The ‘how to’ of hybrid work

18.6.22

Almost half of employees are now opting to work mostly from home and ‘sometimes’ from their usual place of work. So-called ‘hybrid working’, it’s more flexible than traditional patterns of working and can boost productivity, team wellbeing and work-life balance. But it can be tricky to get right. To make sure everyone has a great experience, including your clients, digital platforms have to effectively support the team’s coordination, leadership, communication, and client outreach.

At asabell, we’ve been successfully hybrid working for a while, so we’ve decided to take a closer look at how to make sure hybrid works. Here are some of our top tips.

1. Prioritise employee wellbeing
   A way of working that’s good for your clients and your people, is good for your productivity. Sitting down with the team and discussing how people and clients like to work, and the technologies that can best support them, is one of the most effective ways to make sure you’re doing hybrid ‘right’. And it’s important to look at the perspective of each department. Where one might prioritise client communication, another might have very specific data requirements – each team is best placed to know what they need.
   
2. Set-up training and mentoring
   One of the stumbling blocks of hybrid work is that it can become impersonal, leaving new starters, from graduates to senior leadership, without the hands-on experience that was key to learning a new job role. Making sure you have a robust training programme in place, and that every new employee is allocated a mentor, is a great way to overcome this and make sure people are initiated into the team. (A new-starter lunch is a great excuse for a get-together, too!)
   
3. Get your data secure
   No matter what industry you work in, your data is valuable. Don’t skimp out when it comes to security. Make sure you choose a security programme or provider that will keep you and your clients secure.
   
4. Invest in your connectivity and IT
   Working apart means we rely on digital technology to keep us together. As with security, it’s important to invest up-front in a platform that will provide everything your team(s) need. And it should be simple, seamless and secure for both clients and employees – otherwise it could cause some serious setbacks further down the line. Bonus points if you choose something that offers quick fixes when things go wrong – it’ll save you from frustrated team members and disgruntled clients as well as helping maintain your productivity.
   
5. Revisit team leadership
   Similar to training and mentoring, team leadership is a whole new ball game in the hybrid workplace. Managers who were fantastic in their roles for many years previously might find it hard to find their footing in a hybrid space. Equally, there are plenty of employees who are finding it tough to not have a physical support network around them during their workday. Thinking about how leadership, support and teambuilding will work should happen early in your hybrid journey so there’s a clear structure in place to make sure everyone’s happy with their work-from-home set-up and to ensure a seamless, high-quality experience for clients, no matter where their point of contact is working from.
   
6. Have a quiet, private space to work
   Parents, flat-shares, house-by-a-building-site, my partner’s working shifts, the girl next door’s a rock musician – we hear you! If you’re one of those (many) people still wearing noise-cancelling headphones and working from a kitchen bench, dining-room chair or on an ironing board in the cupboard, sorry. At least you don’t have to listen to Dave’s radio choice all day now though, right!?

So, there you have it! Our top tips for making hybrid work. To find out more about how we make sure we produce the best work, while also remaining responsive and accessible to our clients, please get in touch.