The perfect Hybrid model for 2024

One of the questions we often get asked from clients is around hybrid working vs a forced return to office working.

Over the last four years we have seen some significant change revolving around the ways we work. What works for one company may not work for another. Therefore, it’s important that you consider what your requirements are as a business and create a working model to suit.

Here are our top tips when considering your model:

Productivity

Before Covid people used to come to work to complete their work tasks and go off site for social connection (work conferences, team meetings, 1;1 in a café etc). Since Covid, this has now flipped with people coming to work for the social connection and completing their work tasks at home.  A recent Massey University study has found that over half of hybrid workers surveyed found themselves to be more innovative and productive when working from home.  

Wellbeing

Social connection is important for human beings. There is a lot of research out there that shows social connectedness leads to better mental health and improved wellbeing. Therefore, working five days a week from home, may not support your people with a sense of belonging or improved wellbeing. Consider the right balance between productivity and wellbeing when looking at your hybrid model.

Creating a Seamless Experience

It’s important to make the whole experience seamless for all employees. Having some people in the office and some at home while trying to connect to a team meeting has created new challenges for organisations. Regardless of how well you might coordinate the connection days for everyone in the office, there will inevitably be someone who is working remotely. This may cause the remote worker to feel less engaged as they are not able to participate equally. Consider how you might be able to set up those meetings differently. For example, can you have everyone dial in from their workstation or take their laptop into the meeting room and all be on screen. This allows everyone to have clear sightlines, both to each other, and to the content being displayed or spoken about.   

Trust

We often have people ask us how leaders had trust in their people to work from home productively during Covid, but now require them to work full time in the office. Be careful of the narrative you set when asking people to come back to the office. Indicating that you don’t trust them is the quickest way to see your engagement levels drop and potentially to lose good talent.

The latest benchmark from 2023 shows that trust in leaders has significantly eroded in the last 12 months. This is due to people experiencing cost savings, job cuts and closed off communications. We have moved from a focus on employee wellbeing, flexibility and creating a sense of belonging during covid times to the other extremes in 2023. We need to find a balance, and 2024 is a great year to focus on finding that balance.

Create a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) and make it enjoyable and easy for people to work from the office. We have seen this work well for many organisations who have created simple ideas to encourage people back into the office. Eg: Cake Fridays, team BBQs, weekly Q&A with leaders, weekly lunch and learns, rotation of available car parks. Make it seamless for people to be in the office, ensuring there is a good balance of open plan spaces and confidential rooms for private conversations.

Hybrid working is here to stay but it is an evolving space. What you decide to implement now may need to change or tweak in 6 months as you adjust. Our main advice is to be transparent, communicative, and equitable to all. Even if there are some roles that can’t be hybrid within your organisation, consider how you can be more flexible in your offerings to all your people.

If you want more advice in shaping what this looks like for your organisation then reach out to us. We would love to hear from you.