Hybrid work isn’t perfect, but SCIENCE can help us improve it
A hybrid work arrangement means employees divide work time between the office and home.
Remote work versus in the office
In-office work promotesstructure and transparency, which may increase trust between management and workers. Developing an organizational culture happens naturally. Casual office conversations – a worker walking down the hall for a quick and unscheduled chat with a colleague, for instance – can lead to knowledge-sharing and collaborative problem-solving. That’s difficult to replicate in a virtual environment, which often relies on advance scheduling for online meetings – although that’s still feasible with enough planning and communication.
But if you look at different metrics, in-office work loses out to working from home.My recent researchdiscovered remote workers report more productivity and enjoy working from home because of the flexibility, the ability to wear casual clothes, and the shortened or nonexistent commute time. Remote work also saves money. There is a significant cost savings for office space, one of the largestbudget line items for organizations.
Hybrid arrangements attempt to combine the best of both worlds.
It’s not perfect
It’s true that hybrid work faces many of the same obstacles of face-to-face work. Poor planning and communication, ineffective or unnecessary meetings and confusion about task responsibilities happen remotely as well as in-person.
Perhaps the largest issue when working at home:technology and security concerns. Home networks, an easier target for cyberthreats, are typically more vulnerable than office networks. Remote workers are also more likely to share computers with someone else outside of their organization. Hybrid organizations must invest upfront to work through these complicated and often expensive issues.
With hybrid work, managers cannot see the work taking place. That means they must measure employee performance based on outcomes withclear performance metricsrather than the traditional focus on employee behavior.
Another potential pitfall: Fault lines can develop within hybrid teams – that is, misunderstandings or miscommunication between those in the office and those at home. These two groups may start to divide, potentially leading totension and conflicts between them– an us-versus-them scenario.
Establishing a hybrid environment
Numerous recommendations exist on the best wayto develop a hybrid model. Here are a few of the best ideas.
Meeting too often or with little purpose – that is, meeting for the sake of meeting –leads to fatigue and burnout. Not everyone needs to be at every meeting, yet finesse from management is required to make sure no one feels left out. Andmeeting-free dayscan help with productivity and allow employees a block of uninterrupted time to focus on complex projects.
Listening to employees iscriticalto making sure the hybrid environment is working.Continually seeking feedback, through one-on-one conversations, focus groups or human resources surveys, is important too. So is recognizing and rewarding employees with in-person or virtual kudos for their achievements.Performance incentives, such as financial rewards or tokens of appreciation including food delivery, help develop a supportive culture that increases employee commitment.
Finally: Both managers and employees must be transparent in their communication and understanding of hybrid plans. Policies must be in place to define what tasks happen in the office and remotely.Access to reliable communicationsis essential, particularly for remote work. All employees must receive the same information at the same time, and in a timely manner. After all, whether in the office or online, workers don’t want to feel they’re the last to know.
Written byAlanah Mitchell, Associate Professor and Chair of Information Management and Business Analytics,Drake University
This article is republished fromThe Conversationunder a Creative Commons license. Read theoriginal article.
Story byThe Conversation
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