Creating a hybrid work strategy isn’t easy. Not least when there aren’t any blueprints to follow. That is why we have created this article that looks at 9 key areas businesses should focus on when looking to create a hybrid working strategy.
Hybrid is here to stay. Data collected since 2021 shows remote-capable employees are voting with their feet to pursue job opportunities that provide flexibility around the location of work.
Wherever feasible, employers must integrate hybrid if they’re to maintain access to the full labour market and retain the talent they need for business sustainability.
While any hybrid work strategy will always be context specific, there are some common starting points that underpin all effective hybrid work strategies. Our checklist will help you get started.
1. Re-state your business vision, values, purpose and strategy
It’s never been more important to clarify what you’re working towards. In precarious times, it’s human nature to crave certainty and hope for a more promising future. With so many social and environmental challenges to solve, people of working age want to know the work they’re doing matters and somehow makes a difference.
An inspiring, clear and well communicated business vision helps people stay connected to their work. As global events threaten stability, maintaining commitment to long-term business mission, values and strategy boosts performance, agility and market resilience.
2. Identify the information you need for robust decision-making
Work out which roles within your business are remote-compatible. Be willing and able to explain why certain roles can only be completed on-site and why. Pay attention to tasks and outputs and also where people are in their career journeys. For example, entry-level employees will benefit hugely from shadowing more experienced colleagues and ‘learning by osmosis’. Useful questions to ask include:
3. Choose how to gather this information
You might already use engagement or other survey software to canvas opinion within your organisation. Or you might feel more comfortable holding small focus groups or 1-2-1 interviews. Whatever approach you take, make sure the data you gather is representative and that you’re seen to be actively responding to peoples’ input.
4. Make room for employee voice
Encouraging colleagues to share their opinions, and more importantly, integrating these opinions into organisational decision-making is a key driver of employee engagement. Take time to understand both your colleagues’ working preferences and the factors shaping these preferences. Peoples lives are complex – at a time when mental illness is at an all time high, it’s never been more important to demonstrate consideration of the bigger picture.
5. Re-position the post-pandemic office as a social hub
People have already proven they’re capable of working productively from home. Many would argue they’re more productive working remotely. Asking people to return to the office, only to do the same work activities, is counterproductive.
Instead, reimagine the office as the place to re-establish social connections and cultural cohesion to maintain team performance. It might feel strange to watch your teams socialising rather than ‘working’, but this is where the goodwill that underpins collaboration, innovation, creativity and agility germinates.
6. Consider your new space requirement and design layout
What are the co-located activities you’ll prioritise in the new world of hybrid? How do you want your meeting spaces to look – and more importantly, feel – now? What vibe or energy do you want your office space to have? How can it help to manifest your culture? How can reconfigured workspaces augment your business sustainability plan?
7. Co-design hybrid work schedules
Rather than impose a centralised work schedule, invite your teams to co-create their hybrid arrangements. They’ll know best when to meet and gather, and, as organisational change expert Myron Rogers has written, ‘people own what they create’. Involvement in the design of working arrangements will fuel engagement and productivity.
8. Encourage open conversation about new worklife boundaries
With hybrid set to stay, we all need new rituals and routines to help establish healthy boundaries between work and life. Burnout is rife in the pandemic era and employers who demonstrate a duty of care for their staff are winning the war for talent.
9. Practice, practice, practice
It will time for hybrid arrangements to settle into a comfortable routine, and it make well take several iterations to arrive at a solution that works for all stakeholders. Remain open to continuous review and tweak arrangements until you reach your optimal state of hybrid.
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