The role of the workplace has changed more rapidly than we thought it would. Before the world could fathom the pandemic hit us, the world changed in its entirety & so did our approach to creating continuity in our business & engagement with our clients.
Organizations were compelled to re-evaluate the concept of work culture & prioritize creating outcomes & results over anything else. Worldwide, people demonstrated Resilience of the highest order & before we knew what struck us, we were acclimatizing to working from home and setting up our google workspace, zoom & Microsoft teams to replace physical availability to do our job.
Soon it became a normal way of life & a comfortable medium to continue to creating outcomes.
Can’t ignore the fact we initially struggled to manage work & home affairs from the same space. Resilient we were! We experienced leadership styles shining amidst the VUCA world. Outcome-based leaders found it critical to stay focused on results & efficiently managed their teams by empathizing & nurturing each one’s creative side. But the effectiveness & joy of sitting in the brainstorming room over a whiteboard activity & creating magic was still a big miss.
In a survey done by Salesforce, it was revealed that 64% of people felt comfortable & more effective in delivering results in a hybrid format & only 36% of people wanted to work full time from remote!
Transitioning from Lockdown, back to a normal 8-hour shift from the office in full capacity was not safe nor advisable from the standpoint of spreading disease & illness, hence a mid-way solution was co-created- The Hybrid!
The hybrid work model defines a set-up where employees choose to split their workdays between remote & onsite locations and this has seen immense popularity across several workforce gens’ in the community.
Few outstanding benefits of a hybrid set -up:
- Distance to work & the time to commute is the top most reason why people choose to prioritize work from home/remote location- this saves time & energy
- Some work can be done better & faster in your own space with the least number of distractions
- Time & priorities If managed well, one can save more time for self-development or partner in the development of the kids.
- Brings down operating-cost for the organization & the employee
Hybrid has redefined workplace collaboration with the involvement of technology & digital transformation to ensure engagement & group working from remote locations extremely effectively.
While there is a wide acceptance of Hybrid & remote working models, however, we cannot put the following facts under the carpet:
- Dilution of organization-wide culture & belief system
- This further leads to limited success in creating a high level of team bonding
- Bringing down the graph of interpersonal relationships which is a big contributing factor in creating a company culture
- Overworking & stress in a hybrid model can easily creep in if not managed well by the manager & self with a high degree of trust & targeted goal setting.
“One size fit all” is never going to be the case in shaping the work culture of an organization. Every business is different & each one is creating different outcomes & that would continue to demand different & curated solutions & approaches. The same concept applies to an organization; organizations may choose to select & prioritize from the different types that are in vogue: vogue:
- Remote-First
- Office-Occasional
- Office-First, Remote Allowed
Whatever priority model an organization may choose, the model needs to be supported with a sustainable Hybrid/remote workplace culture. Safeguarding the organization’s culture at all times & keeping the vision alive, will be the key task the managers will need to prioritize over everything else:
- Drive behaviors reflecting the vision of the organization
- Lay down expectations & seek expectations too
- Take commitment towards creating outcomes & results
- Demonstrate trust in your team as a manager
- Give constructive feedback that helps create effective outcomes
- Remove time wasters
- Have regular stand-ups- utilize electronic tools & mediums to have similar stand-ups as you would have done in an onsite set-up
- Plan out your hybrid roster & essentially try to have a certain part of your team in office/on-site
- Operate in a Hybrid setup yourself as a manager to understand the realities yourself; will build better empathy for others
- Build a one-on-one relationship in expressing trust and aid in creating relationships among the other members of your team
- Read & remove all signs of team conflict & build a cohesive Team.
Being a good member of the organization would not only mean doing your work well by meeting your targets but also goes a long way in working well & creating positive energies & nurturing others in the team with organizational values & co-creating a culture!
Take everyone along with you, as a cohesive team on the journey of creating value in any given circumstance.
