The COVID-19 crisis has caused significant changes to the working environment, with many businesses trying out remote work for the first time ever. Now, in early 2021, we’re seeing the “light at the end of the tunnel” due to the vaccination rollout. Many companies are asking some workers to come back to the office—but remote work still remains popular.
A workplace where some workers are remote and others are in the office is sometimes called a “hybrid workplace”. While a hybrid working model provides many benefits, it also has its challenges (namely, that not all employees are working the same way).
In hybrid environments, it’s more important than ever to invest in your team’s long-term success. If you have not already done so, now (not tomorrow) is the time to start getting involved in involving your team to boost performance and well-being.
Why Do Companies Choose Hybrid Working?
Near the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the discussion was all about remote work. Headlines questioned if “remote work is here to stay”, and speculated on what the “future of remote work” would look like.
As that future starts to take shape, we’re now seeing an increasing number of companies moving towards a hybrid model. A list compiled by Build Remote shows that out of 55 major companies who announced they’d incorporate remote work after the COVID crisis, 39 described their policy as “partial”, “hybrid”, or “optional”.
So why are so many companies choosing hybrid work over fully-remote? As it turns out, the effect remote work has on employees is complicated—really complicated. For every study saying remote workers are happier in their jobs, there’s another saying they’re more likely to feel disengaged or even quit altogether. Remote workers may report higher engagement and well-being, but also more worry, sadness, stress, and loneliness. What explains these contradictory trends?
The effects of remote work vary depending on many factors, including employees’ individual personalities. While introverts may thrive when working from home, extroverts may miss the extra social contact. Both remote work and the office have their pluses and minuses—although remote work might save time and money, it doesn’t provide as many opportunities for teambuilding and hands-on mentorship.
With hybrid working, companies can get the best of both worlds. Employees can choose whether to work from home or not, depending on where they feel most comfortable and productive. Hybrid working is also a useful way to ease the transition back to the office for as long as COVID-19 is still a threat.
But hybrid working also has its drawbacks. Having employees work from different places can cause confusion and even build resentment if you’re not careful. That’s why it’s crucial that managers of hybrid teams pay close attention to employee involvement.
What is Employee Involvement?
“Employee involvement” is an umbrella term that describes an employee’s level of involvement with his or her work, internal stakeholders, and external constituents. Involvement is a holistic philosophy for describing the employee-employer relationship and the employee’s overall attitude towards their job, which is why we prefer to use this term at Involved Talent.
Here are a few of the factors that go into employee involvement:
Empowerment
One important factor in employee involvement is empowerment. Empowered employees are more likely to be involved in your company, going the extra mile and showing up when they need to, because they have begun to internalize their job and are more intrinsically motivated. And empowered employees are more engaged: seven in ten employees rank empowerment as an important element of their engagement, while empowered employees showed engagement levels in the 79th percentile.
Communication
Communication is also key to employee involvement. Involved employees communicate well with their managers, peers, and subordinates. That communication is both horizontal and vertical—when management is transparent and seeks out employee opinions, this can also increase involvement. Employees who feel their voice is heard feel significantly more empowered to perform their best work.
Performance Management
Employee involvement also ties in with performance management. For employees to get more involved at the company, they need to clearly understand what is expected of them.Having open channels of communication allows for clarity and voice, which boosts empowerment and further increases involvement. A well-designed performance review process will put you on the right track.
Tips for Building Involved Teams in a Hybrid Workplace
Building involved teams is crucial for any business, especially in a hybrid work environment. This is because hybrid working brings up a few key concerns.
One concern is ensuring teams stay coordinated when some members are remote and others are in the office. You’ll want to be sure that multiple people aren’t accidentally working on the same things, wasting time and resources. Another is making sure remote team members and in-office team members are treated the same way. If executives are in the office, remote employees may feel pressure to come in. On the other hand, if executives push a remote-first mindset, this may dissuade people from expressing their concerns about remote work.
Fortunately, there are certain steps you can (and should) take to manage these concerns and build stronger teams in your hybrid workplace. Here are some points to consider:
Hire the Best People
In a hybrid environment, as in any work environment, the best way to make sure your teams “just work” is to hire the right people in the first place.
Even the strongest teams can be dragged down by a single member who doesn’t understand their responsibilities, doesn’t want to put in the effort, or has trouble cooperating with others. On the other hand, team members who are skilled or natural leaders can supercharge performance.
So how can you streamline your hiring process to make sure you’re finding these top performers? Ideally, your screening process should be data-driven, and should be testing for personality as well as ability and skills.
Measure and Invest in Employee Involvement
It’s impossible to create stronger teams unless you know how your teams are doing right now. In remote and hybrid environments, it can be particularly easy for employees to “slip through the cracks” as problems go overlooked. Periods of rapid change can lead to even more involvement problems. Uncertainty in the workplace results in a greater need for recognition and an increased risk of employee misconduct, according to Gartner research.
To stave off involvement challenges, you’ll need to be regularly monitoring the state of your workplace. Effective monitoring requires scientific, well-designed employee 360 and pulse surveys.
Understand How Teams Communicate
Communication is particularly important in hybrid work environments. Challenges can quickly arise when you have some employees communicating digitally from home and others in-person in the office. To make sure your messages are reaching all the right people, make sure you have the right tools and procedures in place.
The way employees communicate within an organization can be very complicated. You might be surprised to hear that information from just 4% of your employees can end up spreading to 70% of your company! These highly-connected employees are sometimes known as “internal influencers.”
A people analytics technique called Organizational Network Analysis (ONA), which we offer at Involved Talent, can help you understand how social networks work within your company. You can use ONA to understand how information flows, so you can make better decisions and ensure important announcements reach everyone.
Develop Great Leaders
Finally, strong leadership is important during any change management process, including the transition to hybrid work. With leadership development assessments, you can better understand and develop your own leadership skills, and pinpoint where you need to focus, right now, to boost critical outcomes. You can also use ONA and personality assessments to identify promising future leaders, either internally within your company or during an external hiring process.
Conclusion
As the COVID-19 crisis begins to abate, many companies are choosing to transition to hybrid work on a temporary or permanent basis. This leaves them perfectly positioned to take advantage of the benefits of this kind of work. However, since hybrid working also presents certain challenges, building teams of united, involved employees is an increasingly urgent priority that each leader must attend to—now. Employee involvement may just be one of the most important trends to focus on this year.