Making hybrid working a reality?
Or eleven ways to make hybrid working successful in your business.
Hybrid working is the way to go in our POV, and we are delighted to see it being flexed in many companies. This is an RLC bias, as we chose to work this way as a business for over a decade. And continuously see the benefits, we are now virtual, with no effect on the business- quite the contrary, we have grown by 35% over the last two years.
The oxymoron is that the global business community has had to accommodate a virtual workplace for over two years, throwing out the existing model of how most companies did business overnight.
However, as the pandemic moves towards an endemic in 2022, we see an increasing opportunity for companies to have a flexible business model.
What is interesting is the responses we see across different industries; in many firms, the reaction is draconian. Those businesses demand specific ways of working that are causing many, many issues. We experience conflict and the struggle to transition from the standard methods of working 9-5 concept to real hybrid working with many of our clients. Or, more realistically, understanding the reality of hybrid working - what does it mean and what cost to be fully hybrid?
Seeing businesses chose NOT to learn the vital lessons from the covid experience is very frustrating. The way we all responded with instant solutions to problems we may never have begun solving because of a global crisis. Taking those lessons and truly being sure they are understood, what we did, why we did it, how it helped, and what allows us to move progressively forward and continue to be workable and thriving in the modern business world. Exploring the reasons why business is getting stuck in the myriad of discussions around hybrid or virtual working means we need a better understanding of the areas affecting it so that leaders and owners can make personalized business decisions.
Life balance (re)discovered?
I am sure you have read about the pandemic great resignation. Maybe we should re-word it the great recognition of what work is? So many people discovered a work-life balance that they had never experienced.
The benefits that have been shared are
The lack of a commute created extra personal and family time.
Being able to self-manage and work in an asynchronistic style helped with life balance.
Many people made work effective, with plenty of breaks, aiding in less stress, a better work environment, and a lack of work clothes!
We even have stories of people saving money, with reduced commutes, the expenses of working and not buying any office wear.
Specific types of people, like natural introverts, excelled within the pandemic, as working from home allowed them to work and function without the intensity that office life can create. Overall, some people experience an enhanced life balance, and when people feel in control, they become more productive and effective.
As with anything, there are downsides too.
The benefit of no longer having to commute, in some cases, became more time spent working, the saved time consigned to work, and not used to create a better life balance.
If you are not skilled or experienced enough to self-manage an asynchronistic work life, it can create laziness.
The knock-on effect in the workspace, team, or company can often become mistrust.
The personality styles of extrovert/ambivert developed an increase in mental health issues caused by a feeling of exclusion / isolation. As a style, they excelled in connection in the office space. For many, over time, their life balance deteriorated because combining the home life with work-life in the same environment made it more chaotic. They managed the need to work around family, balanced with extended work hours, reducing the family time before you add the areas of sickness, grief, loss, and other key family challenges.
As leaders and owners, understanding the personal impact is essential to help move your business to an effective hybrid model.
Now let's look at other factors that affect hybrid working. We want to cover as many areas as possible, including people factors- skill, recruitment and keeping talent and looking at the impact on property, commercials, and technology. Also, how hybrid working can impact diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing is essential when considering a humanistic perspective of 'why' hybrid can work for your business.
Does hybrid-working affect profit and purpose?
We all know that a business runs to make a profit, function as lean and efficiently as possible, give the best service it can to its clients, and sell the products or services it has. 45%-55% of people will work remotely or in a hybrid system' compared to what they did in their role previously, before the pandemic, then many commercial spaces will be partially full, if at all. We see decision-making behaviours that say, "we must be back in the office it's costing us money". It also raises the impact of the potential duplication of cost from hybrid working with technology; home office set up for remote workers, data security, many more hidden costs are not accounted for strategically. Has the business world been reacting and doing, and do we have the costs to manage at a later date? Is this real hybrid working? Savings are made, and costs are created whichever way we review the financial numbers.
Being able to assess this realistically is necessary for any business leader, blended with the people factor. Neither can be standalone business decisions.
What is going to happen to the vacant commercial property and spaces?
