What is Hybrid Working?

• Be open and transparent as a team – provide shared calendar access and encourage employees to be honest about their home commitments as well as their professional workload
• Adopt technology which supports communication across teams
• Introduce the same kind of structure as you would have in a physical office such as regular morning catch ups
• Suggest virtual team activities to help with team building amongst colleagues

There are multiple ways an organisation can encourage teamwork and team building in a hybrid workforce. Read our guide to Virtual Team Building Ideas.

One of the biggest challenges in managing a hybrid team is ensuring trust and productivity remain high. Businesses can achieve this by:

• Communicating effectively with your team – ensure you have open channels of communication and employees feel they are able to discuss challenges
• Introducing a flexible working policy so employees can schedule their work around personal commitments
• Adopting technology which enhances productivity and communication whilst working remotely
• Ensuring employees still have opportunities for social interaction with the team despite not always physically being in the office

Take a look at our guide, which provides more in-depth tips on managing a hybrid team.

• Open communication – ensure colleagues feel comfortable sharing and being open with each other about their workload and their priorities.
• Have the right technology in place – not only do employees need access to tools to work productively remotely, but managers and employees need appropriate tech to facilitate regular catch ups and drive objectives and work priorities.
• Ensure your team trust each other – working hours in a hybrid environment may be slightly different to the 9-5. Colleagues understanding and appreciating this is key to hybrid working.
• Get social – set up virtual social events to get teams talking and having those ‘water cooler’ moments.

• Partner with a Cloud software provider – review your current technology stack and ensure your software solutions are secure, integrated and enable efficient and productive working.
• Consider additional technology requirements – do teams need extra platforms to enable hybrid working and improve new working practices?
• Provide suitable hardware – ensure teams are set up to work effectively from home in a comfortable environment.
• Allow flexible working where possible – people work differently and often work most productively at different times of the day depending on their personal preference and work / life commitments. Be inclusive and accommodating if you can.

• Outline a clear return to the office strategy – plan ahead for multiple scenarios and communicate this to your workforce.
• Try to be accessible to everyone and don’t have a one-size-fits-all model – employees will have very different personal situations and will feel differently about coming back to the office as a result
• Talk to your teams about how they feel – returning to the office may be very daunting for some, take the time to listen to feedback from employees and adapt your approach if necessary
• Present equal opportunities – don’t praise individuals who return to the office over those who don’t, ensure all employees feel valued regardless of their choices over where they work

For further guidance on safeguarding your workforce as they return to the office, take a look at our return to office guide.

• Listen to feedback – ensure your employees feel heard and know you take their feedback into account. Empower employees to share their thoughts and challenges with you.
• Recognise success – important to boosting morale is recognising excellence and success among high performers. Make sure employees feel their efforts are appreciated.
• Be flexible – let employees know they have flexibility around their working day and are able to work in a way which is best for them.
• Encourage conversations – schedule frequent conversations with team members and ensure you have a culture of openness.

There are many other ways employers can encourage employees to ensure they are staying well in the hybrid workplace.

Flexible and remote working is new for the majority of employees and businesses. With many employees planning to work remotely for the majority of the time moving forward, it is important that businesses adapt their working models to ensure employees are connected and productive when working away from colleagues.

Read more on how to make remote working a success.

It can be difficult for many employees to remain productive when the distractions of home life are more present in their working environment. On top of this, it can be hard for many employees to feel motivated when away from the office and they can often feel disconnected.

Read more on helping your remote workforce stay productive.

• Create a dedicated working space – tTry and ensure you have somewhere at home set up with everything you need to be productive and that you have the space to focus.
• Take regular breaks – make time throughout the day to break up work to regain your focus.
• Create a ‘fake commute’ – for many people this separates the working day from home life and provides a clear distinction between the two.
• Schedule regular check ins with your team – ensure communication with team members remains high and relationships with colleagues are strong.

There are also many considerations employers need to have around more practical things such as data security and the physical requirements of employees for working from home.

Employers should ensure they have the appropriate people analytics and HR software in place to manage their remote workforce. They should consider if their software allows them to do the following:

• Give and encourage regular employee feedback – help keep employees on track with objectives and goals by providing written feedback. Encourage peers and other leadership members to do the same too.
• Find patterns in absence – being able to analyse absence may give managers warnings of issues such as burnout or stress.
• Analyse employee productivity – remove pointless admin tasks and track progress on objectives to help spot when employees need support in achieving goals.
• Log mental health and Covid-19 statuses – being able to track which staff members have Covid-19 or may be isolating, as well as those struggling with less visible mental health conditions, helps provide appropriate support and workforce planning.

To find out more about HR and people analytics software that can help, take a look at our MyWorkplace platform.

Many managers are still trying to understand how they can best support employees when working from home.

There are a wide range of ways in which this can be done, however a fundamental element of this is ensuring teams have the technology in place to collaborate with other team members and feel part of a wider team. 

For advice on tools and software which can support remote employees, read more about our MyWorkplace platform.