HR: Caroline Reidy looks at

CAROLINE REIDY M a k i n g h y b r i d w o r k i n g w o r k f o r y o u r b u s i n e s s

Post-pandemic, hybrid working is here to stay for many employees who have found greater flexibility allows them to thrive. With that in mind, The HR Suite’s Caroline Reidy outlines how to overcome the challenges and achieve greater productivity

managing director, The HR Suite

How can an organisation effectively manage hybrid/ blended working? Essentially, the term hybrid working refers to the arrangement between an employer and an employee, where the employee works, interchangeably, at home and in the office. Hybrid/blended working is defined as a flexible working model where employees can spend a certain amount of their time working remotely and a certain amount of time in their place of work. Blended working can be managed together with other forms of flexible working such as flexitime, compressed hours or job sharing. It can deliver the benefits of work-life balance whilst still allowing social and collaborative advantages of working together with colleagues in the workplace. Every company can develop a blended working model based on their needs and the needs of their employees.

The best way to achieve collaboration while operating under a hybrid working model is to discuss strategies and techniques to further boost connectiveness across the team, writes The HR Suite’s Caroline Reidy

introducing a policy

It is important that employers introduce a ‘Blended Working Policy’ that is relevant to their company and their values. A hybridworking policy should aim to ensure fairness, collaboration, and productivity as workers move freely back and forth between the office and their desired remote environments. A successful policy will provide the basic outline of the expectations of each role and how it will function. It will also ensure the policy is a cultural fit for the company. It is likewise important that employers carry out health and safety assessments. These assessments help ensure that employees working from home can carry out their work in a safe environment. It is also important that employers ensure their employees working at home are receiving adequate rest breaks in line with the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997.

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the right to disconnect

Employers also have the responsibility to emphasise and encourage the importance of the ‘right to disconnect’. This allows employees to not be disciplined for failing to attend to work matters outside of their normal work hours and requires that all employees respect one another’s right to disconnect e.g., not regularly calling or emailing outside of work hours. What works well? Clear lines of communication are vital for a hybrid working model to succeed. It is important that managers mix the communication mediums in a blended work environment. There are many ways of improving communication in this environment such as scheduling a weekly task meeting with all employees together and a weekly task meeting with each employee individually, to review and assess employees’ progress on tasks. Another way to improve communication is to use shared calendars; these calendars outline when people are in the office, provide clarity to the team and can also help with social interaction.

achieving collaboration

Collaboration in a hybrid working environment is important to have but can be difficult to achieve. The best way to achieve collaboration is to discuss strategies and techniques to further boost connectiveness across the team. A great way to promote collaboration within a blended working team is to introduce brainstorming sessions, to implement trust building exercises, to embrace a diverse team, to respect one another and to clearly establish everyone’s role and responsibility within the team. Planning for the future in a hybrid working environment can also be challenging. Doing the most important tasks first, planning for readjustment, anticipating issues and leaving free time on your schedule is the best way to deal with any problems that might arise in a blended working environment.

advantages and disadvantages

There are many advantages to having a hybrid/blended working model in an organisation such as happy and engaged employees, improved company culture, more efficient workplaces and lower operational costs. There are also disadvantages too, including that it’s harder to collaborate with remote employees. There can also be faster employee burnout, difficulty keeping up with hybrid schedules, and it’s not suitable for all industries. However, having a key awareness of these points will help employers assess the needs of both the company and their employees which will enhance collaboration in achieving the best possible outcome for both.

Creativity thrives

A Harvard Business School study this year found that employee outputs and creativity thrive in hybrid working environment. It discovered that the hybrid group performed better, and got better ratings from managers, than those who were primarily at home or mainly in the office. The paper’s findings were based on an experiment in the summer of 2020 where 130 administrative workers were randomly assigned to one of three groups over nine weeks. Some spent less than 25% of their workdays in the office, some were in more than 40% of the time, while a third “intermediate” cohort landed in the middle, translating to a day or two per week. According to the study, just one or two days in the office is the ideal setup for hybrid work, as this provides workers with the flexibility they crave, without the isolation of going fully remote. ■