Hybrid working is here to stay. Eighty-seven percent of employees in 2023 said they wanted to work remotely most of the time, and 65% of job searches on LinkedIn are for remote-only jobs. While hybrid work can yield higher productivity, employee well-being, and increased runway and profitability, many business leaders are concerned about maintaining a healthy company culture when staff and collaborators spend less time in person.
Hybrid work poses challenges, including overcoming roadblocks to communication and collaboration, retooling productivity management, and ensuring engagement and equity.
Here are seven tips for building a successful hybrid work culture around your company’s shared strategic mission, beliefs, values, and attitudes.
1. Emphasize Outcomes, Not Hours
Hiring the best talent, no matter where they live, is a huge benefit of a hybrid model—employees appreciate not having to relocate while working around family and other commitments. However, when working across time zones, you must redefine business office hours, accounting for when workers can reasonably be online for collaborative work.
While presenteeism doesn’t equal productivity, managers play an essential role: Gallup notes that management accounts for 70% of the variance in employee engagement. Managers must set tasks and objectives with clear deadlines, ask questions about progress, be available to offer real-time guidance during “in-office” periods and measure results through clear performance evaluations and feedback protocols.
2. Communication, Communication, Communication!
In the hybrid workplace, communication channels must always be open so team members can easily stay in touch and collaborate as needed. Leaders must communicate their mission and objectives and a clear path to achieving them to keep workers engaged. They must also confer responsibility and autonomy so workers have a sense of ownership and accountability, empowering them to collaborate effectively and solve problems creatively.
Communication goes both ways. Leaders must be open to feedback from their team members when something isn’t working and flexible about trialing new tools and methodologies, restructuring roles and responsibilities to ensure everyone feels valued, motivated, and effective.
Virtual meetings and events foster team cohesion through communication, building trust and camaraderie. Inviting feedback in one-on-ones and check-ins with employees about workload is important to both monitor how your hybrid model is working and keep morale high.
3. Provide Tools That Work
The rights tools and technologies are essential in providing a seamless workspace that supports in-person and remote work. Video chat and instant messaging tools like Zoom, Slack, and Discord are already fixtures of the virtual office environment but remote teams might need support to access them effectively—best-in-class tools are no use if your team’s home WiFi is lagging. Offering desks or offices at a coworking space with lightning-fast internet in desirable neighborhoods is a great way to bridge this gap.
4. Establish Clear Goals And Continuously Assess Achievements
In hybrid work, goals must be set and assessed continuously rather than via annual performance reviews. A good manager excels at setting objectives, delegating responsibilities, ensuring open communication, and reporting feedback to employees to get the best from each team member without sacrificing mental and physical well-being—all of which can be trickier when workers are remote.
There are several ways to gather critical data to do this well without intrusive key-stroke loggers or screen monitoring. Team members can track their hours spent on various tasks via a project management dashboards for 24/7 transparency around active tasks so managers can identify inefficiencies without meeting online or in person. If something isn’t working, leaders must be open to reviewing and redefining that process quickly. Team to-do lists and stand-ups are simple, effective tools to keep everyone aligned and work moving forward.
5. Recognize And Reward Team Members
People want to feel seen and appreciated. Seventy-eight percent of employees in a recent study said they would work harder if better recognized. A combination of praise given one-on-one and in a team environment, plus promotion and performance-based bonuses or rewards, will help keep teams on-task and motivated to achieve their goals for success.
This can be even more effective when recognition comes from peers rather than management. In addition to company policy, consider a scheme where team members can award gift cards to colleagues they appreciate the most over the year.
6. Make Time To Connect In Person
It’s easier to communicate in person than via a screen, so it’s important to prioritize engaging with team members in person as regularly as possible. Creating hot desking or coworking opportunities allows you to bring together diverse groups of individuals and cross-team office workers on a realistic schedule for your company structure and location. Quarterly team-building activities and social events are essential for cohesion and engagement and must be equitable. If members of your team can’t participate in a lunch because they don’t live nearby, you can provide giftcards or have food delivered through local services like Uber Eats or Doordash so they feel included.
Rather than take on the added pressure of organizing successful gatherings, consider membership at a shared office space with diverse events programming so teams can socialize while networking with leaders in your field. CANOPY Jackson Square has hosted TEDAI collaborations, natural wine tastings, an evening with five women Nat Geo Explorers, and a fireside chat with NBA Champion Festus Ezeli. Take a look at CANOPY’s Events Calendar here!
7. Provide Flexible Office Space Aligned With Your Company Culture
Providing dedicated ergonomic desks or a private office within an elevated coworking space is a flexible way to enhance your hybrid company culture. A coworking membership can bridge that gap between entirely in-person and remote work for teams and individuals who prefer a professional setting without distractions over a home dining table or coffee shop.
SMEs can dispense with an expensive, long-term brick-and-mortar office lease entirely and take advantage of dedicated Private Office space for rent within a shared office that scales with their business.
At CANOPY SF shared office spaces, turnkey memberships include concierge-style amenities and access to conference rooms, lounge areas, and shared kitchens and coffee bars. Reception, mail room, and janitorial staffing needs, as well as lighting, heating and WiFi expenses are all-inclusive. You can even choose CANOPY as your virtual office.
Book your tour today to learn why CANOPY is one of the best coworking spaces in San Francisco and Silicon Valley!
