How to Make Hybrid Work Actually Work?

Hybrid work is no longer just wishful thinking or a trend. Hybrid work is happening, and companies are finding ways to make it work for them and their people.

A Microsoft report revealed that 73% of employees wanted flexible remote working options to continue working in the future, while another survey revealed that about 40% of workers would consider quitting if there was no scope for flexible working in the organization.

Great Place To Work Institute conducted research and found out that three out of five fortune 500 executives believed that up to 25% of their workforce would be working remotely full-time post-pandemic.

What is Hybrid Work?

The Hybrid work model is a flexible model which is a combination of on-site and remote working methods. Despite embracing the hybrid work model, most organizations have only just started to think about the specifics of how to carry it out as a more permanent solution working for all roles that need not perform on-site.

The hybrid work culture is the tasteful combination of workplace systems, values, and behaviours, perfectly entwined between in-person and remote teams and impacts the overall employee experience. It is about how you bring the different ways people work together.

With hybrid working becoming the norm, the way companies define productivity has changed. It is now about – inclusivity of collaboration, learning and well-being to drive every employee’s career in the right direction, be it a frontline worker, new graduate or knowledge worker. And all this has to be done with flexibility that clearly defines when, where and how people work.

The Hybrid Work Paradox

Embracing flexibility, different work styles and a sense of trust can help navigate hybrid work’s complexity successfully. The Hybrid work culture has helped organizations improve drastically in these areas, but finding the right balance in this complexity has been the real challenge. Research has found that employees craved more in-person time with their colleagues than the employers assumed but were also keen on keeping the flexible working option open. 58% of the employees who needed more in-office time, needed it to achieve more focused work.

Challenges of hybrid work

Hybrid work has challenges- it takes effort to build successful relationships, and it also costs money, and to add to it, you need to be extremely mindful of your resource spending. If you are one of those companies who think these investments are prohibitive, then you might be better off with a model which is either fully in-person or fully remote.

Some of the common challenges of the hybrid work culture are:

1. Keeping the productivity curve going
2. Reduced social participation
3. Cybersecurity risks
4. Onboarding
5. Irregular work hours cause exhaustion

There is no doubt that hybrid work comes with its challenges, but it’s not all downbeat, and there are ways to make it work if you approach it and invest in it the right way to make it work.

How To Make Hybrid Work a Success?

To successfully implement hybrid work, in-person and remote employees must be given equal consideration, and employers need to work on setting up an arrangement that benefits all.

• Focus on being more employee-centric

Before hybrid work became the norm, people were used to a certain office hierarchy, where leaders had found their castles in an office setting. From being treated as the king/queen to embracing being just another face on the screen, hybrid work certainly turned around the work culture 360 degrees.

Companies that successfully implemented hybrid work were those willing to let go of controlled leadership and adopt a more modern, relaxed, open-to-suggestions, people-centric style.

In support of hybrid work culture, NVIDIA made a viral statement, “the project is the boss”, is up to the employees to decide how and when to complete the task if it is delivered as expected.

• Facilitating social interactions between employees

It’s hard to build a real connection with people who are not physically present with you, making it harder to empathise with them. This results in remote workers feeling like they are not being seen or appreciated for their real potential. How do you overcome this?

Hybrid work has certain communicative advantages of bringing people together for virtual conversations, from different locations and time zones working under different circumstances and wouldn’t typically connect. Leverage this communicative advantage to promote better relationships among employees.

To maintain fairness, solicit real-time employee feedback through surveys or other methods, and empower employees to speak boldly and directly with their managers, virtually or face to face.

• Rethink Talent Allocation

Reassessing your staffing and implementing necessary changes for a more efficient remote workforce is extremely important. Reassignment of the number of people in each role or function will help ease the hybrid work process. Matching the workforce with the right priorities can help spur productivity improvements in the hybrid work model.

• Creation of equity between all employees regardless of their work location

It is easy to overlook employees who aren’t physically present when compared to those who are. A good hybrid leader ensures that all employees are considered for projects and promotions and keeps track of all employees to ensure no one is left behind, recognizes the unfairness often felt by those employees whose roles don’t permit them to work from anywhere. Ensure on-site workers are given equal flexibility as their remote counterparts.

• Choose remote first tools and streamline the process

When choosing tools, systems and software based on cost savings, companies often sacrifice the ease of use. If you throw in remote teams, what would your stance be? Make sure you choose remote first tools to not lose on employee performance, engagement and retention. Choosing third-party tools for remote teams is important, like HR platforms for payroll, benefits and more, communication platforms and finance management platforms.

• Encourage remote working

While some employees thrive working solo all day, every day, other remote team members miss the camaraderie and easy collaboration that comes with the in-office experience. Help them overcome this disadvantage by encouraging and facilitating remote working sessions.

• Be more of a coach rather than a supervisor

Whether your team members are in a cubicle eight feet away or their home office 800 miles away, they need someone who clarifies direction, provides resources and offers recognition for doing great work.

Be someone who

• Helps team members be daily learners and stretch themselves to be their best
• Engages in two-way conversations that offer mutual benefit

When people see how invested you are in them and their growth, their trust, engagement and productivity can soar.

To sum it up

Learning how to manage the new hybrid workplace requires a rethinking of how work gets done, where and why.

If designed right, a hybrid model can fuel faster productivity, more creative innovation and better collaboration. To launch a hybrid model for your team, start small and choose one strategy to tackle at a time. Pick the idea that offers you the most significant return on investment for your remote staff, and then run with that.

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Rajkumar Shanmugam

Head of HR

Rajkumar Shanmugam is the Head of HR at ALP Consulting, bringing over 19 years of comprehensive HR leadership experience across India and international markets. His expertise spans talent acquisition, employee relations, performance management, compliance, and HR transformation. Rajkumar has a proven track record of driving people-centric initiatives, enhancing workplace culture, and aligning HR strategy with business goals. With extensive experience in US staffing operations and global mobility, he continues to lead organizational excellence through innovation and employee engagement.