Building a Hybrid Workplace That Works
Published: 21/03/2022
Free trial
See for yourself how you can save time and money. Enter your details below for a free 30 day no-obligation trial.
Many business owners are eager to bring their teams back to the office after months of unexpected remote working. However, we are writing this extensive article to prevent you from hastily rushing your team onto the premises. A hybrid workplace is a preferable approach - and we are here to assist you in transitioning to it smoothly.
While the hybrid workplace is still a relatively new approach that emerged out of necessity due to in-person working restrictions, it has proved to be highly effective. According to the Accenture report, 63% of high-revenue growth companies have adopted and maintained the hybrid office model even after being given permission to return to their premises. This is also linked to the fact that the majority of the current workforce consists of tech-savvy millennials, and it is now being joined by Gen-Z.
To provide a contrast, let’s note that 69% of companies experiencing negative or no growth opted to be tied to just one work model—either in-person or remote. This demonstrates that flexibility is a crucial factor in business success. In this article, we will guide you in adopting and utilising a strategy that is guaranteed to yield long-term benefits.
It is now quite evident that the hybrid work model is here to stay. Not only has this proven effective for many businesses in terms of productivity and as a driver of innovative approaches, but various surveys demonstrate that the majority of employees favour it over full-time office attendance as well.
For example, a LinkedIn survey has shown that 40% of women and a third of surveyed men with young children would start looking for a new job if instructed to return to the office. 7% would leave immediately. In other words, failing to adopt the hybrid workplace strategy is likely to undermine your talent retention and future talent attraction. This working model has transformed the employment landscape forever, and the sooner you adapt to it, the better your business will fare moving forward.
Let’s start by stating a simple fact: you won’t be able to successfully transition to a hybrid working model and maintain your previous performance and productivity levels unless you optimise current processes. The way they have historically operated often did not account for the possibility that they would one day be managed remotely. This is the key factor to address.
Reflect on how you used to onboard new hires. The most common procedure involves providing them with their equipment setup and two paper copies of a contract placed on their desk on the first day. From there, they might either be asked to bring in copies of their passports and complete the form outlining their bank details or to email both. As they and the rest of the team will be working on the same premises, they will then be expected to shadow senior colleagues for a period and seek guidance when needed. As you have guessed, this process simply doesn’t work in a hybrid environment.
The new approach is paperless and therefore requires a platform to manage most bureaucratic operations in a centralised location instead of the back-and-forth of emails. Furthermore, lengthy email threads increase the risk of losing or accidentally deleting important documents. Additionally, a platform serves as a means to provide the new starter with all the information they need upon joining—how this is done will vary based on your requirements, creativity, and the capabilities of the platform. To inspire you, we have compiled a list of some exceptional hybrid onboarding procedures.
As we live in the digital age, you have likely experienced some financial automation even before transitioning to remote work. For instance, email distribution of payslips. However, if you have been relying on paper timesheets to calculate your employees’ wages, or if your expense claims procedures depended on collecting paper receipts, you will need to seek alternatives. We recognise that ‘financial operations’ is a broad term encompassing various procedures, which can lead to confusion.
However, the beauty of automation lies in the fact that most solutions can be easily integrated with other tools. This means that optimising one or two procedures will directly feed into the automation of others, linking them all together. Consequently, instead of running several operations independently and wasting time on manual data transfers, you will be able to create smooth, streamlined workflows.
One significant issue that arose from remote and later hybrid working is that many employees tend to refrain from taking time off. While it is understandable that a great deal of confusion arises when the previously designated rest-space also becomes a work-space, your staff still needs to take time off. From a legal perspective, you, as an employer, are obliged to ensure they receive the minimum holiday entitlement. However, overworking can also lead to burnout, which can negatively impact performance and may even result in the employee resigning.
While it’s easy to track who is in and who’s on holiday when the entire team is present in the workplace, it’s trickier to maintain such visibility in a hybrid office. The solution would be to adopt a holiday management system. This would give the team access to see who’s off, thereby allowing them to plan their time accordingly. Additionally, this would provide an easy way to request or approve/reject holiday requests, all completed in a few clicks instead of relying on email chains.
Since your team will be fragmented in regards to who is working from the office and who is working remotely, communication is going to be one of the key obstacles. For the hybrid to truly work, you need to find a way to keep the communication flowing as smoothly as it has when you were within earshot even if you’re separated by miles.
