For the past two years, firms have gone through numerous tests and trials to find the perfect work model for their employees. Simple reason: C-19! The arrival of every strain of the virus has altered the dynamics of corporate and had the HR department scratch their brains. Currently, every HR manager is brainstorming on how to limit productivity drop-offs and select the best work model to keep up with.
One thought that definitely strikes the HR team’s mind is moving toward a hybrid model. The flexibility it offers to employees makes it a worthwhile idea. But this model isn’t always successful since companies overlook the specifics and focus only on the big picture.
In this blog, I will highlight the challenges a hybrid model brings and how we at Ergode have dealt with them.
Things that Go Unnoticed
It’s all good to imagine that a hybrid model will keep employee productivity and wellbeing in check. However, the practical situation suggests that human resource professionals should address the challenges that arise before fully committing to this work model.
The team that is driving the workforce have constantly noticed many leakages in the hybrid plan. Such shortcomings occur due to an improperly drafted work model, resulting in an eventual shutdown!
Watered-down Engagement and Culture
Historically, the concept of office culture was born through office activities and rituals. At the time when offices were working at 100% capacity, the focus on employee’s wellness was extremely high in many organizations. They used to come together for events and celebratory occasions. Such gatherings fostered social connections, which led to the setting up of culture in a firm. The development of office culture stemmed from a simple objective – to engage diversity in the organization. It is common, even today, for people to communicate first with those who are similar to themselves, whether they belong to the same region, speak the same language, or have other striking similarities. Thus, HR focused on bridging the diversity gap by bringing everyone along.
Undoubtedly, a poorly constructed hybrid working model cannot guarantee such close interaction that is woven in the organizational culture. In such a working model, assembling the entire workforce together, even for team exercises or engagement programs is a daunting task. Even when employees stay continuously at home or even stay at the office partly, their attachment towards the firms gets blurry, and their entire day revolves around “log-in and log-outs.” Such situations are a great deal of stress for HRs to keep the work culture sewn together.
Misaligned Communication Shakes up the Trust
Working from the office barely led to any communication gaps. An individual working used to stay informed through team meetings or face-to-face interactions. But, a hybrid framework, with a lack of communication structure directly results in poor communication. The day employees work from home, they tend to lose track of important updates, or the ones working in the office overlook keeping them in the loop. Minor slip-ups like these severely impact fragile morale, and remote workers end up feeling isolated. On the other side of the coin, employees working remotely are often found to develop serious trust issues as their performance often gets neglected compared to their counterparts present at the workplace.
According to MIT, remote workers usually earn lower performance grades than their colleagues working in the office. It is solely due to poor communication that kills transparency and dilutes the working environment. Many managers believe that those who are physically present are more dedicated to their work than those working remotely.
This might not be the case with every firm, but for an HR manager, considering the hybrid method should consider personal bias and mistrust an alarming issue. As a result, firms face higher attrition rates and a constant churn of talent.
From the Cost Perspective
The conference rooms and hot desks are the prime decision-making places in the office. However, with the arrival of the hybrid model, many firms have faced the underutilization of office facilities. They notice the desks, projectors, and communal workspaces aren’t getting used to their maximum capacity. That is because the offices aren’t working at their full potential, and only 50% of the office gets occupied each day. Many firms consider hybrid a waste as the underutilized office space may save on electricity, but office rent and other expenses remain stationary. In several cases, firms reduce bonuses and benefits to cope with losses. Even allowance and benefits such as travel, are often kept on hold for employees working remotely. Indeed, this is a common practice, and it usually happens when firms undergo losses during pandemic situations.
Firms with inadequate resource planning and a lack of administrative management face such issues. And when a cost-related matter arises, firms often reject or regret using a hybrid model.
The Solution
In hybrid models, such problems are common because neither the HR staff nor the employees have dealt with such conditions in the past. Consequently, both of them remain unaware, and the HRs end up putting a hybrid model with no culture and career engagement plans.
The destructive pandemic taught me that more than the place, approach matters! Similar to others, I am also a sophomore getting started with hybrid models, but I can clearly say that the responsibility of making any working model successful lies in the hands of the human resource team who balances between employees and the work environment. If these two things are balanced, then the “type of working model” won’t be a big deal to decide. I have applied a similar ideology in Ergode and adopted a flexible approach to work.
My team and I began by detecting each employee’s health status, and concluded by implementing the hybrid model. Creating a culture of trust and improving communication were my main focus areas.
Workers heading back to work are basically bringing their own experiences of lockdown with them, such as childcare responsibilities and health concerns. Such situations for sure affect the mental and physical wellbeing of an employee. Staying in touch with them and helping them during their vulnerability is the first step to gaining their trust.
I understand the implementation might not be practical when half of the employees work from home. Nevertheless, we put technology to use and connect with each employee, we listened to their current problems and motivated them. Here, our HR team crafted engagement programs and employee counseling sessions weekly to maintain cordiality among employees. I saw trust as the end goal of these activities. Even working separately and meeting twice a week, the situation in the teams improved, and employees began to trust. The factor of trust brings out the best in employees, and they end up becoming more productive.
After culture, we looked into improving communication within the company. Daily team meetings and training sessions play a crucial role. When half of the team works from home, decision-making suffers. In most cases, a workforce in the office is by default given priority because they are seated right behind their managers. To eliminate this we introduced regular catch-ups with a tracking mechanism to map the progress of a project against the tasks of an individual. This way, the entire team, and manager will stay updated. We knew that employees would not build a tracker, or communicate daily. Hence, HR managers can conduct briefing sessions for team leaders where they can discuss bridging the communication gap. Narrowing the gap makes employees feel included in the routine and critical decisions. As an added bonus, transparency in the firm grows stronger every day.
As I discussed earlier, in such cases where communication becomes poor, and transparency blurs, biased behavior often arises. I give a huge deal of importance to whistleblowers, who step out and prove their involvement by reporting the malpractices happening. In a hybrid model, HR managers cannot be present everywhere to spot such practices, but an informed employee can make a difference!
Approach Matters!
These strategies might sound philosophical but in reality, they have proven to be highly practical. The fruits of their implementation may take time, but productivity is something that will arise quickly. Pandemic might be one factor behind the disruption and hindrance in working today, but the way I see it, it’s all about “approach.” Many firms like Facebook are running the hybrid model after six months of the pandemic, and I can bet its growth curve has never declined. It has transformed into Meta, built policies for a remote workforce, enhanced diversity in training and development opportunities, promoted wellness, and hired more talent for their hybrid model.
As far as Ergode is concerned, we maintain our focus on ‘Culture’ and ‘Communication,’ the two strongest pillars – that’s my approach!
What’s yours?
Cloverbites By Rupesh Sanghavi 
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