If there’s one lesson organisations have learnt about hybrid working over the last five years, it’s that things work differently in the hybrid world.
Many now freely admit that their best in-house managers don’t always possess the skills and behaviours to be the best hybrid managers. They may also say that communications and management practices that were perfect for the office aren’t quite as effective with homeworkers; and that a strong office culture doesn’t always translate well into a strong hybrid work culture..
Organisations are rapidly learning the ways of the new hybrid world. However, structures, processes, strategies and technology that have evolved in the office over years – often decades – can’t be reset for hybrid overnight. Not only because it is a hugely complex, costly and time-consuming undertaking but also because HR, Operations and Technology departments frequently don’t possess the specialist skills, knowledge and experience to do so.
Prior to lockdown, few organisations had extensive experience of building and optimising hybrid work environments. So it’s no surprise that many are now stuck in a world of hybrid trial and error, continually asking questions such as: What’s the optimum number of days our people should be in the office? How do we recreate the positive vibe and spirit of collaboration we had when everyone worked full time in the office? How do we balance the needs of the business with the needs of the employee? And how do we hone management and operational processes so that we hire, train, manage, communicate and reward our people equally well, regardless of their primary place of work?
At Spacial, we believe that the best approach to optimising hybrid is to learn from the experiences of others. That could be from organisations with a similar mission, perhaps businesses in the same field and of an equivalent size, as well as from HR and operational experts that have faced similar hybrid issues or sought to satisfy comparable employee demands.
Having said that, it’s important to recognise that there’s no hybrid working expert out there – or indeed encyclopaedia – that can provide answers to every hybrid issue off the cuff. Experts may possess extensive experience across multiple hybrid models but every business is different, and hence every solution must be bespoke.
The hybrid ‘health check’ is therefore a sensible starting point: a project run by HR, technology and operational experts with experience of different hybrid working set ups that looks at all aspects of an operation from recruitment to scheduling, communications to management, technology to scheduling.
A typical hybrid health check might ask: How is your organisation shaping up in relation to (what’s perceived to be) hybrid best practice? Which issues/bottlenecks should your business focus on sorting out short and medium term? How does the management view of hybrid working success differ to that of your colleagues? And so on.
Your optimised hybrid working ‘solution’ may ultimately be a bespoke one. However by learning from the accumulated experience and knowledge of others, you can cut down on much of the ‘trial and error’ that wastes both valuable time and money.
by Darron Burness, Senior Operational Excellence Consultant, Spacial Limited