The term ‘hybrid working’ has been used often over the past 18 months, but in fact – it is not something new. Many of us have been working in this way for years. But as companies are adjusting to the new world of work post COVID-19 restrictions, the focus on hybrid working is not going away anytime soon. Pre-pandemic, hybrid working was more of a happy accident, now we are actively seeking to intentionally design hybrid working practices that work for all.
Hybrid working, quite simply, is a form of flexible working. There isn’t yet a universal definition, but in summary, it involves an arrangement where individuals, and teams, can work in a location that works for them – typically this involves part of the week at a workplace, such as the office, and part of the week working remotely, which could be from home. In a recent article in The Guardian, Alexandra Topping writes about recent research from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) that found that about half of managers expected staff to be in the office two to three days a week, while 48% of managers were scared of team members leaving their jobs if they could no longer work remotely.
In the last few months, we have read about many companies announcing publicly their new working policies. For some companies, that has meant different approaches such as Goldman Sachs that are sticking to the more common pre-pandemic model of full time in the office, whereas TUI are asking their employees to come in to the office one day a month at a minimum.
Regardless of your organisations approach, it can help to look at different working arrangements to get some ideas of options. In her piece ‘How To Do Hybrid Right’, Lynda Gratton brings in a further dimension of time, resulting in a simple 4 box grid:
- Constrained time and constrained location – this is your typical 9-5 in a workplace
- Constrained time and unconstrained location – this is working from a place to suit you, but within specified hours
- Unconstrained time and constrained location – this is working hours to suit you but from a specified location
- Unconstrained location and unconstrained time – this is working from a place that suits you at a time that suits you
This is a useful model to begin to consider what hybrid working could mean for your organisation. But to design a hybrid experience that delivers engagement, it must be considered from some different perspectives, which is where our ‘Three EX Design Lenses Model’ (Bridger and Gannaway) is helpful:
Clearly any kind of hybrid working arrangement needs to be considered through these three lenses:
- The work lens – whatever arrangement agreed, it has to be right for the not only what the work people do, but the way they do work as well. Clearly a bus driver needs to be in a specific location at specific times to fulfil the expectations of their role. And there are those roles which can be delivered remotely from a task perspective but are enhanced via collaborative working for example.
- The organisation lens – the working arrangement needs to work for the organisation as well. It needs to fit with the culture, the vision and the values of the company. There are those organisations who have always been 100% remote, this is part of their DNA. And other organisations where the opposite is true.
- The people lens – finally, the working arrangement needs to be right for the people that work there. Firstly, from an individual perspective, any working arrangement has to meet and fulfil needs, expectations and motivations. Some people love working remotely, others hate it. Clearly a one-size-fits-all approach, or policy will not work. And working arrangements need to work for the wider teams too.
In addition, whatever working arrangements are agreed, they need to be viewed as inclusive and fair, but let’s be clear – ‘fair’ does not mean treating everybody the same. So, while on the surface, hybrid working can feel like a simple concept, once you explore it further it could be more complex to implement in a way that works for your people and delivers engagement.
So what could a hybrid working approach look like in practice?
We are here to help get you started!
We will be running our ‘Hybrid by Design’ half-day workshop on Tuesday 28th September, 9.30-12.30 BST, where we’ll share with you a framework and tools, to help you design a hybrid working experience which delivers engagement. Find out more or sign up here to join us.
