Effective Ways to Nurture Office Culture in a Hybrid Working Model
Published: 02/04/2022
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This blog post is aimed at business owners and managing directors who are concerned about how the adoption of the hybrid working model will reflect on their office culture. We recognise this as a challenge many hoped to overcome alongside the necessity of fully remote working, which is why it has not been addressed previously. However, now is the time to revisit it and learn that it’s not as complicated as it seems.
Although unexpected and causing significant challenges for historically office-based businesses, remote working was seen as a temporary measure imposed by the government. However, as it was not cancelled immediately but was gradually phased out, companies had to adjust to the fact that returning to normal was not as straightforward as being instructed to work from home. This has given rise to the work model known as hybrid, where some employees operate from the office while others remain remote on alternating days.
Curiously, what was intended as a compromise has now been adopted as a permanent solution by the majority of high-revenue organisations. Naturally, smaller enterprises, seeing this success, are eager to follow suit. However, this raises an important question: what happens to the office culture as we’ve known it when the team is no longer fully office-based? The answer is straightforward – much like the workplace approach, it is evolving. In this article, we will help you kickstart that evolution.
Having first arisen out of the necessity for businesses to re-enter their premises, the hybrid working style has proven to be a highly effective approach. In fact, so effective that many businesses have adopted it full-time even after the work-from-home regime has been lifted. Many employees find it to be more compatible with their lifestyles than the traditional 9-to-5 model, and therefore surveys from various sources now indicate that many potential candidates would decline a job if it weren’t hybrid. Additionally, more than half of the employees expressed determination to either start looking for a new position or quit on the spot if they are required to return to the office full-time.
In other words, we can see that this approach has shaped today’s work landscape and is predicted to impact the future. However, as it’s still relatively new, several questions are troubling business owners. The key one being is how to build an office culture in a hybrid workplace?
The first and key step to improving office culture in general is to outline what it is. Given that the hybrid environment poses the challenge of your team rarely meeting to collaborate in person, it is particularly important to have that understanding consistent across the company. Simply put, you cannot optimise something without first having it. It may seem like a no-brainer to clearly define one’s office culture until you try—many people, to their surprise, learn it is quite challenging.
The first step in instilling alignment in office culture is to introduce your staff to key business values. It need not be a lengthy read; in other words, you don’t need to write an entire ‘About Us’ page aimed at your staff for onboarding purposes. All that is required are a mission statement and a vision statement. Neither needs to exceed two sentences - you want to be as straightforward and clear as possible.
The mission statement outlines your ‘why?’ - why the business exists and what its purpose is. Of course, every company aims to generate revenue, but that’s never the reason. For example, at Timesheet Portal, our mission statement is that we seek to help companies speed up the pay and bill processes by removing as much manual data insertion as possible. This means we prioritise our clientele and strive to be as useful to them as we can. Our business is built on the insights, feedback, and needs of our clients; therefore, serving them in a timely, empathetic, and value-driven manner is one of our top values.
The vision statement is focused on the future growth of the business, something every employee understands they must strive towards. For instance, your company’s vision statement could be to assist users worldwide rather than merely serving as a local business. This is not a specific objective, but rather a long-term measure of success that should underpin goal setting within your company.
Of course, to attract and retain top talent, you need to invest in people, whether by offering a great benefits package or providing additional training. However, our focus in this paragraph is somewhat different—we are referring to investing in tools that enhance the communication, alignment, and performance of your teams. Collaboration tools such as CRM systems, video conferencing platforms, and others are essential for hybrid offices, and we have recently shared some of our favourites.
The reason we believe that investing in software is equivalent to investing in people is quite straightforward. You can attend the concert of the world’s best orchestra; but if some of the musicians have high-quality instruments, others possess beginner-level ones, and some have none at all, they will not perform at their best, even if each one is a world-renowned musical virtuoso. This principle applies across all industries. Unless you invest in high-quality tools for your staff, you won’t be able to unlock their full potential. Therefore, when you invest in effective collaboration software for the hybrid working model, you are truly investing in your people.
