Hybrid is not about if, but how: 7 lifelines for HRists
According to Pew Research, the “hybrid” that combines working in the office and from home is currently the most popular form of work model. And it probably holds the future of the entire labor market, whether we like it or not. And no wonder. This flexible system allows part of the week to work from home-office, thus saving time for the journey to work, but at the same time it supports meetings and strengthening of the team, since employees physically come to the office for part of the week.
This hybrid isn’t just for the young
If you anxiously resist the hybrid work model, you and yourself will pay the price. You will not only pit employees against each other, but you will also discourage a number of applicants, for whom it is key and nowadays even self-evident. And it is far from just the young generation. Parents with children or the elderly also prefer the hybrid. And the legislation is gradually going against it. A few days ago, the government approved an amendment to the Labor Code, according to which – if approved by parliament and the president – parents caring for a child under the age of nine will have the right to request remote work. Although the employer will not have to comply with them, he will have to justify his refusal in writing.
At the same time, however, it needs to be emphasized that mastering the hybrid model can be more challenging for HR professionals than the classic management of people who are exclusively in the office or operate in remote mode (exclusively remote work). Therefore, let’s take a look at what it is good not to underestimate and what areas to focus on so that the hybrid can run smoothly in your company as well.
👉 1) Set ground rules, follow them and remind them
Initially, but also during the functioning of the hybrid model, it is important to remind the basic principles and rules. Working from home is not really a vacation or a sick day. Therefore, we should not go shopping or go on a trip during it. We should do approximately the same amount of work in the office and at home (though not necessarily of the same kind – some tasks are suitable for at home, others for time spent with the team).
At the same time, everyone needs to know what is expected of them – so set personal expectations. Talk to your employees about their roles and responsibilities, the processes and scope of work performed, the expected quality of their outputs, working hours, deadlines and availability for meetings. Don’t assume employees already know everything – be thorough and ask them if there’s any confusion that needs to be cleared up. Not listening enough to your people is one of the most common mistakes managers make.
So the basis is the elementary rules that everyone follows. This strengthens a clear, simple and functioning system that every employee can rely on.
👉 2) Communicate effectively. The fax is not the fault
The need for high-quality and flexible communication with the hybrid model is rising sharply. Teach employees to communicate effectively: do you just need to tell a colleague something or ask a simple question? Choose a work chat (eg Slack, Teams, Whatsapp) or send an email. On the other hand, do you want to discuss a more complex problem that requires explanation? Don’t waste time writing an essay in an e-mail, but record a colleague’s voice or call him directly. In 5 minutes the problem can be solved.
It is also not necessary to solve everything with an online meeting, sometimes a quick phone call is enough (did you know that you can make a call with more than two people? Just add another participant to the so-called conference call after the start of the call on the display). Also consider who needs to be in the online meetings. I’ve had dozens of meetings where many people didn’t say a word and it would have been plenty if they’d read the minutes. Don’t waste your time or that of your colleagues.
In short and well: teach your colleagues to consider which channel is most effective for a given problem, information or advice. At the same time, don’t drown in a sea of channels. Within the company, for example, you should agree on the smallest possible number of applications where you chat. Do you work with colleagues via Whatsapp, Messenger, Instagram chat, iMessage, Telegram and Slack? Multiple channels for one type of communication is harmful, so use one or at most two chat platforms for effective fast connection.
👉 3) Transparency, cooperation and respect for others
Everyone should also know from what time until what time colleagues working from home can be reached. It doesn’t have to be exact to the minute, but some basic framework is important. When this information is not open and transparent, it may happen that a colleague does not call you with a quick question, because he does not know whether you are still working or have already “fallen”. And therefore solving the given task may take until the next week.
🐘 Sloneek Tip: You can also find the great and clear User Working Time functionality in our Sloneek HR system.
On the other hand, we should respect that colleagues working from home concentrate and solve tasks that they cannot concentrate on in a team. Therefore, we should not call with every little thing, but only when it is really necessary. But this should also apply in the office.
👉 4) Trust. And check sometimes
If you don’t trust your employees and you don’t have a company culture based on trust, then it’s better not to start any hybrid model, because it would end up stressing you and your employees. The hybrid model is based on the principle of transferring part of the responsibility to the workers themselves. While working from home, there is no boss behind them and the only watchdog is their own self-discipline. Your relationship with your employees should be based on mutual trust. Employees should see you as a coach—someone who wants to help them function successfully and work effectively—not as an adversary.
