Remote work, or working from home, is not a new concept. Prior to 2020, most large companies already had a system in place to accommodate globally distributed team members. In fact, Pew Research reports that 20% of employees already worked remotely some or all of the time before the pandemic motivated a larger shift to remote work.
As the home office became more normalized in 2020, employees quickly adapted to remote working and many even preferred it. And management learned that working from home can be productive. Today, 71 percent of companies are permanently allowing some type of remote or hybrid teamwork.
Of course, you’ll also have employees who might feel more comfortable working in an office setting. This means that you’ll need to be an effective manager of a team that works both on-site and remotely.
In this article, we’ll share management ideas to help you promote collaboration and productivity for an effective hybrid teamwork model.
What is a hybrid team?
Office work and remote work are pretty straightforward. But what is a hybrid team?
A hybrid team is simply a team that includes people who commute to the office every day and those who choose to work remotely. Some workers might want to alternate between working in the office and working at home.
What are the advantages of the hybrid work model?
- Flexibility: Employees can choose the work environment and schedule that helps them be the most productive.
- Health issues: Eases anxieties or concerns about returning to an enclosed work environment where they might get sick.
- Social issues: People who want or need face-to-face social interaction can commute to the office as needed.
- Job satisfaction: Employees are happier and more satisfied which raises productivity.
- Bigger talent pool: Businesses can recruit talent from outside the local area. Employees don’t necessarily have to live in the city or state where there is a job opening.
What are the challenges of the hybrid model?
Scheduling: You’ll have to try to remember who is working where and in which time zone.
Burnout: One of the benefits of remote work is also one of its challenges—workers tend to be more productive and work longer hours when they work from home. As a result, 1 in 5 remote workers reports feeling burnt out. Hybrid team managers will need to keep this in mind to ensure they are balancing team members’ workloads.
Remote staff exclusion: Before the pandemic, a Harvard Business Review study found that some employees working remotely felt like they were shunned or excluded from the team. They felt like changes were made to projects without their knowledge or input, and that their coworkers were saying negative things about them behind their backs.
With remote working being normalized during the pandemic, these feelings might not persist today. But, as team members return to the office, you need to make sure that remote workers still feel like they are part of a team. Don’t give them the perception that their colleagues at the office are getting preferential treatment.
Being inflexible: If you are going to have a hybrid team, you can’t expect to stick with the old processes and procedures that made your office-based work model a success. Open yourself to unlearning old practices and embracing new processes and systems to successfully manage a hybrid team.
Communication breakdown: Even with a full team that works on-site in the same location, there will be gaps in communication. Adding a new layer with remote workers creates additional challenges to keeping everybody informed and on the same page. For example, casual conversations in the halls or the breakroom could lead to decisions and actions being taken without the remote members of the team knowing what is going on.
Lack of buy-in: Despite the many benefits of a hybrid work model, not everybody thinks it’s a good idea to let workers continue working from home while others return to the office. If you don’t have leadership buy-in, or if there is the perception that people who work from home are goofing off, it will be nearly impossible to work as a hybrid team. Rules need to be changed and strict structures relaxed a bit to accommodate a flexible environment.
How do you achieve effective teamwork in a hybrid workplace?
Even though it can be challenging, here are some tips to help you to foster teamwork in your hybrid work model.
Create a remote-first work environment
Whether employees work from home one or two days per week, five days per week, or choose to go to the office every day, the work culture should be the same for all. These simple tips can help you to foster a remote-first hybrid work model:
1. Use tools that can be accessed from anywhere
It’s possible that your hybrid team will never be in the same location at the same time. Take full advantage of cloud-based tools that can be accessed from any location.
For example, a virtual whiteboard like Lucidspark can help your team collaborate on brainstorming sessions that bring ideas to life. And the templates and tools at Lucidchart make it simple for your team to access, update, and collaborate on shared documents in real time from anywhere in the world. This keeps the whole team up to date on current status, progress, schedules, and goals.
2. Centralize communication in one platform
Communication is key to success. When you use multiple channels for communication, such as email, phones, instant messages, chat, etc, important information can be lost between the cracks. Centralize communication funnels in a single platform for easy documentation, storage, and access.
3. Schedule a daily sync
You might be dealing with a lot of different schedules and time zones. To offset scheduling challenges, consider establishing core hours when all members of the team need to be available for meetings, brainstorming sessions, or one-on-one face time. Take time during these core hours for daily syncs. Even 15 minutes can be enough to get everyone on the same page.