One of Timesheet Portal’s own employees has shared a story about how their previous company outright refused to adopt an internal instant messenger even after the initial few months of the pandemic. Communication continued to rely on emails, phone calls, and Zoom meetings, ultimately leading the employee to submit their notice. According to them, they felt not only siloed from other teams but, in urgent situations, faced delays when needing assistance. Additionally, they were not keen on being drawn into three-hour meetings where their required contributions were minimal, and many of the topics discussed were irrelevant. Overall, they believed that ineffective communication placed a significant strain on their professional growth, prompting them to leave the company.
This demonstrates the importance of choosing communication channels wisely. Not only does this directly affect the performance of the team as a whole, but it can also lead to individual staff time being wasted, which may cause frustration. In a company with many moving parts, it’s crucial to establish a direct and smooth communication line between different departments. However, this doesn’t mean that business IM is the best solution for your organisation; depending on your unique company needs, your team might indeed communicate and function efficiently via phone. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to company communication channels. It will depend on both office culture, business specifics, and the goals you aim to achieve.
Unfortunately, communication is only one side of the coin. Your staff may have an outlet to discuss matters, but if they don’t have a platform to act on them, it will lead to a similar issue as mentioned above. For example, it might be agreed that a particular task needs to be completed, with two departments involved. They each carry out their parts independently, potentially communicating progress occasionally, yet lacking overall visibility of the advancements. Upon completion, it becomes apparent that both departments have executed some components of the tasks that the other has as well, indicating that one has wasted their time. If the respective parts have yielded different results for each party, even more time will be spent trying to ascertain which one is correct.
To avoid this, it is essential for a hybrid workplace to have a centralised collaboration platform that is both easily accessible and supports the simultaneous contribution of multiple users in real-time. This has been another frustration for our employees with their previous company: dependence on Excel spreadsheets. Sometimes, the last person to edit them would leave them open, thereby locking everyone out of editing the aforementioned spreadsheet. This has resulted in several instances of document duplication and difficulties in identifying which copy was the correct file, as well as occasional data overwrites. Cloud-based collaboration tools are designed to address these very issues and are consequently a much better solution for the hybrid environment than Excel spreadsheets.
Everyone has their peak hours. While the standard workday is 9 AM to 5 PM, a Hubstaff study has discovered that most employees demonstrate the highest productivity levels between 6 AM and 9 AM. Curiously, according to the same study, productivity drops by 45% between 12 PM and 3 PM when working in the office. Remotely, it decreases by 43% between 3 PM and 6 PM. The conclusion we can draw from this is that the traditional nine-to-five has never been truly effective. These statistics alone indicate that the environment in which employees work—be it office or home—can influence when and how much their productivity declines. Furthermore, we must remember that each person has their individual high-performance time frames.
While flexitime may not be feasible for every business, it can be a beneficial strategic move for some. Naturally, setting certain boundaries would be expected. For instance, staff could choose to start their workday at either 7 AM or 9 AM, and accordingly, they would finish work at 3 PM or 5 PM. Although all team members would remain accessible throughout most of the day and work the same number of hours, you would provide them with the opportunity to adjust their peak hours to match the tasks at hand, thereby enhancing productivity.
The best way to build a truly efficient and thriving hybrid workplace is to pay attention to what your team is saying. While you can request direct feedback, the most important things will often be expressed in passing—or may not be said at all but reflected in performance. Try to gauge whether they are satisfied with the existing arrangements, how they adapt to changes, and what aspects aren’t quite to their liking. Every team is different, and each employee has their own preferences—the hybrid work model is actually perfect for addressing them individually.
All decisions regarding software, communication, and processes should be made with the well-being of your team in mind. Don’t pursue hybrid workplace trends solely because they are claimed to drive efficiency for others; instead, refer to the needs, wants, and concerns expressed by your staff. After all, the workplace environment is designed to nurture their success, and in turn, they will contribute to the success of your business.
It has been proven that businesses which are tied to either in-person or remote working are growing more slowly (if at all) than those that offer their staff flexibility. Hybrid workplaces have revealed that allowing team members to adjust their schedules and location preferences according to their workloads and deadlines fosters better productivity and results. Therefore, we firmly believe that companies which adapt to the hybrid model now will be those that succeed in the future.
However, we also understand that transitioning your business to a fully hybrid model is easier said than done. The complete, performance-enhancing switch won’t occur overnight, as the optimisation of processes cannot be rushed. Yet, temporary discomfort and delays should be viewed as an investment in the future. Creating a hybrid workplace is a long-term endeavour, but we assure you that you will emerge victorious from it.
Fancy getting a head start? Just give us a shout.