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3 Hybrid Work Challenges & How To Overcome Them

Tuesday October 8, 2024

Employee working on a laptop in a hybrid workplace surrounded by office plants

Hybrid work is a common work arrangement. In fact, according to WFHResearch, of employees who can work from home, hybrid work arrangements are the most common.

Employees are increasingly desirous of virtual work arrangements. However, employees want more remote days and fewer onsite days than employers currently offer.

There are several reasons why employers might be more reluctant to offer hybrid work. For instance, there are several challenges to adopting hybrid work arrangements.

Here’s an overview of some of those challenges, and how to overcome them.

Why Should Leaders Consider Hybrid Work Arrangements?

Hybrid work attempts to combine the best elements of remote and in-person work by allowing employees to work some days in-office and some days from home.

Research shows that hybrid work, when implemented effectively, can increase retention without damaging productivity. Furthermore, it has the potential to improve job satisfaction.

 

According to Stanford Economist and Teamraderie Advisor Nick Bloom, the implementation of work arrangements impacts productivity more than the arrangements themselves.

The degree to which virtual work depends greatly on:

  • The type of work
  • Management styles
  • Employee preferences
  • The tools used

Ultimately, it’s vital for leaders to recognize that simply taking an in-person business model and transferring it to a virtual setting isn’t likely to work.

Hybrid work comes with multiple challenges, and maximizing its value requires a proactive approach to addressing them.

3 Hybrid Work Challenges

1. Scheduling Effectively

The Harvard Business Review (HBR) notes that leaders must be strategic about when employees come into work. For example, if team members come into work for meetings and individual work, their workspace might not be optimized for hybrid work.

HBR recommends that organizations utilize office spaces for building culture and facilitating face-to-face interactions between employees.

How to Organize Hybrid Schedules

There are multiple ways to organize schedules for a hybrid team. These include:

  • At-will: Employees choose when to come in and when to stay home. No specific schedule is in place. This is a common choice due to its simplicity but it also can be challenging since there’s no way to know who is coming on any specific day.
  • Manager-scheduled: Managers choose when the hybrid team comes in and when they stay home. This can create better levels of collaboration and productivity since the manager can strategically determine what days the team should come into the office to collaborate.
  • Split-week: The company decides what days a team comes in. Some teams might come in on Tuesdays to work together while others might come in on Thursdays. This offers extra planning and knowledge of who will be in the office at any one time.
  • Mixed: Some choose a mix of the other methods. A group might be scheduled by a manager, while others come on specific days, and some choose when to visit the office. This offers a mix of planning, choice, and flexibility but may be challenging to implement.

It’s important for leaders to make the decision of which method works best for their individual team. Different scheduling systems might work better for different teams based on the existing culture, the nature of the work, and how much collaboration is required.

To maximize your in-office days, however, it’s a good idea to consider the following factors when creating the schedule:

  • Which tasks would be made easier by working in-office
  • Which tasks employees can complete from home
  • Which team members’ in-office schedules overlap, and which team members’ schedules should overlap
  • Which times of day employees feel most motivated

Consider surveying your team to determine their individual preferences and take them into consideration.

2. Making Hybrid Work Inclusive

It’s critical to create a hybrid team that’s inclusive for everyone—particularly if you’re adapting an existing in-person culture to a hybrid environment.

According to HBR, managers must actively manage differences in power driven by “hybridity positioning” and “hybridity competence”.

  • Hybridity positioning: How an employee’s physical location in a hybrid work model impacts access to resources and visibility to those in power, potentially creating advantages for office-based workers.
  • Hybridity competence: The ability to effectively navigate between in-office and virtual settings, successfully interacting and collaborating with colleagues in-person and remotely and utilizing the required tools and technology.

Based on information from the Wall Street Journal, the best way to have a successful hybrid team is by understanding how each employee benefits from this kind of workplace. However, it’s also essential to be on the lookout for the struggles hybrid work can create for each person.

As you’re developing your hybrid culture, it’s vital to ensure there’s open communication between you and your employees.

Ask how your team is finding their work environment, whether they need any help, and if they’re unhappy with any element of their work arrangement.

This openness of communication is vital to ensuring your employees feel heard and appreciated, which is critical to any culture, regardless of modality.

3. Integrating New Hires

Over the last few years, employers have become more open to hiring employees who wish to work on a remote basis.

However, it’s important to consider how to put these employees on the same footing as those who might onboard in a physical office.

Overcoming this challenge with a hybrid team can take a little work.

Make sure all employees are online quickly with access to the digital workspace and needed apps and tools. Without this, employees might feel cut off from the rest of the workplace. While you’re at it, be sure these workers have access to information about the company as well as an employee handbook.

It can be also useful to ensure a hybrid team has a sense of belonging from the beginning.

Creating a channel or board where all the new hire information is provided can help. This encourages the completion of tasks and can give workers a place to find feedback. Assigning a peer or mentor to answer questions and chat with can also be useful.

As teams shift from remote to hybrid work, it will be key for leaders to address the challenges of hybrid work and realize the exciting benefits this modality offers.

Develop Your Hybrid Work Culture With Teamraderie

Understanding how to integrate new hires on a hybrid team, being sensitive to employees’ situations, organizing hybrid schedules, and thinking about hybrid work in the right way will help you overcome many challenges when moving to this form of work.

An additional challenge of hybrid work can be feeling siloed. While in-person interactions help with this, the virtual format can still result in employees feeling isolated—especially if they don’t come into work on the same days as their direct team members.

If you’re hoping to enhance your team’s sense of belonging and organizational culture, it’s vital to give them opportunities to connect.

Teamraderie’s live, virtual experiences are the perfect solution. Designed to accommodate every work modality—remote, hybrid, and in-office—these expert-led workshops are an excellent way to enhance trust, psychological safety, team learning, and more.

Click here to check out our experience finder with over 60 experiences to choose from.

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