For many organisations, the pandemic dismantled the main barrier to adopting a hybrid working environment—trust. For years, despite the rise in technology facilitating remote working, leaders, rather unfortunately, didn’t trust their people to do their work outside of the office. When that choice was taken out of their hands, it turned out that their people did indeed step up, take it seriously, and get their work done.
Surprisingly for many leaders, although not so much for the remote/flexible work advocates, in some cases remote work led to boosts in morale and productivity. While there are definitely those who are happier with the more ordered approach of office life, there are others who thrive when they can work in the comfort of their own home.
The Trend is to the Remote
According to the Microsoft 2021 Work Trends Index Annual report, people’s expectations have changed dramatically over the past few years. Not only do people expect an organisation to put a greater emphasis on collaboration, learning, wellbeing, and a company’s desire to drive career advancement, they also now expect flexibility in when and how the work is done.
This brings new challenges for business. A broader definition of productivity is likely required. For example, we’ve spoken before on our blog about how some people are early birds and some people are night owls. Leaders will need to develop new performance metrics to ensure that the productivity of their people is judged fairly.
New Approaches and New Challenges
Perhaps the biggest challenge is managing people who are scattered in various locations. When calling a meeting, it is a lot easier to manage if everybody is in the room. If half your people are in one room, and the other half are at their computer screens in a dozen different locations, how can you ensure that everybody is engaged and participating in the meeting? What does this mean for creativity and gaining input? How do you manage all of this?
First, you need to understand the difference between remote-first and remote-friendly, and restructure the leadership of the business around one of these models. A remote-friendly business opts to facilitate remote or flexible working, but it doesn’t structure the management of the business around remote working. A remote-friendly approach is more suitable for businesses where people are expected to be in the office, but when there is no need for more hands-on management (e.g., when a worker knows exactly what they need to be doing) they can opt to work from home.
Remote-First
Remote-first is where the organisational structure of the businesses is built around the notion that people are highly likely to be primarily based at home. When this is the default model, there is no expectation somebody will be in the office. People may be based all over the world, and some may have never even met in person.
To develop the remote-first model of hybrid working, an organisation needs to think creatively. It needs to understand the various scenarios that may occur and take a proactive approach to accommodating them. The business needs to invest in the right technology, not only for video conferencing, but for engagement between people working in different locations. While Zoom and Teams may handle the virtual face-to-face, workflow management tools such as Slack and ToDoist will likely be needed to manage people across projects.
The Question of Communication
Vitally, leaders who adopt the remote-first approach need to understand that by definition, hybrid working results in people working at different times. That early bird might be up at 7am and cracking on, while others might be hitting their productivity peak around midday. Consequently, there is a need for asynchronous communication—the tools and ability to drive a project forward without the need for stakeholders to be available at the same time.
In the office, when an email is sent across a department, there is generally an expectation that there will be a near-immediate response. In the hybrid working environment, a cultural shift is necessary to help everybody understand that people are more likely to respond at different times. Therefore, a strategic balance between synchronous and asynchronous communication is vital to embedding the hybrid working infrastructure.
Don’t Lose Great People
Undoubtedly, this presents a very real challenge moving forward, but it is one that businesses need to meet. In the Microsoft survey, almost half of respondents’ value flexibility in where and how they work. Many are even moving to a new location because they can now work remotely. Hybrid working might not be the future for every business, but it is going to be part of the future, and meeting people’s expectations is something that leaders need to consider, else they risk losing their most talented individuals to remote-first organisations.
If you’re a business leader wanting to implement a remote-first, hybrid working culture, but find much of what we’ve discussed overwhelming then we can help. Over the past eighteen months, we’ve delivered a number of remote leadership programmes to various businesses, including Ultrapolymers and their cross-European team. Reach out to us, and we can tailor the correct leadership programme for you and your people and help you thrive in the hybrid working new normal.
