10 Steps To Manage The Transition To Sustained Hybrid Working

Through the pandemic, organizations have learned that (contrary to popular belief) their workers that had previously traveled to ‘an office’ to perform their daily tasks, could actually be trusted to operate from home and interact with colleagues using technology in the shape of Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Command, control, and presence could in fact be replaced by goals, trust, and virtuality, and you didn’t actually need everyone to be locked in the same space every day for the organization to work effectively.

As we emerge from the treacle of the pandemic, many organizations are seeking to build on  their experiences and settle on new ‘hybrid’ models, gaining the best of both face-to-face and online working worlds.

This has challenged some well established attitudes and norms often held by the most senior leaders in organizations. The battle between progressive leaders determined to use the pandemic as a force for change and those committed to the pre-pandemic status quo is being played out in boardrooms around the U.S.  

But the transition from the old world to the new world of hybrid is messy. Some organizations started by saying they would return to the old model with people coming to the office every day, then they changed their position to dictating ‘you have to be in the office 3 days a week’. Workers were incredulous, hadn’t they been working hard and well for the better part of two years from home? Yes, they missed some face-to-face interaction, but why did they need to be in the office three days a week?

The truth is that hybrid working changes everything. To make a sustained transition requires a well-orchestrated program of activities to upgrade leadership skills, enhance social cohesion and trust, evolve practices, processes, employment contracts, technologies, and office space while underpinning a new virtual culture with new working practices. It doesn’t happen by memo!

Throughout the pandemic, we’ve been working with leadership teams around the world to map out a path to a sustained hybrid working model suited to each organization. Here are a few of the steps:   
 

1. Build consensus at board level through dialogue leveraging evidence from surveys, focus groups etc. ‘Out’ the misunderstandings, misapprehensions and have quiet chats with individual leaders. Use scientific research to enhance awareness.
2. Agree to guiding principles at the C suite level that inform programs, and don’t attempt to micro define everything. Principles like ‘No second-class citizens (home and office)’, ‘working anywhere is the norm not the exception’, ‘we use space in the office as we need it and make it available for others when we don’t need it’ help to guide without getting into the detail.  
3. Create a code of conduct for the organization that is fair for everyone – get people further down the organization involved in working out the details (which the C suite must agree on) things like days in the office, new responsibilities, expected behaviors.
4. Upskill leaders in virtual management and facilitation skills – they are going to be key in making the change and if they are unaware of the science and don’t have the skills needed, they’ll be weak in their discussions with their teams.
5. Have leaders facilitate working sessions with their teams to agree the ways they’ll work and maintain their effectiveness in a hybrid world. Develop semi-formal agreements that seek to align individual desires, team effectiveness and corporate objectives.  
6. Elevate employee responsibility – Hybrid working is a game for grown-ups and each individual needs to take responsibility for their ‘trustability’, building relationships and establishing clarity about what is required from them.
7. Develop new HR policies, practices and processes needed to support hybrid working covering topics like recruitment, remuneration, recognition, induction, online learning, development, performance management, safety, health, wellbeing, and working away policy.
8. Implement effective collaboration and information management processes – to ensure all your people can access all they need and that your information assets are protected on a ‘need to know’ basis.
9. Upgrade IT and office infrastructure – everything from networks, devices, meeting room technology, information security, help desks services, technology training needs to be consciously thought through to make sure people can be effectively working from anywhere. The quantity, style and purpose of office space needs to reviewed and re-designed to support an new design requirement: the office as a destination.
10. Develop a comprehensive Change Program covering all of the above – everything needs to be properly co-ordinated to ensure a joined-up experience is created for employees. An engaging and involving communications and change programme will get everyone ready and excited for the new world that is sustained long after the pandemic is done. We’re not talking broadcast between.  

Author Bio

Andrew Mawson is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at AWA. Connect Andrew Mawson Follow @AWA_Agile