An Essential Guide To Hybrid Workforce Management
Several years ago, remote work was new territory for most companies. But today, remote work has proven its worth for business owners, enhancing productivity and cost-efficiency, as well as keeping employees happy and productive at home. So now may be a great time to consider optimizing a hybrid workforce.
But what is hybrid work exactly?
Hybrid work: At a glance
The hybrid work model has been one of the latest workplace trends for the past few years. It’s a type of workplace arrangement that combines working in the office and from home. For instance, employers may ask their staff to come into the office for team building, meetings, project kick-offs, and orientations. Then employees can work remotely in their homes if they have individual projects or tasks requiring the utmost attention.
Both office and remote work have their advantages, and implementing hybrid work combines the best of both setups. Statistics also show that 74% of US companies are currently using or planning to incorporate a hybrid work model permanently. Under a hybrid model, both management and staff can make more efficient use of their time, achieve better work-life balance, gain control over location and work hours, and improve productivity.
Tips and strategies for successful hybrid workplace management
Managing a hybrid workforce may be challenging, but it shouldn’t be complicated. Read on to discover the top strategies for successful hybrid workplace management.
- Take advantage of technology to promote team collaboration
The success and productivity of your hybrid workforce significantly depend on your team collaboration. With the money you’ve saved from cutting some expenses on office space and equipment, you can invest in digital communication tools and smart office solutions. For instance, you can try using OneNote to improve hybrid environments. In case your employees need to endorse some important information to their department, they have this app as their centralized note-taking tool, which allows everyone to read and keep track of the information in real time.
You may also invest in project management tools to make it easier for everyone in the company to work and stay on the same page. This can offer your hybrid workforce 360-degree visibility over tasks, projects, performance KPIs, and status reports.
Lastly, consider investing in an employee survey platform. This channel will help you measure the level of satisfaction your employees feel regarding your organization’s hybrid setup. You can use survey tools to gather their feedback and suggestions and apply their input to improve your hybrid arrangement.
- Strengthen your cybersecurity
Managing a hybrid workforce means all employees will communicate and complete tasks digitally. Continuous technological advancements have enabled companies to create and utilize an online network where everyone’s jobs are streamlined in one platform. As convenient as this sounds, hybrid work also means you’re much more susceptible to cyberattacks than before.
Thus, every team member should be aware of the importance of strengthening and following cybersecurity measures set by the company.
Here are some steps to enhance the security of your hybrid workforce:
- Modernize your access management by implementing a strong password policy or authentication data wherein employees must lock their company devices and accounts with fingerprints or facial scans.
- Use VPN.
- Prohibit employees from using public Wi-Fi connections and using their personal devices for work purposes.
- Encrypt all stored data and keep all firewalls, devices, and apps up to date.
- Set up a proper data backup and recovery process.
- Train employees on recognizing potential cyberattacks or signs of breaches and reporting any suspicious incidents immediately.
Hybrid working has become a more appealing target for hackers. Hence, employees should be responsible for securing and protecting their organization from cybercrimes. With their cooperation, you can incorporate a hybrid work model without compromising your network and data security.
- Focus on productivity and not on attendance
Some employers often equate perfect attendance with higher productivity, so they would implement the office-first or fixed hybrid work model to require employees to visit the office regularly.
However, being present in the office doesn’t necessarily mean your employees are highly productive. With more and more employees demanding greater flexibility, about 57% of them are even willing to quit their current jobs the moment their companies decide to switch to full-time office work.
Remember, the idea of a hybrid work model is to provide maximum flexibility and freedom to achieve better business results. So, instead of focusing too much on your employees’ attendance, you can concentrate more on improving their productivity.
When planning for productivity, you may use these guide questions:
- Which tasks or projects can my employees accomplish better as a group that would require in-person collaboration? Which ones can be accomplished better when done individually and remotely?
- Which meetings can be conducted online and which meetings should be held in person?
- Who are the employees that work better when they’re at home and the ones who perform better when in the office?
- Are there specific employees whose presence in the office is often required?
- Which employees have long commutes that might benefit better when working remotely?
Answering these questions will help you determine the right action plan on when and who are the right people to gather together for collaboration at the right time. Overall, planning for increased productivity is essential to make the hybrid model work better for your organization.
- Design better hybrid meetings
When you follow the hybrid work model, you’ll need to be ready to make hybrid meetings the norm. As per statistics, 47% of employees prefer in-person meetings. Hybrid meetings allow employees to have a voice and be part of decision-making and brainstorming for the company, regardless of where they work and how they prefer to join.
To organize better hybrid meetings, ensure you set up a proper hybrid meeting tech first. For example, if there are only three people in the room for the meeting and the rest of the employees are remote, the three in-office attendees can use a single laptop with a clear microphone and camera to collaborate with the remote participants. Meanwhile, if there are more in-office participants than remote ones, you might need more equipment to improve audiovisual clarity.
In that case, you’ll need the following:
- A white screen for the video presentation
- High-quality external cameras
- Speakers
- Microphones
Once you have the hybrid meeting tech set up, explain to in-person attendees where the microphones, screens, and cameras are placed, so they’ll know where to look and speak during the meeting.
You can assign a facilitator or moderator who will be in charge of monitoring and reading the comments from the remote participants, as well as their cues like hand raising and unmuting themselves. Don’t forget to follow basic rules to make your hybrid meetings more productive, such as setting an agenda and assigning a time limit to each meeting subject.
- Create a performance management system for your hybrid workforce
Your hybrid workforce will require a specific type of performance management to help you keep track of your employees and their performance. Below are some tips to plan and create a performance management system suitable for your hybrid workforce:
- Define your company goals and ensure they align with your employees’ goals.
- Conduct regular check-in conversations, both in person and digitally.
- Provide regular coaching (in person and digitally) to your team members. A study shows that 68% of employees have better individual performance when regularly receiving coaching from their managers.
- Adjust productivity metrics based on the position/role of each employee.
When done right, performance management for a hybrid workplace can accelerate business growth. And if the performance results need improvement, be ready to make adjustments or changes along the way.
Conclusion
Hybrid workforce management may be tricky at first, as business owners have to handle two sets of employees—remote and office workers. Fortunately, with these strategies, you can provide them with consistent work experience and promote better productivity and efficiency.
A hybrid work model can give your employees the flexibility and freedom to work and perform well. Their excellent performance and high output will contribute to your business’s success and growth.
An Essential Guide To Hybrid Workforce Management
