How to implement a hybrid workplace: six important areas

Is it enough to agree on two fixed days working from home and invest in new headsets? No. A hybrid workplace that works needs you to dig deeper. Here are the six areas you should have under control.

Most organisations have woken up to the potential of a more flexible workplace, one that combines the focus of working from home with the presence and creativity of being together in person. But let’s be honest: working away from the office isn’t all good for everyone. Too much distance and isolation wears people down and can end in stress and burnout. So how do you go about designing your hybrid workplace? In our experience, it takes a well-thought-out strategy and investment in building skills among both leaders and employees.

1. Start by understanding what makes a hybrid workplace complex

Working together in a hybrid way lets you bring together the best of both worlds: flexibility, focus and time for deep work when you work at a distance, and creativity and closeness when you work together in person. Hybrid is about both where we work and when we work. Some tasks are best done synchronously, with everyone present at the same time. Others, such as analysis or demanding writing that needs concentration, work fine asynchronously, whenever it suits each person. Get some outside inspiration as you prepare: we give talks and run workshops for HR, leaders and employees ourselves.

2. Set a clear framework for hybrid work

Workplaces can differ a great deal in their hybrid options. It can even vary from team to team, depending on the type of work, customer contact and how time-critical it is. Map the types of role and pick out the key roles and tasks: what drives productivity and creativity in your organisation? Where and when do people need to be physically present, and when do place and time matter less? Also consider what builds strong team spirit and a sense of belonging: what gives people energy, when do they need focus time, and how do you coordinate best? Working from home usually makes room for deep work, while meeting in person encourages creativity and belonging.

3. Train your leaders in hybrid leadership

Many leaders have experience of leading virtually from periods when the whole team worked from home. But leading a hybrid team and moving between the physical and the virtual is no less complex: some employees are often in the office, others mostly at home. It takes deliberate focus to build strong team spirit in hybrid teams, and to make sure people who are in the office less often are judged fairly. Leaders have to learn to move between the two worlds and manage people in new ways, including having lots of small, informal interactions online with those who are rarely in the office.

4. Bring everyone along

Hybrid work gives each person more flexibility, but employees feel very differently about it: some value working from home highly, others ask why everyone doesn’t just go back to the office full time. Communicate clearly, and involve employees. Make it clear that this is a transformation you’ll develop and adjust along the way, and keep everyone widely informed, so they understand how the hybrid options make a positive difference.

5. Make the office attractive, and invest in hybrid technology

When employees have the flexibility to work from home, the organisation gets a chance to rethink the office. How do you encourage creativity when you’re together? How do you make it especially attractive to be in the office? And how do the people in the office and the people at home meet in a hybrid setting? If the technology and meeting rooms aren’t set up for it, you may need to ask everyone to join meetings from their own computer for a transition period, but experience shows that doesn’t work in the long run. The employees who come in want to be there together. Fortunately, the cost of fitting out proper hybrid meeting rooms is falling steadily.

6. Build hybrid meeting skills

Management should set a clear framework for what’s expected in meetings. Is it fine not to turn your camera on, or is it reasonable to have a policy that you’re always camera-ready when you work from home? Both leaders and employees need to learn to facilitate hybrid meetings: it’s only when five people are sitting in the meeting room and two are joining online that virtual collaboration is really put to the test. On top of that, everyone needs to be able to judge which setup suits which task, if hybrid work is going to be effective.

Where to go from here

The hybrid workplace is still new territory for many, and you’ll no doubt have to learn and keep building as you go. The good news is that there’s solid experience to draw on. Also read the guide What is hybrid leadership? and the article Hybrid workplace: the three most important tasks for leaders and HR.

Do you need inspiration or a sounding board for your strategy? We’d be very happy to talk. See the talk Hybrid Leadership 2.0, or get in touch.