Mastering the Hybrid Work Model

Workforce well-being has become a business priority since the pandemic, and leaders have acknowledged the fact that they now need to offer their employees more flexible work arrangements, as part of their employee value proposition.

Organisations which continue to place employee well-being, and workplace flexibility at the forefront of their decision making, are much more likely to have happier, healthier, and engaged staff. It will also make them an attractive proposition for new talent and more likely to retain their existing talent.

However, operating a hybrid workforce where employees spend some of their time working from the office and the rest of their time working remotely, brings its own challenges. Therefore, throughout this course, we discuss a range of considerations, tools and techniques, specifically designed for supporting the well-being of hybrid workers.

This course is specifically designed to enable you to:

1. Gain a better appreciation for the importance of employee well-being,

2. Learn a range of new tools and techniques, than can be used for improving your own well-being, as well as that of your team members,

3. Identify the key steps for planning and developing well-being initiatives.

We start the course now by discussion how employee well-being has never been as important as it is today, and that organisations who place employee well-being at the forefront of their decision making are much more likely to have happier, healthier, and engaged staff.

Further reading

I was also recently involved in a project with Deloitte Australia, in which we developed a survey to help us understand the experience, expectations, and motivations of workers whose work is not location dependent. A copy of the report from that research is available below:

By understanding the range of factors that contribute to employee wellness, leaders leaders are better prepared to identify ways in which employees can be supported, and helped to achieve their full potential.

In order for hybrid workers to maintain a healthy work-life balance, they need to manage their time effectively, and create a detailed schedule which they can stick to.

Burnout is a condition which occurs when workers feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet constant demands. We discuss some likely causes, symptoms, and a range of measures which can help reduce it happening.

Hybrid work arrangements can involve a significant number video meetings, which can be quite tiring and draining if not managed correctly, so we discuss some recommendations you can implement to make them more comfortable.

Now that we have defined the key terms, and identified some important considerations for employee health and well-being, we suggest a range of initiatives for improving the overall health of hybrid workplaces.

Work culture describes the shared values, belief systems, attitudes and assumptions that people in a workplace share. Whilst work culture is often built from the bottom up, leadership and management influence workplace culture to a huge extent.

It affects how organizations function and respond to challenge. A positive workplace culture improves teamwork, raises the morale, increases productivity and efficiency, and enhances retention of the workforce. Job satisfaction, collaboration, and work performance are all enhanced, and a positive workplace environment reduces stress in employees. This course emphasizes the importance of establishing a healthy hybrid culture and discusses a number of steps that you can try to help improve the workplace culture at your organization.

This course is specifically designed to enable you to:

1. Understand the significance of nurturing the appropriate work culture when attempting to build high performing hybrid teams,

2. Learn a number of ways in which an inclusive, and psychologically safe, team culture can be encouraged in hybrid work models,

3. Gain an awareness of the presence of proximity bias, and know some steps that can be taken to address it.

In this introduction section, we emphasize the importance of establishing the correct type workplace culture, when building and leading hybrid teams.

Work culture describes the shared values, belief systems, attitudes and assumptions that people in a workplace share, and the ability to nurture the right kind of work culture is widely known to improve teamwork, raise morale, increase efficiency, and enhance staff retention.

In this section we delve deeper into the meaning of workplace culture, and discuss some of the key factors for establishing the right culture, for hybrid workforces.

Teamwork is essential to every company’s success, we discuss why teamwork is so important, and suggest some ideas you can try for encouraging team building at your organisation.

When operating as a hybrid workforce, it’s really important to keep aware of employee sentiment relating to workplace culture, and pulse surveys can be an effective way to help you do that.

One of the biggest concerns regarding hybrid work models, is the fact that people might get treated differently, based on which location they choose to work. In this section, we recommend a number of steps for detecting, avoiding and overcoming proximity bias in hybrid workplaces.

If employees don’t feel accepted, or aren’t comfortable sharing opinions they have that might be different to others, they will never be fully committed or engaged. In this section we discuss some recommendations for creating psychologically safe workplaces.

If organizations are able to create a culture of clear communication, excellence and learning, they can leverage hybrid work as a mechanism to support the sort of workplace flexibility that enables organizations to flourish and build significant competitive advantage.

When operating hybrid work arrangements that involve different members of the team working from different locations at any one time, traditional channels for business communication aren’t always appropriate, and having the right communication channels and protocols in place is essential for successfully supporting any hybrid work model.

Throughout this course we look at hybrid communication modes in greater detail, discuss the importance of finding the right balance between synchronous and asynchronous communication methods, and suggest some steps you can take to improve your hybrid meetings.

When transitioning to any new way of working like this, it’s inevitable that you will need to develop or recruit some new skills along the way too - therefore, we also discuss some potential skills requirements and ways in which you might address them, when transitioning to hybrid ways of working.

