You are probably going to lose a major chunk of your workforce if you’re planning to call your employees back to the office full-time. According to Microsoft’s recent survey, 74% of employees are keen on flexible remote work options. Meaning- The future of work is here and it is hybrid. With the current business ecosphere showing employee dominance, your best bet is to go hybrid.
Nevertheless, historically, it has been seen how employees slack off if they aren’t within the sight of their boss/manager. Or has this been passed on as a baseless claim? Some managers do have their insecurities as they feel employees are working in the dark. Though they are suffering from “perceived work productivity” syndrome, their concern cannot be completely brushed off.
This is where the need for a balanced and apt hybrid work culture comes into picture.
Before the pandemic, merely 15% of companies, as per a survey, had flexible working policies. That jumped to 76%in the year 2020 with the pandemic casting a shadow over the world. While shrinking global economies forced to shut many companies, several others chose to take the only working option left- Remote.
The business world cannot go back to how it functioned in pre-covid times. Hence, it is vital for leaders to build a hybrid work environment that accentuates, rather than depletes, employee productivity. For this, they need to consider the elements that charge the ions building their foundation. These include energy, focus, coordination, discipline, and cooperation. A good leader imbibes all of them in the company culture to align employee expectations and company plans.
Smart leaders are those who stay a step ahead by identifying the needs of tomorrow and creatingtheir solutions today. With the cards in favour of the hybrid workplace model, your best bet is to develop one with a positive attribute at your organization. Here are the steps to follow to create a positive hybrid work culture essential for any company’s growth:
Invest in the right tools:
Collaboration, document sharing, communication, attendance marking- are some of the many benefits the right kind of tools can provide to a remote working organization that mostly remains in the dark if it doesn’t clench onto technology. This, in turn, hampers the company culture- affecting employee productivity.
Technology soared to become a vital support system since the pandemic began. Though it has its own share of boons and banes, this man-made innovation can tremendously boost the productivity of a company, given it is utilized in the right way. A good HRM software is the first step towards this. If you do have one in place, determine its usability for a hybrid workplace.
Match flexibility with consistency:
The complex web containing different hierarchies of an organization needs to be grouped into appropriate teams for regular but comfortably gapped WFO days. It is vital for everyone in the company to meet each other in-person after certain time intervals. This ensures the human touch isn’t lost and collegial relationships blossom.
Assign different days of the week to different teams but provide autonomy over their workplace of choice. However, you allocate the days, make sure it doesn’t coincide with the major chunk of the workforce.
Step up your employee experience game:
If 2020 has taught us anything, it is that employee experience is more than just perk-system. It is about putting care, trust, honesty, purpose and motive at the top of the heap. While hybrid work means a dispersed workforce and greater hardships in enriching this domain, recruit your CEO, stakeholders and higher management to show the care, build the trust, create belonging and hear everyone in the business. Focusing on diversity & inclusion and employees’ mental health can prove to be the other aspects beneficialin creating positive hybrid work culture.
Streamline communication processes:
Physical proximity makes innovation and teamwork easier, but not necessarily better. Read that again. The factor that strikes a chord between both is communication. Group projects are delivered faster and with the best outcome when completed with proper collaboration. And collaboration requires the right form and tense of communication.
To get things going at the regular, if not faster, pace, ensure there is no communication gap between employees. Any form of hinderance can negatively impact the behavior of a worker, ultimately hampering the work culture.
Sowseeds of transparency:
Organization leaders should be aware of the implications their actions can have on the company culture. Their moves should be shared transparently in the workplace to build trust amongst employees and keep them informed despite being away from the office physically. Detachment and a fear of missing out develops in remote working employees who previously used to work on-site.
This fear can be stopped from turning into anger if leaders step in to share a range of inputs, strengthening their bonds with the company.
Don’t let company traditions die:
The last thing you’d want to do when creating a positive hybrid work culture is erasing the old traditions the company followed when “normalcy” prevailed. Instead of discarding them, find new ways to keep the traditions alive. These are the ones that helped employees stick with your company. Scratching them would mean bringing down the morale of your workers. Put your best minds on identifying methods to bring these to life in a new way.
Creating a positive hybrid workplace culture requires fostering of the desired environment in leaders’ minds first. Take charge of the shipas shifting workplaces mark the beginning of a new odyssey. Don’t refrain from change, the world has already embraced it.
