When I’m helping organisations with their Hybrid Working arrangements some common questions keep coming up:
- What do I do if people have been working remotely and are reluctant to return to the office?
- How do I handle bad feelings with team members who can’t remote work (perhaps because of the nature of their role) but would like to?
- How much office time should we be scheduling for individuals or for our team?
The answers to the above questions depend very much on your own organisation, its circumstances and strategy, and the unique Culture and Values of your business. My advice is as follows:
- If you haven’t done so already, develop a Remote or Hybrid Working strategy, taking account of individual wants and business needs.
- Ensure that your Hybrid Working strategy is true to your organisation’s unique Purpose, Culture and Values.
- Publish and communicate the strategy to your organisation.
- Ensure that any tactical or day-to-day decisions are consistent with that strategy.
- Communicate that these decisions are made in the context of the overall strategy.
So, for example if a colleague is unhappy that they cannot work from home when others are able to do so, you might be able to explain that regular face-to-face communication with customers or colleagues is essential to the efficient performance of certain duties, and consistent with your Values of exceptional customer care.
As another example, you might deem it essential that an Accounts Payable Team is working in the office for 2-3 days leading up to a vendor payment run, to ensure they can interact quickly and efficiently and eliminate opportunities for error. This might be linked to your organisation’s values of Collaboration and Teamwork, and your aim to build Respect and Partnership with suppliers by ensuring they’re paid correctly and on time. As part of your Hybrid Working strategy you might facilitate remote working outside of that critical payment window.
When you think about your Hybrid or Remote Working strategy, one thing stands out clearly from recent surveys – the vast majority of workers (around 90%) want remote working some or all of the time.
Therefore if your business doesn’t have a clear, sensible and efficient Hybrid Working strategy you’re making yourself unattractive to the vast majority of workers and potential talent. And if you don’t get on top of questions like the above, your business will become a breeding ground for dissatisfaction and you’ll struggle to hold on to your good people.
We’re working with businesses to support Hybrid Working by:
- Providing short webinars or in-person workshops;
- Facilitating stakeholder collaboration to develop policy; and
- Creating, developing and embedding hybrid strategy on behalf of your business.
If you need help with your Hybrid Working Strategy, please get in touch