What is the business cost of Commercial property?
This cost is high even with global government support; every city will have an excess of commercial space. Is this even factual? What is happening across the globe in working environments, and how do we share the positives and negatives?
Repurposing and creating homes from ex offices is one area of incredible growth for many commercial real estates. Housing is a global issue; repurposing offices is a highly effective use of prime office space. The conversion from offices to homes is happening in many cities worldwide, yet is it enough for sustainable business growth, balancing profit with purpose and customer sales? We have to be able to start to answer questions about the future of business space, environments and how we can make them work,
Be aware a lack of purpose is the most prominent reason businesses fail.
Will companies become real estate owners as well? Does this change the purpose of the business and its focus?
Will we see multi-functioning spaces and businesses combining purpose to boost profit?
Will, the opportunity for shared property space and linked businesses be a benefit or not?
Will we see large businesses acquiring smaller businesses?
Will they affect us more through either conglomerate acquisition or more co-op style ventures, buying onto space to combine resources, values, purpose and help the many?
Does a business need the combination of office space and social community space at all?
How does this all affect the bottom line of profit for business?
How do we predict this activity's influence on the bottom line? What are the opportunities?
Will they be for the company, or does the customer see a higher price for buying certain items and services?
Look at your business and make sure that your purpose is clear. It's relevant and, most of all, relatable.
Does it need work?
Has your purpose evolved, or has it become more nuanced or niche?
Have you adapted and evolved through the pandemic?
Has your customer base and teams changed?
What is the commercial space needed?
Are there synergies with other businesses? Shared purpose?
Create working groups to discuss the opportunities. Ask everyone to contribute to a purpose discussion and engage in the conversation.
Ability to not conform
Not conforming is difficult for many, as it means a change in a dramatic sense, yet if you focus on the question 'WHY', you will see the clarity, rationale, and reality it creates.
Conforming is easy; non-conforming is difficult
It's not changing for change's sake. It is not a massive restructure. It is transitional, and most of it is bespoke to your business. That's why it works. It is easy to conform and do what everyone else does in your industry because it can work. In 'Good to Great, Jim Collins said that only 15% of businesses did it right. The 15% he shared didn't conform to industry standards or comparison. Instead, they found intangible elements that created the foundation, enabling cultural shifts that moved their business forward, with the ability to flex when global markets suffered or changed. They stuck to their why primarily.
Ask throughout your business at all levels
What is your 'why', and have you stuck to it?
How does it affect hybrid working in your firm?
Consider the lessons you learned from removing all barriers and obstacles when the covid pandemic hit and how everyone transitioned away from the office - what did you do well?
What didn't work and why? What do your teams say?
What do your customers need, and has this changed?
Reflecting on what your business did and if it is still trading and running given what the world has been through, means you have been hugely successful through a global pandemic?
Think about how you applied different approaches and thoughts.
What actions did you take?
What boundaries changed for the good?
Recruitment isn't just given to a location only now; you have a global marketplace of talent?
Who do you want to work for you and why? What does your customer need?
Has your customer changed?
How can you induct new globally found people if they never come to a static office?
The shift changes from static locations to dynamic, agile working with an even greater need for consistent, clear communication.
How did you communicate across your business?
Was it effective? If so, why?
Can your employees buy shares in the company or become part of the investment model?
Taken from Redesigning Work for a Hybrid Future- Gartner Aug 2021
We have a generational opportunity to change the essential functions of work, and if you want, you can do it by not conforming and making what works for your business linked to your purpose, and it will probably not look like what your business started as either?
Inclusivity is exclusive
We know that diversity has taken a backward step another negative impact from the pandemic? Many diverse people from ethnicity diversity to neurodivergent becoming more isolated. The isolation has created a homogony of smaller bubbles. People stay within their restricted social circles, creating more exclusive bubbles than inclusive ones. Changing this requires a tremendous amount of work for any business.
Connection is a human thing; we are social animals, and even as introvert's human connection (even if it's minimal) is still necessary for people to function at their best and full potential. Therefore, we should never dismiss the positive impact of connection when we can walk past someone desk, chat, review, ask questions, share, update and connect.