To continue with what has been stated above, your employees are your most valuable asset. It goes without saying that, as an employer, you need to support them in their growth. This is why we will discuss matters that are less obvious than team-building exercises; topics that are quite specific and crucial for successfully adopting a functional and success-driven hybrid working model office culture.
Months of fully remote working have highlighted that when people are not in the office full-time, they are less likely to take time off. This may not seem like a bad thing at first glance: the more your staff work, the more they will achieve, right? As paradoxical as it sounds, it’s actually the other way around. First of all, you need to remember that you have a legal obligation to ensure your workers claim their minimum holiday entitlement. Secondly, a lack of rest translates to burnout, loss of productivity and growing dissatisfaction with the job.
There are many reasons why workers don’t claim their holiday days, ranging from unrealistic workloads to feeling pressured by their peers. Furthermore, it’s much more challenging to keep track of who is off and who is not in a hybrid environment, as we are accustomed to not seeing everyone in the office. In other words, you may not even be aware that there’s a problem and, therefore, may be subjected to all the negative consequences. Essentially, you cannot address an issue you are unaware of until it reaches a boiling point. The only solution to this is to adopt a centralised holiday management system. Not only does it keep you informed, but it also allows the rest of the team to adjust their schedules based on the visibility of their colleagues being off. Moreover, it offers a much more convenient method for requesting and approving time off than lengthy email threads.
The Hubstaff study has revealed that most people do not experience their ‘peak hours’ during the 9-to-5 time frame. This could lead to another known productivity statistic: the average employee is only productive for 2 hours and 23 minutes a day. In other words, by compelling your staff to adhere to standard company working hours, you may significantly undermine your team’s productivity. While the hybrid working model certainly offers a degree of flexibility, you should take an additional step if you wish to achieve noticeable results.
The flexitime approach essentially allows employees to choose their working hours. This enables them to take advantage of their peak productivity periods or better align their schedules with their personal lives. However, your salaried employees are not contractors; they are either salaried or paid hourly, rather than being compensated based on deliverables. Similar to the concept of unlimited holiday, the effectiveness of full freedom in selecting work hours will largely depend on the team. For instance, effective team collaboration is unlikely if few people are working simultaneously. We recommend establishing some basic guidelines, such as providing staff with a 2-3 hour window to start work, with their finishing time governed accordingly.
Since the hybrid model is still relatively new and praised for its flexibility, there are few rules on how to do it ‘right’. Ultimately, the approach built on the idea of team members discovering their optimal work preferences for increased productivity is very personal to each company. Its fluidity and absence of strict guidelines drive progress through innovation and can therefore easily be regarded as the approach to the workplace of the future.
In the highly competitive business market across all industries, a one-size-fits-all approach simply doesn’t work. You must be unique in every possible way, including your internal processes and office culture, to gain recognition. Unlike fully remote or fully office-based approaches, the hybrid working model provides endless possibilities for optimisation and adjustment through the software you choose. This is why the functionality and customisability of the tool are just as important as the job it is designed to accomplish.
We take pride in the fact that each module of Timesheet Portal is highly customisable, and no company uses it in the same way. From unique time tracking and pay margin calculations to branding of invoices and other documents, our software caters to your needs in the manner you choose. Additionally, the other tools you wish to incorporate into your hybrid office operation strategy should also reflect this flexibility. To put it simply, the software solutions you select are the building blocks of the hybrid workplace, as they will be responsible for communication, collaboration, process fluidity, and other pillars upon which your office culture rests.
One of the challenges that arises from the widely praised hybrid working model is nurturing office culture. This is mainly because your team is not often in the office together. The key issue, however, is overcoming this mindset rather than finding ways to align your employees with the company’s values. Flexibility has proven to be more effective than strict requirements for daily in-person attendance, and there are no definitive rights or wrongs when adopting it.
Provided you’re clear about the company values and the shared mission, the extensive market of collaboration and team performance tracking tools can assist you in cultivating a thriving office culture. Employees who are content in their work environment are typically more willing to remain and give their best to the jobs they enjoy. Furthermore, being considerate of their needs and preferences portrays you as a thoughtful boss, making it easier to establish closer relationships with your staff.
Are you prepared to enhance your office culture? We are here to assist.