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Inclusion is hard.
Inclusion in a hybrid team where you have to manage both in-office and remote expectations is harder.
Hybrid is here to stay but it runs the risk of introducing new inequalities in the workplace or worsening already existing ones. It’s necessary to address all the different aspects of inclusion to successfully navigate through hybrid work.
If you can make people feel included on a hybrid team, you’ve pretty well cracked the whole issue.
But how do you achieve inclusion while maintaining equality, transparency, and flexibility? Let’s take a look.
The many faces of inclusion on hybrid teams
Proximity bias
Implementing a hybrid model means many of your managers and department heads will end up dealing with the challenges of proximity bias — the tendency to show favoritism to those who are closest.
Due to proximity bias, managers can end up making decisions about promotions, hiring, and even performance based on their familiarity with employees, instead of the objective criteria. This can in turn lead to in-office employees getting preferential treatment and remote employees feeling excluded.
One of the main key drivers of proximity bias is the old belief that people are only productive when they are working from the office. It becomes easy to overvalue people who are physically present in the office over those that work remotely.
Some of the common examples of proximity bias include:
- Offering more interesting or coveted tasks to in-office employees and then assigning the leftover tasks to remote employees
- Holding important meetings in the office instead of organizing them digitally, which can exclude remote employees
- Not encouraging remote employees to share their opinions
- Assuming remote employees aren’t working as hard as in-office employees just because you can’t see them working
Being unfair to office-only folks
Dodging proximity bias doesn’t always mean you have achieved inclusion. You can even end up dealing with the opposite of proximity bias. Some functions or teams may be required to come to the office every day, without fail. When they see the flexibility offered to others who can work outside more often, they may feel they are being treated unfairly.
Here are a few ways you can ensure inclusion for in-office people:
- Be creative in offering flexibility to those who need to be onsite more
- If you offer a WFH allowance, consider a commuting allowance for those who need to travel every day
- Don’t restrict natural culture building at the office like birthday cakes, lunch outings, and after-hours drinks
- Level up your meeting rooms with better technology so that you don’t have to degrade the hybrid meeting experience for in-office people by forcing them to log in with their laptop from their desk
Personality-based inclusion
Different office environments work better for different personality types.
Asynchronous, distributed work environments are easier for people who are introverted and slower processors.
Live, in-person environments favor extroverts, fast-processors, and people with a lot of charisma.
A hybrid environment has to make room for both sides.
- Alternate between live meetings (which favor loud, bold, fast-processing team members) and asynchronous posts for people to comment on and leave longer, editable comments
- Rather than just assuming that the first answer you get is the majority opinion on a post, wait for 24 hours before sorting through all the feedback
- Establish regular one-on-one meetings with all team members to better understand their concerns and challenges
- Buddy up new hires with old team members to break the ice and to make the new hires feel comfortable in reaching out to others for help
Inclusion based on demographics
Different demographics deal with different aspects of work, differently. Just offering the same flexible schedule and working hours to all the employees does not mean you have achieved inclusion. There’s also equity and demographic diversity that has to be considered in teams.
Here are some examples of how different demographics can end up getting affected in a hybrid team:
Gender
- Men are less likely to assume caregiving responsibilities and can afford to be in the office on a fixed schedule more
- Women are often forced to balance their work schedule with others in the family and appreciate more flexibility of hours
- Women often feel the pressure to put on makeup before a remote call, while men are often fine rolling out of bed and jumping on the call
- Trans folks may (or may not) feel safer or less stressed working at home where their receive less attention and intrigue
Ethnicity
- One ethnicity often dominates the office in regard to small talk topics, culture, holidays, language, and dozens of other factors
- People outside the majority ethnicity often just need a regular break from being around it all the time
- Being in the physical office every day is often constantly experiencing the “double consciousness” that W.E.B. Du Bois discussed of being always aware of how others see you
Nation of origin
- People who work from different countries often get lumped together and not treated as individuals
- When English is not the primary language of employees, how do you make everyone feel included without them getting discouraged to share their thoughts in the meetings?
Time zone inclusion
One of the best parts about hybrid work is the ability to hire people outside of your immediate metro area. However, the farther out you go, the more likely you will run into time zone issues. People in the office often feel the right to schedule meetings whenever it is convenient for them and expect those outside to accommodate.
Here are some ways to be more inclusive.
- Share the time zone burden load and check with people before scheduling a call before or after normal working hours
- Establish common cross-over hours when more immediate responses are expected, and other hours when a longer asynchronous response is fine
Inclusion is hard but not impossible
Clear communication with your team to better understand whether they can thrive more in the office or a remote environment can help immensely. It’s all about offering the best environment for your employees where they can be productive and efficient, without feeling excluded.
