What this post is about
- focus on communication
- create a productive work environment
- organize suitable workplaces
- Increase trust
- offer quick conflict solutions in case of problems
Freedom instead of office constraints, togetherness instead of isolation: home office and office work have valuable advantages and disadvantages that should not be underestimated and that can have a lasting impact on your team's performance. Uncompromisingly enforcing either work model always carries the risk of making colleagues feel misunderstood or invisible.
To combine the best of both worlds, the hybrid working option offers an alternative. With these 5 practices, you can achieve the ideal state for a relaxed working atmosphere with a high happiness factor.
1. Clear Agreements In Teams
If you want flexibility, you have to give up planning?! Wrong! We recommend you pay attention to clear agreements within teams and roles when implementing a hybrid work strategy. Because while it doesn't matter if programmers and marketers share the same remote office rhythm, it does matter within their teams.
Coordinate with team leads and ask for requests and needs. Knowing what is expected of each role and about internal coordination processes provides clarity and avoids ill will. What you should avoid at all costs is having one part on-site in the office within a unit and only adding others digitally for meetings.
2. Interaction Is A Priority
To maintain collaborative work between team members and colleagues, good networking and communication are mandatory. Providers such as Jitsi (our open-source favorite), Slack, Zoom, or Microsoft Teams are among the most common video calling tools preferred by companies worldwide.
Some programs also offer interfaces to internal help desks to instantly save, delegate and prioritize discussed tasks, emails, or to-dos in the form of tickets. This one-click work simplification benefits the entire team regardless of location. Take a look at your budget and have confidence in investing in a comprehensive communication tool.
3. Create Work-Friendly Environments
The feeling of togetherness is an important aspect of mental health in hybrid working. Everyone reacts differently to the new transition of organizing independently and working solo. Whether it's a temporary phase or a challenging switch, colleagues shouldn't feel isolated or like they're fighting alone in the first place.
Regular meetings and calls with status reports strengthen the community and give every employee a voice. For example, start the week with a joint check-in - or end it with a check-out. So-called after-work calls or digital team-building activities additionally lighten the mood, which can be elementary especially for 100% remote teams.
Chat groups for private exchanges or with changing challenges also promote togetherness and replace the other small talk in the office corridor or during the lunch break.
4. Organize Workplaces On Time
Despite fixed agreements (when who works remotely or in the office), hybrid work still thrives on greater flexibility. Do we still need fixed desks? How many seats are needed in the first place? Is it possible to downsize to save on rental costs? Review your space to meet the new requirements.
The obvious solution: "hot desking" or rotating space allocation simplifies the changeover. Here, ownership of former seats is eliminated and you encounter a new work environment that provides an identical setup to everyone, everywhere (for example, with individual laptops and external monitors that are the same everywhere).
Very important: Even in a world of free seating, there should still be meeting rooms, places for brainstorming and phone calls, as well as a coffee kitchen.
5. Strengthening Mutual Trust
Mutual trust is an important skill when it comes to hybrid work. Recurring checks or constant requests for reports scratch the foundation of trust in the home office and raise doubts among employees. It can be the start of an uneasy feeling where people keep wondering if the job is being done well or if a mistake has been made inadvertently.
Freedom of movement within the task area must be guaranteed. Whether in the home office or in the office, how the employee gets to his or her task goal is up to him or her, as long as the goals are clearly communicated to him or her.
6. Resolve Conflicts Immediately
Despite all the positive components and freedoms, problems exist in the team even with hybrid work. Before tensions arise and escalate, team leaders should intervene. Actively seek the conversation and bring the appropriate parties together at a table or on call. If that's not immediately possible, then actively communicate the conflict and agree on when it can be addressed.
Mediating between the fronts curbs negative developments and prevents further escalation. Because of differences in workplace situations, the problem of misunderstandings in disputes can become an unnecessary challenge. Seek out the conversation before it runs circles around you.
Summary
Hybrid work is a free work model with a lot of team spirit. Despite all the autonomy and solo time, there is still a collaboration with colleagues. It's also important for team leaders to understand that successful work doesn't always have to be characterized by visibility; results speak for themselves. Trust is the core of satisfied employees.