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The brick-and-mortar office has been played out. With extra overhead, lost time to water-cooler talk, and arguments between employees, surely the newfound remote office is the optimal workplace with lower costs and more productivity.
Or is it?
Welcome to the best of both worlds: hybrid teams. By having your team work from home and from the office, you get all the benefits of both workplace arrangements.
Yet a hybrid workplace isn’t without its challenges, especially with respect to work culture. Instead of cultivating a single workplace culture, you’re essentially building and maintaining two — one remotely and onsite. And they are constantly mixing together.
It’s a frustrating conundrum that plagues any business owner or manager. So the question remains: how the heck do I do it?
What is a hybrid team?
A hybrid team, or hybrid workplace, is just as it sounds — staff divided into shifts and schedules that place them either at home or the office on a given day or week. Such a workplace can be a permanent solution or a temporary contingency plan as employers shift back to in-person settings in a post-COVID world.
Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of hybrid teams is the flexibility offered to employees. Those that became accustomed to the work-from-home lifestyle now have the option to stay in the home office and maintain the work-life balance that only remote work offers. From an employer’s perspective, hybrid teams also allow face-to-face contact and the ability to supervise without feeling like the imposing Big Brother.
How do you build culture with a hybrid team?
Despite the benefits of hybrid teams, one consistent problem is fostering a strong culture. Part of this problem is the dichotomy of cultures in both workplaces. It’s not remote, and it isn’t onsite. It’s somewhere in between. Throw in the relative infancy of such a work arrangement, and there’s no formulaic way to build a hybrid work culture.
Few case studies or examples for success exist on hybrid work culture, but you need a solution, and you need it now. That’s why outside-the-box thinking is a quintessential part of hybrid teams. Combining leadership, vision, mission, and values are all part of the equation, but a necessity to increase employee engagement and morale.
The tangibility factor and selection of your hybrid team
Some employees could work at home forever. They’re driven, determined, and self-starting. And some job functions lend themselves better to long stretches of independent, focused work.
Yet not everyone likes working from home, can work from home, or has a function that allows them to. Others need tangible aspects to the job to create a sense of realism and purpose. The office provides just that through employee interaction, positive reinforcement, direction, and connection to the company’s goals.
Hybrid teams can provide both. To build a successful culture, an obvious solution is to root through your employees and decide which ones are better suited for which atmosphere. Some will have preferences; others may want to go back and forth between the virtual office and the brick-and-mortar office.
Discovering which person fits in is the first step toward building a hybrid culture. Do it immediately.
The tenets of a successful hybrid culture
To build a successful hybrid culture, you have to select or create a few tenets to stand by. Think of them as the pillars of your business. Without them, your company culture ultimately collapses. While these may not be a perfect fit for your company, tweak them as necessary to find the right attributes and ideas to improve your company culture.
Strong communication
When you have half your workforce at the office and the other half at home, communication can suffer. To leave no one behind, the only sound option is to create a remote-first method of communication. People in the office can use messaging apps and collaboration tools just as easily as your remote team. But to the opposite effect, remote teams can’t receive messages you provide in-person.
Always opt for remote-first communication to provide direction and important information. It’s the only way to ensure everyone’s on the same page.
Keep the door open for opportunities
Many remote workers feel passed over for promotions, advancement, and other opportunities. The reason? Facetime. Even the most productive remote workers don’t have time to joke, schmooze, or otherwise maintain visibility in the office.
The answer to this isn’t entirely clear for some businesses, but every effort should be given to remote workers for career advancement. To do so, you may have to change to more inclusive policies or maintain a virtual link to your in-office meetings. Whatever you do, fostering an inclusive culture for work-from-home employees is integral to a strong hybrid team culture.
Incorporating accountability
Accountability is crucial to any successful business or work culture, but it’s not all about discipline or expectation. It’s about purpose. Hybrid teams may feel a sense of detachment, and rightfully so. But remote workers tend to skirt accountability simply because they may have parenting or other issues to juggle in addition to their work.
To curb this good-natured but ill-fated leniency, accountability is mandated. While it provides the groundwork for a strong work ethic, it also provides the purpose that workers crave. Essentially, accountability states: we need you here, and your work is vital to our company’s success.
Part of accountability is being clear on your expectations around employee productivity. Create a system that doesn’t unfairly reward people just for showing up to the office.
Injecting accountability into hybrid culture gives a sense of purpose that ultimately translates to more efficiency, effectiveness, and an increase to your bottom line.
Hybrid work culture is a constant work in progress
As COVID demonstrated, success in business is all about adaptability. Though the threat of a pandemic may have subsided, don’t treat adaptability as an afterthought in the hybrid workplace.
It’s a constant work in progress, and one that you’ll have to review and tweak regularly. But by identifying the best mix of staff and following some of the ideas above, you’re positioned for success whether you remain hybrid, return to the office, or go fully remote. To that effect, your management style has become a hybrid itself: the ability to adapt with the resolve to maintain a solid company culture. Go forth and conquer.
