Written by Emily Gent | 14th March 2022
Hybrid working can bring the best of office and remote working together. But before you can reap the benefits, you need to be sure any changes to the way you work are clearly communicated to your teams.
We have extensive experience of hybrid working. It’s the model we use ourselves, and we have steered many clients through setting this up in a way that works for the benefit of their people and the productivity of their business.
Here are some tips from our team on how to hybrid successfully.
Is it fully hybrid or an office first model?
You may be undecided on what will work best for your business and your team. Does “hybrid” for your organisation mean some people mostly at home and some mainly in the office? Or do most people split their time between the two? Are some roles better suited to one or the other?
You may prefer your employees to be in the office and only work remotely or from home when they need to (but this needs to be communicated to management first).
If you have a preference, it’s important to be clear with your employees how many days, or hours they need to be in the office each week.
In this situation, it’s important to be clear why your people need to come in and why on a particular day. For instance, you may need all employees together on a Monday because you have your weekly team meeting. Or, you need everyone in the office on a Wednesday because it’s the only day part-time and full-time staff are working together.
If your hybrid policy is too broad, people may revert to not going into the office at all. Your policy needs to state what type of hybrid working model you will be implementing and how you want it to work. Ensure all staff know their roles and responsibilities in relation to this and it is communicated clearly.
Think about inclusion
Including employees in the planning process of their working arrangements increases both their productivity and wellbeing. So, as you tweak your hybrid working plan, be sure that any changes reflect their feelings and experiences. To do this you could ask employees to fill in a survey or have a Q+A session to offer feedback on what works and what doesn’t – and why!
They may have experienced challenges while working from home during the pandemic or will want to work from home on a particular day of the week because of commitments. If you don’t ask for their input, you may have some resistance to any changes you implement.
Consider where employees are most productive
When reviewing or creating your hybrid policy, think about whether your employees are in the right place to carry out certain tasks and where they do their best work. If they are in customer service or sit at their desk on calls all day, then working remotely may be best for most of the week as to not disturb their colleagues while on the phone.
Some meetings are most effective when people can talk live and in person, but shorter meetings or 1:1s can be more suited to Teams or Zoom. Identify essential in-person meetings and give employees enough notice if they are needed to be in the office on a particular day for example.
Make it formal
Any changes to the way your employees work needs to be formally communicated to them verbally and in writing. Of course, your employees need to understand your policies before you can put them into practice.
This may also be a formal change to the terms and conditions of employment at your company so the contractual location in your contracts of employment may need to be updated, in consultation with your employees.
You should communicate your hybrid working policy clearly so there is no confusion among your team. Present it a team meeting, post the changes on your workplace communication channels and host drop-in support hours for people to ask questions or speak to your HR team.
Trust your employees
When moving to a hybrid policy, you are expected to have trust in your employees to complete and manage their workload.
Businesses that have successfully implemented hybrid workplaces have moved from a controlled style of leadership to a more modern, people-centric style. This gives employees more autonomy and trusts them to get the job done from anywhere.
Also, by offering flexibility it lets employees prioritise their personal lives and a result this increases employee wellbeing, engagement and retention.
Flexible Working requests
If you receive flexible working requests from your employees it’s important to remember that flexibility can be offered in a variety of ways – so don’t be put off if your people want to change their working patterns. Examples include; part-time hours, job sharing, compressed hours (working the same amount of hours over fewer days) or flexi time to adapt and finish times to suit.
If you receive a request, you will need to have a process in place that ensures you are taking into account all legislation not just flexible working. Be mindful of equality and discrimination and be consistent with your flexibility across the board and remain unbiased.
For support with managing flexible working requests, speak to one of our team at info@realityhr.co.uk.
Ensure equal opportunities
When your team are scattered, it may become easy to overlook those who don’t get as much face time with managers. It’s important that you ensure all employees are considered for projects and promotions, and keep track of their work and progress to ensure no one is left behind.
Depending on the nature of your business, it may not be possible for all employees to work from anywhere. So, to stop people leaving your company to seek more flexibility elsewhere, you should ensure you are giving flexibility to your employees who cannot work remotely, where it is practical to do so. This might mean letting them choose their schedule or number of work hours. If you are unable to offer the same flexibility the reason for this should be clearly explained to employee.
We can support you with creating and implementing an effective hybrid working policy as part of our HR Toolkit. This includes 1 hour of support with a consultant. For more tips on how to implement a hybrid working model and manage a hybrid workforce,
If you have any questions, please get in touch with us at info@realityhr.co.uk.