5 Hybrid work approaches to curb productivity & collaboration challenges

Hybrid work appeared as a light at the end of the tunnel when organizations were in a dilemma to thrive in work from home models. Irrespective of all the obstacles, the companies chose to survive with hybrid model best practices. Where some of the organizations were not even aware of the hybrid workforce culture, many businesses took advantage of the situation and progressed vigorously.   

Hybrid work is here to stay

The workspace model fostered by hybrid culture will sustain for long and undoubtedly with a much stronger pace. The real question is, will workplaces ever be back to the type of capacity and work principles that they once enjoyed when a hybrid workforce was not a thing?

Industries might have seen a surge in workforce productivity while saving resources on that last seen office space; it has become evident that every business had to taste the perks of hybrid work culture and that too will continue to remain.

It is a hard pill to swallow for numerous businesses but they need to embrace the fact that “‘stick with it until and unless things get back to normal” or make it a part of your new normal. Choosing the hybrid work as a part of your organizational strategy might not be the plan but how to implement it across for a longer period must be!

Not a single business had figured it all out when hybrid work started. Many of them just decided to go with the motion and got stuck in an unprepared, fragmented, disengaged, and non-productive hybrid culture. 

67% of employees want more in-person work or collaboration post-pandemic (Source). This means remote workers must have experienced difficulties in their regular working of hybrid culture or might have got the benefits they had never experienced in their regular job. 

On top of that, transforming a company’s work culture is tough, to say the least, and will involve a learning curve. However, implementing these changes now will leave the organization more agile and able to take on challenges such as.

• Maintaining the productivity of onsite and offsite workers
• Ability to onboard and retain new talent 
• Empathizing with isolated and disengaged remote workers
• Streamlining collaboration between departments segregated due to hybridity

Supervisors must take many things into account when deciding how to handle these certain challenges while covering aspects of productivity and collaboration in hybrid work. Below are the five areas your service industry company can focus on to make the transition to a hybrid workplace much easier. 

5 strategies to focus on for overcoming productivity and collaboration challenges

1. Collect data focusing on the sense of improvements

Organizations must reframe network-building from a passive to a proactive approach to encourage and reward managers while seeking to create a culture where social support thrives. To enable that kind of culture, it is necessary that the leaders empathize with the unique needs of each group in their organization and foster hybrid work model best practices like employee monitoring software to bring out the sense of improvement in employees’ performances.

2. Focus on integrative solutions

Every business needs a plan that encompasses tools, policies, and technology that emphasize solving critical questions such as how are people doing remotely or how often they need support in order to add value to their work routine. This will help to empower people in regard to extreme flexibility and guidance. Considering how to equip all workers with the tools they would need whether they’re working from home, in the office, or on the go including a mix of collaboration and focus areas to ensure all voices are heard and every task is productively done.

3. Measure output not activity

It won’t be easy, but it does not have to be tougher either. Only if organizational leaders understand the base of how hybrid culture works, many can achieve results regardless of geographical and work style barriers. One of the effective hybrid work model best practices would be to measure the employee work output instead of monitoring them unnecessarily. 

This even means creating a culture where breaks are encouraged and employee workload can be reduced. Measuring all workers’ outcomes will increase the autonomy, confidence, and overall productivity of the employees. This output can be attained by communicating the expected level of results to the employees and holding them accountable when they do not meet those levels.

4. Flexibility and virtually provided safe spaces

Teams are more siloed in the digital world and thanks to the modern era of working that has added to the fragmented ecosystem. Hybrid work may help revive networking and teamwork if businesses today foster a workplace where employees feel more comfortable and connected. Organizational leaders have to build a context of culture and strategy that is particularly sensitive to coordination in all places and accentuates rather than depletes productivity. When employees will fluidly align with one another, they will become more goal-oriented and efficient.

Building a lot of virtual team check-ins can be done so people don’t feel isolated and have a chance to convey their ideas without hesitation. Remote collaboration tools can help to achieve this goal. 

5. Managers need the proactive assistance

While hybrid work has the potential to bolster productivity, they need strategies to be designed with a level of intentionality that is not practiced in traditional work systems otherwise. It even goes to the extent where leaders need to implement hybrid work model best practices that focus on being empathic and listening to individual needs while also being creative in developing solutions. Organizations should identify frontline leaders while encouraging them in innovating and experimenting on their own with new tools, routines, and approaches to managing hybrid teams. 

The shifting of this workforce dynamic is an opportunity for how traditional corporate works. By humanizing management in hybrid culture, it will transfer the company’s burdens to everyone’s shoulders equally. 

Understanding the lines between manager and employee will create more of a team dynamic. Tools like employee tracking software help to identify the loopholes in employee productivity and the reasons for lack of engagement. Managers or supervisors will easily detect it through the productivity tracking software and reduce pressure in managing the teams in hybrid work.

Summing up

To be liberated from the physical silos of fragmented office spaces in hybrid work,  leaders must take the leap to unlock a more collaborative culture. For achieving efficacy in communication, collaboration, and productivity, organizations must make investments in digital infrastructure to get the most value. The overall transformation requires close cooperation between largely isolated engineering and business units and investment in smart hybrid workspaces, digital information systems, and tools like employee productivity tracking platforms to make hybrid work a great success.