Without connection, you can become disconnected and develop a disassociation from the business's mission, create a lack of visibility, missed opportunities to represent yourself for promotion, other career opportunities, become unable to share success, and perceive reduced opportunities to seek help. The connection issues also affect us internally and externally, with business relationships, with clients that have become restricted in many cases, with people leading and supplying no updates. The infamous zoom fatigue or any virtual platform fatigue. The over lunch conversations that bonded clients and businesses, diminishing because we all know that personal face-to-face time builds relationships and drives growth.
Being in the office, this was all simpler. Yet another surprising element has occurred leaders have been thriving at home from their perspective, yet the teams and people they lead are often the opposite – they feel like they are struggling/surviving. This dichotomy of leaders thinking they are good is a missed connection with their teams. They become ineffective leaders; this is hugely damaging to businesses' futures. Lost connection and the opportunity to see the visual and verbal cues that our teams give us, leaders can become misguided and find themselves believing that everyone is as okay as they are. Leaders are extending meetings by an extra 10 minutes (add this to every meeting in a day, and that is an hour extra at least?), and this is increasing, this is ineffective for the teams and affects results, outcomes and extends work time for teams. More meetings = less productivity, less satisfaction, and more work hours.
We are swamped with productivity apps, multiple media channels, so many options that much of the conversation is lost. As we are getting lost in which channel, we communicate, update, or ask for help? Slack, WhatsApp, Teams, Zoom, HubSpot, Monday, Jira, Wrike, Miro, Trello, even our own CoachPad. This myriad of places to access means more time, not less, thus creating less productivity and diluting the working experience for our teams and clients alike.
Ask your business are you listening to just leaders or all your business? Do you know the "real" impact or only seeing surface context, perceived or desired, rather than the reality? Are you assuming as you are not hearing "bad news" that it doesn't exist? How do you check-in and validate? How are you communicating? Is it practical, and how do you know? Dig deeper, ask more questions, get broader perspectives.
People do matter
This is more about your organizational structure than anything else. People do matter, and having a top-heavy, thick middle management with multiple layers will be less valid (not sure they were valid anyway!?). Being able to look at roles- activities – outputs and outcomes, rather than the person.
SHARE IT. DISCUSS IT. ALLOW IT TO BE OPENLY CHALLENGED.
Draw the ideal organizational chart, then work with a transition plan to move towards it, with a specific goal of time to achieve it (24 months is a significant focus, as with our RLC Framework). As PWC Craig Hughes, Global Real Estate & Hybrid Transformation Leader, shares in their Hybrid Study:
““Every change you make will have a knock-on effect. Everything is interconnected, and every action has cost implications and unintended consequences. Therefore, this issue must be addressed holistically. The full scale of the task must be analyzed, understood and planned so it can be delivered practically and funded effectively.””
Being aware of what impact each decision makes on your teams is critical. The key here is transparency. Developing the ability to share, communicate, listen, reflect will help you find a solution that works effectively for your business. This is not dismissing hierarchy or management; it is reducing the obstacles, creating opportunities for more effective and better people engagement (by default creating a recruitment plan). Your aim is to work with 'peoples skills', not their job titles.
“Over the past year, no area has undergone more rapid transformation than the way we work. Employee expectations are changing, and we will need to define productivity much more broadly — inclusive of collaboration, learning, and wellbeing to drive career advancement for every worker, including frontline and knowledge workers, and new graduates and those who are in the workforce today. All this needs to be done with flexibility in when, where, and how people work.”
The benefits to this are more cost-effective ways of working, onboarding, interaction and engaging inductions, increased retention, people talent that stays. It will positively impact recruitment, and overall, you build a sustainable culture that grows and flexes as your business and the global business world does.
Evolution of skill
Working without a skill base can cause issues for an old thinking mindset. We need to evolve our skills and develop modern and progressive thinking. Let's be clear, this is not 'out with the old and in with 'the new'. It is looking at what is working and taking the time to learn WHY. Factual, not emotional. Real information from your own business - not others. Information from facts is not taken from a headline, conversation with someone else, or just a plain old fashioned personal perspective.
