calendar online, and everybody adds their hours, locations and

tasks to the joint calendar. Shared calendars make sense, because each event can

be customised to add extra information about where people are working from, and

which tasks they're working on for each event.

The challenge with shared calendars is not their functionality, but the people who

use them. People change their minds at the last minute and forget to update their

details, which means that others can't always trust the information that's available to

them.

Shared calendars work well until the trust gets broken. It only takes one person in

the team to be a little sloppy with the shared calendar, and the whole team decides

the system is unreliable.

3. Post-it Notes

In some cases, hybrid teams don't create a schedule at all. Instead, everybody tries

to intentionally be in the right place at the right time by chance. One person may

leave a note on a colleague's desk to say they hope to see them on Tuesday, while

another may see a notice posted in the kitchen to say there's an in-person meeting

happening next Thursday.

In relaxed workplace environments, a casual approach can stimulate a laid-back

culture that's pleasant to work in, but this can cause lasting resentment when people

feel left out or overlooked.

Post-it-note culture breeds cliques and FOMO - the fear of missing out - which can

cause an otherwise successful hybrid team to become fragmented overnight.

4. WhatsApp Groups

WhatsApp groups have become commonplace since the lockdowns, so it seems

only natural that teams should now want a WhatsApp group to discuss when they'll

be around and what they'll be working on each day.

This approach gives people flexibility to change their plans at the last minute, but can

become overwhelming to people who already have too many WhatsApp groups, or

those who switch their phones to 'do-not-disturb' mode after hours.

WhatsApp groups work well for active teams who communicate regularly, but can

run the risk of causing burnout, and don't always guarantee that everybody in the

group will see every message.

The biggest problem with WhatsApp groups is their lack of boundaries.

Everybody should know where to find people when they need to, but not everybody

needs to know every detail about every person's plans.

This 'all-or-nothing' style of communication can bombard people with continuous

communication, which causes them to zone out when something important is said in

the group chat.

5. Email Chains

Emails work perfectly when they're kept to single strands sent during sociable hours

only, and get read on time, every time.

The problem with emails is their reputation. People receive so many emails each day

that most people now manage their inbox by switching their instant notifications off.

Digital marketing has pre-conditioned people to dip into their emails only when they

really need to, and to switch their emails off when they want to enjoy some down

time.

This means that important emails often don't land at the top of the pile, so when it

comes to co-ordinating hybrid workers, an email is often little more than a digital

Post-it note that gets lost. Emails have all the same flaws as the little bits of paper

we leave lying around the office.

6. Rigid Rosters

Unfortunately, the complexities of scheduling hybrid work means that some stressed-

out roster creators try to do what they've always done using dated systems that

haven't yet had time to adapt to hybrid work patterns.

This process leads to frustration, which causes companies to lose out on the

enormous benefits of adapting traditional schedules to the hybrid work environment.

While doing nothing to adapt a rigid roster keeps things standardised, it can - and

often does - cause businesses to fall behind, which ultimately sends talented staff

running for the door.

How Can You Make Scheduling Hybrid Work Easier?

Successful hybrid schedules rely on process over perfection. It's about finding a

system that works for your employees, then refining that process until everybody

knows what's expected of them.

You need to look beyond what you have always done in your traditional roster, and

steer clear of ad hoc solutions that look good today but fall short tomorrow.

The end goal is to create a trusted system that you can rely on every day, which

makes it easy for you to deliver a positive work experience that keeps people

genuinely engaged.

The Complexities Are Hybrid Work Schedules Don't Need To Be

Complicated

DuoMe has built a dedicated hybrid work scheduling system, which is a fully-

adaptable calendar that takes the human side of following schedules into account.

The system changes when people change their minds, which makes scheduling

hybrid work a seamless experience without the headaches!

Book your free demo to see how easy it can be to schedule your hybrid team today.

*This article was first published by DuoMe on Jul 25 2022 - Link in comments!

#hybridworking #remoteworking #futureofwork