Let’s get hybrid!

Currently there is a rising discussion between the benefits and challenges of opting for different work settings — face-to-face, remote or an hybrid option. The shift to working totally or partially remote was already being studied by some organizations as an adaptation to the new demands of the environment, however, the current pandemic has accelerated this process for all organizations.

If the goal is to return to the office fully or partially, it is essential to minimize the contamination risk so that people feel comfortable returning to the workplace. However, this has to be done systematically and cannot depend entirely on workers to minimize exposure to the risk. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has issued some guidelines to minimise the hazard in the workplace, although it is also clear that these rules must not render impossible for workers to do their jobs (APA, 2020).

Some companies, particularly in the tech sector, have decided to embrace fully remote work. Although not the most common, some companies have never had a physical workspace and, after this pandemic, others have decided to close their offices. Considering a fully remote work setting, there are clear advantages such as lowering companies’ costs, allowing workers to collaborate from anywhere in the world, boosting recruitment through global talent recruitment and making the company more attractive. There are also advantages for the employee: reduced travel time, less environmental impact, greater flexibility, better work-life management, and fewer interruptions (Remote Portugal, 2020). However, challenges also need to be considered in going fully remote, such as maintaining the organizational culture, ensuring quality of work, effective communication and collaboration and clear and accessible organisation documentation. In addition, it is important to minimize isolation, perceived lack of feedback and reduced perception of organizational support by workers (Sardeshmukh, Sharma & Golden, 2012; Di Martino & Wirth, 1990).

The hybrid model seems to be a growing trend as it embraces the advantages of remote working, overcoming some of the challenges(Afshar, 2020). However, in this methodology ensuring equality between workers who are in the office and those who choose to work at home or remotely, not forgetting the individuality of each worker seems to be the greatest challenge (Sijbrandij, 2020). Specifically, having two employees with totally different experiences in the same company — one totally or partially in person and one totally remote is very challenging for leadership, culture and communication (Workplaceless, 2020; NoHQ, 2020).

Thus, choosing to prioritize remote or face-to-face work but not having a mandatory scheme seems the best option. More specifically, it allows for flexibility by adapting to the worker’s preference and the evolving needs of the team/organization. However, each company should reflect on which option best suits their operation, strategy and culture.

As a wrap up we would like to present some tangible strategies to consider when implementing a flexible hybrid model:

1. Focus on workers’ autonomy (avoid micromanagement) and their perception of organizational support, actively seeking to contribute constructive feedback.
2. To foster gradual change, give workers the opportunity to create the necessary conditions and progressively adapt to the new reality.
3. To develop a healthy working culture, focusing on prevention through systematic diagnosis — measuring and evaluating to intervene.
4. Define objectives and organize work by priorities.
5. Communicating in a clear and transparent way with people — communicating future plans, changes and uncertainties.
6. Promote training for managers to better guide their teams and workers to adapt to new demands.
7. Avoid formal meetings without a work programme, but encourage informal interactions between workers and management. Asynchronous communication for work issues gains relevance in remote work.
8. Measuring workers’ performance according to the objectives previously co-established, i.e. abandoning the counting of hours — being +8hours in front of the computer does not necessarily correlate with productivity.
9. Promoting different experiences and adapting to needs: team meetings for planning and aligning objectives, talks between the manager and the worker to understand their difficulties and promote their development, moments of socialization, training (online or in person).
10. Looking for applications that help to solve potential problems — e.g. not taking breaks and working too long in a row (app: be focused), project management (app: trello), asynchronous communication (app: slack), documentation management (app: notion).
11. For workers: learning to manage time well, trying to maintain a routine, maximizing time outdoors (e.g. physical exercise), learning to disconnect from work (e.g. disconnecting notifications), creating a specific home space for work or finding a co-working locally.

References

Afshar, V. (2020). The future of work is hybrid: Work from home and the workplace. Retrieved from: https://www.zdnet.com/article/future-of-work-hybrid-home-and-workplace/

Di Martino, V., & Wirth, L. (1990). Telework: A new way of working and living. International Labour Review, 129(5), 529–554.

NoHQ (2020). Mastering the hybrid approach to remote work. Retrieved from: https://nohq.co/blog/the-hybrid-approach-to-remote-work/

O’Hara, D. (2020). Industrial and organizational psychologists will help shape the post-pandemic workplace. Retrieved from: https://www.apa.org/members/content/post-pandemic-workplace?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=apa-news-pandemics&utm_content=post-covid-workplace

Occupational Safety and Health (2020). Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19. Retrieved from: https://www.osha.gov/Publications/OSHA3990.pdf

Remote Portugal. (2020). Como o Trabalho Remoto vai mudar o mundo em que vivemos? Retrieved from: https://remoteportugal.pt/trabalho-remoto-vai-mudar-o-mundo/

Sardeshmukh, S. R., Sharma, D., & Golden, T. D. (2012). Impact of telework on exhaustion and job engagement: A job demands and job resources model. New Technology, Work and Employment, 27(3), 193–207.

Sijbrandij, S. (2020). Hybrid Remote Work Offers the Worst of Both Worlds. Retrieved from: https://www.wired.com/story/hybrid-remote-work-offers-the-worst-of-both-worlds/

Workplaceless (2020). Top Challenges of Hybrid-Remote Teams. Retrieved from: https://www.workplaceless.com/blog/challenges-of-hybrid-remote-teams

This post was initially published at www.boundmakers.wordpress.com and is co-authored with Rita Alves Feio