Understanding each person's real skill base is, where it is, what level is it at? Remove assumption. Remove a narrow focus on job role, your / our personal likes, and previous experiences.
Focus on SKILL- Upskilling, assessing skills, developing skills.
Most people will thrive, and some will not succeed in a hybrid role. This may be the opposite of what you may have considered from your business or team members. The key is never to assume. Take time to ask and find out.
Discuss in detail, make the time, this is critical as a leader, without attempting to fit it into what you want, see it instead from the employee perspective, the actual experience of the team member you are with.
By Managing skill growth – and defining skill growth – we can become able to manage and effectively support virtual workforces; you will see growth, productivity, open and transparent conversations, and a transition for all to work together in a hybrid world.
Ego Leadership must go.
Leadership is bigger than a blog perspective on hybrid working (it is what our business is built on - challenging the leadership deficit in the global business community). Yet the types of leadership labels that are forced, like ego and servant leadership, need to stop. So just stop with the leadership cliché, and let's start with leadership coaching.
“77% of UK employees want a mix of face-to-face and remote working ”
One of the HUGE benefits of Hybrid working can be the demise of Ego Leadership. In the past long hours equated to getting the promotion and perceived false dedication even though ineffective. Ego leadership creates fear, control, division, and the output is weak decision making. It can be seen when demanding ego leaders say - "do what we did before" or "I'm right your wrong", saying "I am the boss, so do what I say" behaviours and language. Or when they make decisions purely based on commercial elements. Eliminating people and ignoring a complete process review. Outstanding leadership needs the balance of commercial and people in all its decision making. Ego leadership, sadly, is still very prevalent and used across all industries. Doing as I say - will not work in a hybrid world and needs to be an area that all leaders develop their skills of not being.
One of the other terms we are hearing is "It's got to go back to normal" – a new reality is, there is not even a new normal, this is a transition in working and creating the new revolution of how we will work in the future.
The basis of great leadership when it is not going the way expected - expect the unexpected, be ready for change, be adaptable, listen and then listen again. This doesn't mean it happens by default. It must be worked on. Reviewed and challenged.
“IF COMMUNICATION CHANNELS ARE DISTORTED, IF YOUR MANAGER DOESN’T TRUST YOU, IT’S REALLY STRESSFUL BECAUSE YOU’RE TRYING TO GUESS WHAT YOU MIGHT NEED TO DO TO SATISFY THEM.”
Hybrid creates business flexibility.
We see many businesses struggle with a return to the office and "how it was before" as they fall back into "this is our purpose"- yet that purpose has changed. We cannot underestimate the impact of a once-in-a-lifetime global experience living and working through a pandemic.
Businesses need help to reframe their business purpose. Even redefine their purpose entirely.
“With 85% of those working remotely saying they would expect a mix of remote and on-site working – or ‘hybrid’ working – there is no doubt that the future of ‘work’ will look different to many in the UK. ”
Eleven Actions To Help Start Successful hybrid working
1. Reassess all the media communication channels you use and stick to one consistent one; the win here is clarity in labelling what you want from it.
2. Create open work forums (like Flown), Allowing for virtual flow. This creates a new community and network and gets work done in a virtual workspace without the feelings of remoteness.
3. Pick Up the Phone – TALK. Stop relying on virtual 1-dimensional texts or typed words. Words change how we connect. If you can arrange face to face even as socials (Covid restrictions relevant)
4. Review your Organizational Structure
Are you focusing on job title rather than skill and outcomes?
What worked before – does it work now?
Who is customer-facing, and what support do they have?
What are your people support structures? Training and people investment?
What does each role do? What does it need to do?
Be specific on outcomes? Actions? Activities? Has this changed?
Do the people doing this have the right skills? Supported to have the right skills?
5. Create working parties (with boundaries and specifics- not a moan fest; this is about improving and making the hybrid work for your business, people, and clients).
