Hybrid working is here to stay

Where the work allows, hybrid working is here to stay. We’ve shown it works and has many benefits, with individuals choosing their own ways to be their best selves at work. In recruitment it’s become something of a hygiene factor to include flexible or hybrid working in the job ad if you want any applicants. (‘Flexible working’ and ‘working from home’ jobs get over ¼ million searches per month according to SEMRush).

Envoy and Wakefield’s research showed “47% of employees would likely look for another job if their employer doesn’t offer a hybrid work model.”

As organisations, by now we’ve probably made some rules going forward, most choosing some form of hybrid working policy for roles that can be done in this way. It’s not all plain-sailing of course! There are challenges for permanent hybrid working and most of them are cultural.

Challenges for hybrid working are mostly cultural

For hybrid working to work long term, it needs to be an embedded part of the culture:

• Equality in the workplace policy extends to hybrid working.
• The organisation values working from home, the office or other appropriate venues equally.
• The organisation values outputs and achievements over hours and presenteeism.
• Employees are clear what is expected of them if they are working at home, in the office, or somewhere else.
• Working from home, the office or somewhere else are equally normal, everyday practices visible amongst peers and leaders.

This is great to aim for – but won’t happen overnight without clear communications, role modelling and calling out unacceptable behaviour. For example, it’s not OK to joke with someone – even light heartedly that they are not in the office because they can’t be bothered to get off the sofa, face the commute or interact with their colleagues.

Proximity bias is another challenge for leaders to consciously look out for

Proximity bias is the subconscious bias we can all experience where the people physically closest and more visible to us, get our attention. Those who are ‘out of sight’ are literally ‘out of mind,’ and that’s not good for equality in the workplace at a time we are all embracing fairness and inclusion.

Of course, proximity bias doesn’t necessarily mean overt discrimination, it’s human nature; there’s extra effort in considering beyond our familiar circle of faces, especially when we’re stretched. It’s quicker to hand a priority project to a team member you bump into in the office kitchen than to sit down and think through who’s best for the job. Yet with quiet quitting on the rise, now is a crucial time for line managers to speak to their team members and understand their ambitions, priorities, and interests – which may well vary.

Overcoming proximity bias means a conscious effort to consider our wider circle of dispersed team members, colleagues and networks. In short, considering ‘presence equity:’

“Presence equity is the idea that every team member, regardless of whether they’re in the boardroom, on a Zoom screen, or the end of a phone line, is given equal space and priority.”

As leaders, being conscious of the risk of proximity bias, and trying to maintain presence equity means increased awareness about:

• Who have you spoken with in person / virtually this week?
• Who have you handed out tasks to in person / virtually this week?
• Who did you invite to speak in your last virtual meeting?
• Who have you shared a joke with?
• Who have you thought favourably of this week?
• Who springs to mind first when you have a great opportunity / project?

7 tips for leading dispersed teams with equity

For equality in the workplace between home, office (and other) workers, there are a number of things we can do as leaders.

1. Show you value working from home, the office or other location equally

Meetings are a pivotal tool in showing attendees they are valued. There’s no doubt that getting the tech nailed is the most important thing to consider, and it can be the most difficult area to show parity. Have remote workers got decent connection? Can they see all people in the meeting room? Are they able to hear everyone and see material? Can they get a word in edgeways to the conversation or are they observers?

If the answer is no, don’t create hybrid meetings. Ask everyone to login remotely whether in the office or not. Have the list of meeting attendees in front of you. Invite comments and discussion.

Another area for inclusion is benefits and rewards. This may be one to take up with senior leaders or HR. Are rewards centered around the workplace? For example, subsidised food and drink, cycle to work incentives and onsite services.  How does this compare with benefits accessible to those working from home? Importantly, rewards do not have to be monetary – take a look at our article for 7 non-financial rewards to motivate employees in a hybrid world.

2. Make sure people have ‘things’ equally at home in the office

Similarly to above, while supplying proper desk chairs and good screens is important it’s often the smallest things that make the difference. Birthday cake or a celebratory glass of fizz in the office is great but what about virtual colleagues – how can you include them?

How about the marketing samples or company products such as pens, stationery, gadgets and prototypes that are casually distributed around teams?

As a manager, if you can get access to a modest discretionary budget for mailing small items to your colleagues’ homes, it’s a really nice gesture to show home workers they are thought of too.