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
Inclusion is hard.
Inclusion in a hybrid team where you have to manage both in-office and remote expectations is harder.
Hybrid is here to stay but it runs the risk of introducing new inequalities in the workplace or worsening already existing ones. It’s necessary to address all the different aspects of inclusion to successfully navigate through hybrid work.
If you can make people feel included on a hybrid team, you’ve pretty well cracked the whole issue.
But how do you achieve inclusion while maintaining equality, transparency, and flexibility? Let’s take a look.
The many faces of inclusion on hybrid teams
Proximity bias
Implementing a hybrid model means many of your managers and department heads will end up dealing with the challenges of proximity bias — the tendency to show favoritism to those who are closest.
Due to proximity bias, managers can end up making decisions about promotions, hiring, and even performance based on their familiarity with employees, instead of the objective criteria. This can in turn lead to in-office employees getting preferential treatment and remote employees feeling excluded.
One of the main key drivers of proximity bias is the old belief that people are only productive when they are working from the office. It becomes easy to overvalue people who are physically present in the office over those that work remotely.
Some of the common examples of proximity bias include:
- Offering more interesting or coveted tasks to in-office employees and then assigning the leftover tasks to remote employees
- Holding important meetings in the office instead of organizing them digitally, which can exclude remote employees
- Not encouraging remote employees to share their opinions
- Assuming remote employees aren’t working as hard as in-office employees just because you can’t see them working
Being unfair to office-only folks
Dodging proximity bias doesn’t always mean you have achieved inclusion. You can even end up dealing with the opposite of proximity bias. Some functions or teams may be required to come to the office every day, without fail. When they see the flexibility offered to others who can work outside more often, they may feel they are being treated unfairly.
Here are a few ways you can ensure inclusion for in-office people:
- Be creative in offering flexibility to those who need to be onsite more
- If you offer a WFH allowance, consider a commuting allowance for those who need to travel every day
- Don’t restrict natural culture building at the office like birthday cakes, lunch outings, and after-hours drinks
- Level up your meeting rooms with better technology so that you don’t have to degrade the hybrid meeting experience for in-office people by forcing them to log in with their laptop from their desk
Personality-based inclusion
Different office environments work better for different personality types.
Asynchronous, distributed work environments are easier for people who are introverted and slower processors.
Live, in-person environments favor extroverts, fast-processors, and people with a lot of charisma.
A hybrid environment has to make room for both sides.
- Alternate between live meetings (which favor loud, bold, fast-processing team members) and asynchronous posts for people to comment on and leave longer, editable comments
- Rather than just assuming that the first answer you get is the majority opinion on a post, wait for 24 hours before sorting through all the feedback
- Establish regular one-on-one meetings with all team members to better understand their concerns and challenges
- Buddy up new hires with old team members to break the ice and to make the new hires feel comfortable in reaching out to others for help
Inclusion based on demographics
Different demographics deal with different aspects of work, differently. Just offering the same flexible schedule and working hours to all the employees does not mean you have achieved inclusion. There’s also equity and demographic diversity that has to be considered in teams.
Here are some examples of how different demographics can end up getting affected in a hybrid team:
Gender
- Men are less likely to assume caregiving responsibilities and can afford to be in the office on a fixed schedule more
- Women are often forced to balance their work schedule with others in the family and appreciate more flexibility of hours
- Women often feel the pressure to put on makeup before a remote call, while men are often fine rolling out of bed and jumping on the call
- Trans folks may (or may not) feel safer or less stressed working at home where their receive less attention and intrigue
Ethnicity
- One ethnicity often dominates the office in regard to small talk topics, culture, holidays, language, and dozens of other factors
- People outside the majority ethnicity often just need a regular break from being around it all the time
- Being in the physical office every day is often constantly experiencing the “double consciousness” that W.E.B. Du Bois discussed of being always aware of how others see you
Nation of origin
- People who work from different countries often get lumped together and not treated as individuals
- When English is not the primary language of employees, how do you make everyone feel included without them getting discouraged to share their thoughts in the meetings?
Time zone inclusion
One of the best parts about hybrid work is the ability to hire people outside of your immediate metro area. However, the farther out you go, the more likely you will run into time zone issues. People in the office often feel the right to schedule meetings whenever it is convenient for them and expect those outside to accommodate.
Here are some ways to be more inclusive.
- Share the time zone burden load and check with people before scheduling a call before or after normal working hours
- Establish common cross-over hours when more immediate responses are expected, and other hours when a longer asynchronous response is fine
Inclusion is hard but not impossible
Clear communication with your team to better understand whether they can thrive more in the office or a remote environment can help immensely. It’s all about offering the best environment for your employees where they can be productive and efficient, without feeling excluded.
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