Allow your teams to discuss and challenge the outcomes and opportunities with solutions. Leader bias isn't helping the overall business population.
The leader's role is to look at the long-term commercial and people impacts and how it affects the business purpose- supporting it and guiding with facts.
6. Review your reward and incentives schemes. Do they connect with a hybrid world?
Do they connect the right behaviours?
What are you making mandatory and why? Is it effective?
Have you asked the teams what works and why?
What effect does it have on the customer? Why? Positive or negative?
Does it build trust or create distrust? Many schemes create poor behaviours; more effort is put into getting around them rather than working with them- does yours do this?
7. Socials- Events- talks- Self Development- Interactive sessions. Make reasons to come to the office (and make available offline too)
8. Review your 121 appraisals, review the process. This is very impactful. Through the pandemic, we have heard from our clients that this has been an area that has all but disappeared or been "made" to fit. 121's in the traditional sit-down and let me tell you what I think is not the desired outcome. You will gain more from short regular, quality chats about how people are doing. Check-in (not on) what's been done. Recognition of actions, what their obstacles are and how you as a leader can help are the ones that boost, engage, and enhance, support, guide and achieve better outcomes. An annual appraisal is a waste of time. 7-10 quality minutes regularly is better than 2 hours once a year.
9. Remove complications – be strategic. This takes time. Create a straightforward, simple, not convoluted process in all you do. Single point of access of work, workable asynchronistic editable and reviewable documents as examples.
10. Be consistent. This is key as you will see (change is necessary), yet consistency is about delivery, purpose (Get a Framework)
11. Make change the constant in your culture.
You can achieve this through language first.
Behaviours and remove fear culture actions.
Do as you say you will do
Follow up, ask questions, and answer them.
Change isn't the issue; it is how it is handled. Be aware of your own reactions and responses.
Summary
We believe that hybrid working is the start of transformational and generational change for the ways of working and we will see some continued dramatic changes. Businesses, owners, leaders must be ready to challenge the norm, question the social constructs we self-impose and look at the world of work that benefits customers, employees and the business in a way that is in a state of flux and transition. We can create a world of work that achieves the purpose for a business and profit, a place that allows life balance for its people and customers that are delighted by their products or services.
The companies that conform to “standard working” could restrict their growth and long-term future. Ignoring people first is a risky business model for the future.
Creating psychologically safe, adaptable, diverse, flexible places to work will build new skills within employees, loyalty through satisfaction, and the outcome is purpose and profit achieved which maintains a business.
Recognizing that there isn't just one way, personalizing your business actions will create many healthy work cultures. Allowing input and creating flatter organizational structures is a real opportunity for businesses to grow in a way that benefits everyone.
The world has millions of small, medium businesses that can continue to flourish and work alongside the large corporate machines. There is enough business for everyone; we do not need to compete within our industry. If we are aware and connected to our people and customers, a personalized approach retains purpose and satisfaction. It creates a flexible workplace that retains talent and a new future for the next generation. We are in the next revolution, and it's a truly exciting place to be where we all get the opportunity to influence and be part of something that can transform the future of business.
Tools to help hybrid working -the RLC Framework
The reality is that creating a functioning hybrid workplace needs planning, strategy, and tactical actions to make it work. Our RLC core product- Best Version Business Framework creates this structure in 10 sessions. 10 flexible discussions that create a plan with tactical actions, support, and one page. Sales pitch over. Let's look at ways we see the issues for businesses to transition to hybrid and some ideas on how to resolve any challenges that may happen.
The key to the Framework is that it creates the questions that NEED answering,
1. Creates correlation to purpose (real purpose)
2. Connects congruency from purpose to action to outcome.
3. An outcome plan built on review and realignment allows for debate, discussion and better decision making.
Let us help you?
Read more, references and research
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Why IBM Brought Remote Workers Back To The Office -- And Why Your Company Might Be Next. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2017/10/12/why-ibm-broughtremote-workers-back-to-the-office-and-why-your-company-might-benext/?sh=647aed3216da
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