3. Value outputs and achievements over hours and presenteeism

A big one for managers is thinking about productivity as outputs and results achieved, relating to objectives rather than timesheets. Being ‘at work’ physically, or virtually doesn’t mean you are getting things done. Some people are focussed, others like lots of consultation, we all work in different ways. If you are asking people about outcomes, and recognising achievements visibly and consistently, your focus is shifting away from who you can see around you in an office space.

4. Communicate inclusively when leading dispersed teams

 Formal communications will no doubt be happening, but it’s the in-between updates, the verbal clarifications that often bring these to life for people who hear them in conversation. Add these micro-communications as comments or updates to more formal online comms so everyone can be included.

Are you chatting in the office about the latest box set you are watching? Has someone just shared a great idea or a nice bit of news about a colleague or team acquaintance? Add some chat channels to your Slack, Workplace or Teams, repeat things you’re discussing and tag colleagues so everyone can join in wherever they are working.

Join your colleagues in with offline conversations in your comms channels

5. Be clear on what you expect from employees working at home, in the office, or somewhere else and make this equal across working styles.

A fundamental of employee engagement is 1) knowing what’s expected of you at work and 2) feeling that this is equal across peers and roles.  With hybrid working – levelling expectations between home and office is important for inclusivity.

For example:

• Whether working from the office or home, team members are expected to call in on time for virtual meetings.
• Whether working from home or office, colleagues are expected to be smart and well-groomed as a sign of respect for each other and the workplace.

Or

• Colleagues can dress down equally at home and in the office.
• Whether working from home or the office, colleagues are able to flex their day equally to accommodate occasional e.g., doctor appointments, school plays or other commitments.

Of course, the actual expectations will be unique to different organisational cultures; the key thing here is the equal application across home and office staff.

6. Role model the working from home and office behaviours you want to see

There’s no better way to signal presence equity than to ‘walk the talk’ and work flexibly as a manager yourself. Not only does it show the team this is OK, but it gives you the insight into the benefits and challenges of both experiences.

In addition, voicing why you work flexibly and the benefits it brings opens up conversations and breaks down barriers.

In a BBC article, the CHRO at Synchrony Financial, discusses how all members of the leadership team are asked to work from home 1 day per week, to achieve more equality in the workplace between home-working and office-working staff,

 “From a leadership perspective, we want to make sure we’re supporting both groups.”

7. Make office and home working work

At People Insight, our team work a minimum of 2 days per fortnight in the office. We can split this in accordance with our own preferences; some choose 2 consecutive days once per fortnight, some a regular weekly slot, others vary their bookings each week via Team Tracker, as suits their work / life balance.

We designed this system with a few things in mind from our internal Future of Work employee research:

• There are a vast range of preferences across individuals for working arrangements
• The range of collaboration & communication tools we use means that working with colleagues is felt to be equally easy in or out of the office
• Different types of work suit different work locations.

We ask colleagues to organise their schedules as follows:

• At home: predominantly focused, individual tasks requiring concentration, facilitated by internal and external communication (Workplace, Teams, Lucid, Loom and email)
• In the office: 1:1s, appraisals, coaching and training, team meetings and brainstorming or creative work.

Employee surveys: Feedback on your hybrid working culture

So how will you know if your best efforts in leading dispersed teams, avoiding proximity bias and embracing presence equity are working? Talk to your team, of course. You should be able to get good data from your employee surveys if they are set up with hybrid working in mind.

For example, make sure your demographic splits include home working, office working and hybrid working roles in line with the working patterns in your organisation.

It’s important too to include questions about stress at work, to understand how people’s wellbeing might be being affected by this new way of working.

Make sure you ask well-worded fairness and equity questions, ask respondents to describe your culture, prompt open text feedback about the experience of hybrid working and their sense of equality in the workplace.

Our consultants at People Insight are experts at designing questionnaires that get to the bottom of engagement, diversity and inclusion for all roles, teams and identities. We’ll help you understand the culture you have, and how to get to the culture you are trying to achieve.

“We are doing a continuous pulse survey run by People Insight, looking at the data in waves to show changes as the pandemic and our ways of working develop. This helps us look at targeted action.”

Adnan Bajwa, Head of OD & Engagement – London South Bank University (LSBU)

Why not book a call with us today to see how we can help assess your hybrid working culture?