However, as they say: Trust, but verify. There should be a healthy balance between trust and occasional “checking”. Spyware and control programs have long since run out of business, so get rid of them right away, otherwise you will become a micromanager on the best way to death. However, what is particularly important when working from home is monitoring – recording time-tracking and individual specific tasks. It doesn’t have to be the exact minutes, but the employee, personnel manager and boss should have a general overview of what the given person is able to accomplish or not accomplish during the working day. If a person doesn’t work as well as he should, it usually shows right there.
👉 5) Maintain formation and watch out for “For Every Dog a Different Master.”
During the hybrid model, it is very important to align as a team. If a third of colleagues come to the office on Monday and Tuesday, another on Wednesday, and the last third on Thursday and Friday, the probability that the teams will meet is close to zero. The hybrid working mode must be set up in such a way that it does not threaten the functioning of the company and enables healthy working relationships, which meeting exclusively online is difficult to replace.
I recommend setting fixed working days in the office and fixed work from home. This will keep the whole team in formation and united – on the same days they will meet in the office and on the same days everyone will be at home. Especially in medium-sized and smaller companies, it is important that everyone in the office meets each other. When it is “every dog in a different village”, it can happen that you find yourself almost alone in the office. This immediately raises the question of why go there at all if you don’t meet the team. This also affects collective motivation, and as a result, the team can gradually begin to stagnate, and nobody wants that.
With proper coordination, HR personnel also have no worries. Colleagues who come whenever they want, have become accustomed to HR being in the office every time they are there, so they expect HR to be available whenever they need them. By dividing the working week in a fixed way, you will also make it easier for the personnel department.
👉 6) Digitize the agent’s HR and transfer it completely online
At the end of the previous point, I touched on situations where the HR department works partly online and offline – not only in terms of the functioning of the HR professionals themselves, but the complete HR agenda. However, this is not an ideal situation for effective work. By combining papers, forms or files on one side and a digitized personnel agenda on the other, you can make your life extremely complicated. Of course, it is convenient for employees to deal with you online when they are online and offline when they arrive at the office. But it doesn’t make your job any easier, because you defacto have to maintain two agendas for both cases.
Therefore, think first of all about the effective functioning of the entire HR agenda – if you fully digitize it, nobody will lose anything. Colleagues are already used to dealing with forms, reports, attendance or travel records online with you from home, and this may also be the case when they come to the office. You will have time to focus on more important things, such as improving digitized HR or perhaps competency models, and you can see colleagues for lunch, meetings or urgent situations without someone constantly knocking on your office door with something that can be solved online.
👉 7) Provide the right tools and technologies
Most telecommuting can be done with a computer, internet access and a phone. However, sometimes there are other important tools, channels and resources without which effective work can hardly be done. We have already discussed communication platforms and time tracking tools. But it shouldn’t end there. It must also follow:
- Digitized absences (and possibly also their approval)
- Corporate structure
- Planning work contingencies
- Online Trust Box
- 360° assessment
- Corporate notice board
- Employee surveys
In short, everything we know offline must run and function fully online. Working from home should not limit employees in any way compared to working from the office – for example, by missing access to the work disk or to other tables, tools or folders and programs. Tools for digital video conferences such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet are a matter of course. For some workers, it is also necessary to think about a small printer, an account at the local copy center or postal and office supplies.
Don’t be on the branch. So actually be
After reading my tips, you might be a little giddy and think that hybrid mode might be a nice science. I would like to allay your concerns. I think if you stick to the given and simple steps and regularly collect feedback from your colleagues, you are at least half won. The hybrid work model is already becoming a common and used mode today, which will become even more widespread with the arrival of other young generations on the labor market. Resisting it or rejecting it is therefore a battle with windmills.
Of course, there are operations where it is impossible to operate in this way. A tram driver, a baker or a nurse usually cannot work from home for logical reasons, but wherever it is possible, employees and applicants will expect or even demand it. If your company stubbornly rejects flexible work models even where there are no logical obstacles for them, it may gradually lose a number of existing and potential employees. And in today’s overheated job market, this is a really stubborn and unnecessary risk and cutting a branch from under one’s own ass.