Undertaking this course will enable you to:

1. Understand the benefits and attributes, of both synchronous and asynchronous communication methods, when operating hybrid work models,

2. Learn which 5 key best practice areas organisations must focus on if they are to foster a culture of successful hybrid communication,

3. Identify potential new skills requirements, and some steps you might take to address them, when transitioning to a hybrid work model.

We now start the course by underlining how important it is for hybrid work models to incorporate effective communication channels and protocols.

When operating hybrid work models, leaders need to find the right balance between synchronous and asynchronous modes of communication, to support the specific needs of their team and the type of work activities they are involved in.   

Creating an equal and consistent meeting experience for all the participants, when some of them are physically in the room whilst others are joining remotely, can be very challenging. In this section we discuss a range of recommendations, that can help to improve engagement levels for all participants, during hybrid meetings.

In this section we discuss a range of 5 key best practice areas, which organisations must focus on, if they are to foster a culture of successful hybrid communication.

When transitioning to any new way of working, it’s inevitable that organizations will need to develop or recruit, some new skills as part of this process. We finish this course by discussing a range of potential skills requirement areas, and some ways in which you might address them, when adopting hybrid work models.

The past couple of years have been transformational for many of us, in terms of how we think about work, and where and when we conduct our work tasks.

The term workplace flexibility, or workflex, refers to employees having some level of choice or flexibility over where and when they conduct their work tasks. Hybrid work is a subset of workplace flexibility, which focuses on the ‘where’ component, and employees having some level of flexibility over the location where they conduct their work tasks.

As we now learn to live and work with Covid, it is clear that many of us will follow some sort of hybrid work arrangement in the future – dividing our time between the office and other remote work locations.

This course examines the different locations of work, and some of the technologies we use that make hybrid work possible – we discuss what offices might look like in the future, how we can maximize the work from home experience, and think about some other possible destinations where hybrid workers might find themselves working in the future.

This course will enable you to:

1. Gain a greater awareness of the different work locations available to hybrid workers, and some of the key features and attributes of each.

2. Identify some important considerations for long-term working from home.

3. Understand the key technology areas that support and enable high performing hybrid teams, and will continue to empower hybrid work arrangements in the future.
   

We now start this course by introducing a number different work locations, that are now available to many hybrid workers, and underlining the importance of digital technologies in supporting the practice of working across different locations.

In this section we discuss the history of offices, why we have them, what purpose they serve now, and what they might look like in the future.

Now that many companies are adopting some form of hybrid work model, it seems certain that we will continue working from home at least some of the time in the future, so in this section we discuss the key things that need to be considered now that working from home has become a more permanent fixture in many of our lives.

Resources

I have included examples of a hybrid work policy template (from Employment Hero), a home workstation ergonomics self-assessment (produced by the Government of Western Australia), and some tips from Dr Libby Sander on how to create a work from home space that really works.

When many of us think about hybrid work, we have a tendency to think that it involves splitting our time working between just two locations, the office and the home. However, hybrid working isn’t necessarily restricted to just these two work locations, so we discuss a number of alternative options are emerging as suitable work destinations.

Further reading

In this blog post, Dr Libby Sander discusses how coffee shops can make us more creative, and it's not just about the caffeine!

Technology is the glue that holds the entire ecosystem of distributed work together, and in this section we discuss some of the technologies that make hybrid work possible, and will continue to support hybrid work models as they evolve in the future.

Now that we are nearing the end of this masterclass, let's hear what other thought leaders from around the world think about hybrid work, and how organizations can maximize the performance of their hybrid work models.

In August 2022, I was invited to join fellow panel members, Alison Coward (Bracket), Danny Smith (Oyster HR), and Cate Murden (PUSH), to discuss the topic of 'High Performing Hybrid Teams.'

It was a really lively discussion, and no stone was left unturned, from hybrid work culture and well-being, to communication methods and what performance measures to use for hybrid work models.

As you can see, the panel members are in agreement that the topics we have discussed throughout this masterclass, are the keys to unlocking the potential of any high performing hybrid team.

Congratulations, and many thanks for joining me for this Masterclass!

I hope what you have learned throughout these five courses will help you to effectively contribute towards designing the right kind of hybrid work model for your team, one that promotes workplace health and well-being, improves work culture and team building, and results in increased productivity and efficiency.

I'm really keen to hear your feedback about this Masterclass, or answer any questions you might have about hybrid work, so please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn (drjohnhopkins) if you'd like to share knowledge and experiences on this topic.

All that remains now is the final quiz, which gives you an opportunity to test yourself, and see how much you've learned. Don't forget to download your certificate after you have completed the quiz, add it to your LinkedIn profile (in the 'Licenses and certifications' section), and share it with your friends and colleagues on social media! 

In the meantime, I hope this Masterclass will bring you lots of value, and I wish you the very best of luck with your hybrid future!

Cheers, John (Chief Flexibility Officer, WorkFLEX)