Staying connected
A sense of connection between employees is key for organisations that want to foster innovation and creativity as they develop and grow.
But hybrid working makes it more difficult to stay connected. Employees who work from home tend to focus more on their own work and team, as there is less opportunity for contact with other teams and building networks within the organisation.
“It’s good to talk to each other about that sense of connection and what it means to you, your team and the organisation. Then you can start making agreements and set aside time specifically for building and maintaining relationships. It’s also important to mark and celebrate successes in this area. Because that’s how you make ‘staying connected’ part of everyone’s daily work, even in a hybrid organisation.”
Ensuring psychological safety
Psychological safety, Gonny Vink explains, means that people feel free to speak up, and to ask for and give feedback, and that they are able to learn and develop together.
In a hybrid working environment, this requires more attention. Not everyone finds it easy to speak up during an online meeting, for instance. And during hybrid meetings, employees working remotely miss a lot of non-verbal cues, which can lead to awkward situations. Moreover, some people can drop off the radar if they are working from home a lot, or they can develop anxiety about going back to the office.
According to Gonny, it is important to talk to each other about how to create a safe environment in which everyone is equal, no matter where they are.
The role of the supervisor
It is important that supervisors know how to harness digital tools for hybrid working. They must also be able to create a sense of trust, ownership and shared responsibility, and they have to ensure that employees are not overburdened.
Working from home during the pandemic, most of us decided to go full throttle, and now employees indicate that they are unable to get their work done at the office. But Gonny sees things differently: “Those meetings and conversations you have at the office also contribute to productivity, but more so at the collective than at the individual level. Supervisors would do well to keep this in mind and focus not just on productivity but also on that collective sense of commitment so that employees don’t get burned out.”
Clearly, there is plenty left to learn. And the more we learn, the better we will be able to maximise the benefits of hybrid working.