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
The brick-and-mortar office has been played out. With extra overhead, lost time to water-cooler talk, and arguments between employees, surely the newfound remote office is the optimal workplace with lower costs and more productivity.
Or is it?
Welcome to the best of both worlds: hybrid teams. By having your team work from home and from the office, you get all the benefits of both workplace arrangements.
Yet a hybrid workplace isn’t without its challenges, especially with respect to work culture. Instead of cultivating a single workplace culture, you’re essentially building and maintaining two — one remotely and onsite. And they are constantly mixing together.
It’s a frustrating conundrum that plagues any business owner or manager. So the question remains: how the heck do I do it?
What is a hybrid team?
A hybrid team, or hybrid workplace, is just as it sounds — staff divided into shifts and schedules that place them either at home or the office on a given day or week. Such a workplace can be a permanent solution or a temporary contingency plan as employers shift back to in-person settings in a post-COVID world.
Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of hybrid teams is the flexibility offered to employees. Those that became accustomed to the work-from-home lifestyle now have the option to stay in the home office and maintain the work-life balance that only remote work offers. From an employer’s perspective, hybrid teams also allow face-to-face contact and the ability to supervise without feeling like the imposing Big Brother.
How do you build culture with a hybrid team?
Despite the benefits of hybrid teams, one consistent problem is fostering a strong culture. Part of this problem is the dichotomy of cultures in both workplaces. It’s not remote, and it isn’t onsite. It’s somewhere in between. Throw in the relative infancy of such a work arrangement, and there’s no formulaic way to build a hybrid work culture.
Few case studies or examples for success exist on hybrid work culture, but you need a solution, and you need it now. That’s why outside-the-box thinking is a quintessential part of hybrid teams. Combining leadership, vision, mission, and values are all part of the equation, but a necessity to increase employee engagement and morale.
The tangibility factor and selection of your hybrid team
Some employees could work at home forever. They’re driven, determined, and self-starting. And some job functions lend themselves better to long stretches of independent, focused work.
Yet not everyone likes working from home, can work from home, or has a function that allows them to. Others need tangible aspects to the job to create a sense of realism and purpose. The office provides just that through employee interaction, positive reinforcement, direction, and connection to the company’s goals.
Hybrid teams can provide both. To build a successful culture, an obvious solution is to root through your employees and decide which ones are better suited for which atmosphere. Some will have preferences; others may want to go back and forth between the virtual office and the brick-and-mortar office.
Discovering which person fits in is the first step toward building a hybrid culture. Do it immediately.
The tenets of a successful hybrid culture
To build a successful hybrid culture, you have to select or create a few tenets to stand by. Think of them as the pillars of your business. Without them, your company culture ultimately collapses. While these may not be a perfect fit for your company, tweak them as necessary to find the right attributes and ideas to improve your company culture.
Strong communication
When you have half your workforce at the office and the other half at home, communication can suffer. To leave no one behind, the only sound option is to create a remote-first method of communication. People in the office can use messaging apps and collaboration tools just as easily as your remote team. But to the opposite effect, remote teams can’t receive messages you provide in-person.
Always opt for remote-first communication to provide direction and important information. It’s the only way to ensure everyone’s on the same page.
Keep the door open for opportunities
Many remote workers feel passed over for promotions, advancement, and other opportunities. The reason? Facetime. Even the most productive remote workers don’t have time to joke, schmooze, or otherwise maintain visibility in the office.
The answer to this isn’t entirely clear for some businesses, but every effort should be given to remote workers for career advancement. To do so, you may have to change to more inclusive policies or maintain a virtual link to your in-office meetings. Whatever you do, fostering an inclusive culture for work-from-home employees is integral to a strong hybrid team culture.
Incorporating accountability
Accountability is crucial to any successful business or work culture, but it’s not all about discipline or expectation. It’s about purpose. Hybrid teams may feel a sense of detachment, and rightfully so. But remote workers tend to skirt accountability simply because they may have parenting or other issues to juggle in addition to their work.
To curb this good-natured but ill-fated leniency, accountability is mandated. While it provides the groundwork for a strong work ethic, it also provides the purpose that workers crave. Essentially, accountability states: we need you here, and your work is vital to our company’s success.
Part of accountability is being clear on your expectations around employee productivity. Create a system that doesn’t unfairly reward people just for showing up to the office.
Injecting accountability into hybrid culture gives a sense of purpose that ultimately translates to more efficiency, effectiveness, and an increase to your bottom line.
Hybrid work culture is a constant work in progress
As COVID demonstrated, success in business is all about adaptability. Though the threat of a pandemic may have subsided, don’t treat adaptability as an afterthought in the hybrid workplace.
It’s a constant work in progress, and one that you’ll have to review and tweak regularly. But by identifying the best mix of staff and following some of the ideas above, you’re positioned for success whether you remain hybrid, return to the office, or go fully remote. To that effect, your management style has become a hybrid itself: the ability to adapt with the resolve to maintain a solid company culture. Go forth and conquer.
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
