It’s time for companies to recognize that employees need to work while also having enough time for non-work-related activities—and that they can do it. But how can employees and employers attend to these needs?
FlexJobs confirms in a 2021 survey that 58% of employees would want to remain full-time remote employees, while 39% of employees want a hybrid work arrangement. That means it’s going to take a lot of work to convince most workers to completely return to the office.
For both employers and employees to meet halfway, several businesses have implemented a more realistic office arrangement and welcomed the hybrid workforce.
What is a hybrid workforce?
A hybrid workforce is a pool of employees that represents the integration of physical and virtual work. In the hybrid setup, workers gain greater work flexibility and achieve better work-life balance.
After the pandemic, time is indispensable for a lot of individuals. The hybrid workforce is able to juggle their professional and personal lives more easily by having the flexibility to move between the office and their home.
Digital tools also play an essential role for the hybrid workforce to stay connected and collaborative with each other.
Admittedly, not everyone wants a hybrid workplace, so it’s crucial to have the right people for it.
How to manage a hybrid workforce?
If your organization is one of the companies that are also transitioning to hybrid work arrangements, we’ve compiled tips to manage a hybrid workforce.
Let’s find out how every business can achieve an effective hybrid work arrangement with the best strategies for managing teams.
Enforce deadlines
Great flexibility comes with an immense amount of time in the palms of employees’ hands. This means they have the liberty to use their time to manage and finish their workloads. Given that there’s a high potential to lose track of time, managers and employers need to reinforce deadlines.
You can enforce schedules in hybrid work by reframing it as something that is still flexible but regulated. Since hybrid can feel a bit unstructured, employers should still put a shape on it.
If you can pose dates, schedules, and deadlines, employees can allocate enough time to do their tasks while also attending to other important chores.
Have your teams work on shared projects
Since hybrid has a combination of on-site and remote work, employees who have fewer interactions with their colleagues feel a lot more alienated.
If your teams are physically disconnected from each other, they fail to establish teamwork, form work connections, and even communicate. If you have remote teams, they may feel more distant than those on-site.
That’s why it’s recommended to have them work on shared projects. Even if they have different schedules or different duties, you can try to align some tasks they can do by pair or by group. This increases their initiative, cooperation, and engagement.
Maintain harmonious relationships with team members
As mentioned above, a hybrid work arrangement feels a bit amorphous. That’s why it’s essential to maintain a harmonious relationship with your team members.
Conduct regular catch-up sessions to check on their status and workload. A simple message asking how they are doing won’t hurt. Sometimes, it’s better to directly ask them how they are feeling instead of letting personal issues cloud their performance.
It’s a must for managers and employees to be aligned to keep up with the latest processes and policies in the work arrangement.
Always have an open line of communication
When you employ a hybrid model, your employees will be distributed as remote workers and on-site workers.
When they are separated, it can be challenging for managers to assign tasks and monitor their progress and productivity. The key to this is an open line of communication.
As managers, you should set expectations on what’s going to happen once they enter a new work model. To inform them of these changes, it would be better to set a standard medium of communication. You can set emails for new policies and updates and choose instant messaging for quick questions.
Regularize weekly meetings
Since the hybrid workforce is working with greater flexibility and more time on their hands, setting regular weekly meetings or catch-ups would make the working environment more structured.
A scheduled or regular meeting that is part of their week would give them a routine to follow and increase their focus and productivity. Regular meetings can also address opportunities and other work-related issues that employees are struggling with.
The new workforce is the hybrid workforce
The pandemic has created an exceptional opportunity for businesses to recognize the realities of life and integrate them to work. Undeniably, work and life are inseparable.
Living in the post-pandemic era offers new ways to do work and make things better for both employees and employers. This is the perfect chance to create unique and refreshing working conditions for the post-pandemic workforce.
If you have other hybrid management strategies, feel free to continue practicing them but don’t be afraid to tweak things and follow the tips we’ve mentioned above.
