Pulling It Together: Developing a Successful Hybrid Work Environment

After the COVID shutdown normalized remote work, business leaders and their employees started to reimagine work structure. Many workers wanted to retain at least some of the flexibility that doing their jobs from home provided. As a result, companies wanting to attract and retain top talent began to offer new options. The nine-to-five, on-site model that dominated before the pandemic gave way to offshoots generated by the lockdown.

Hybrid work became a popular choice for jobs in which working from home full-time wasn’t feasible or acceptable to employers. In theory, it is a solution that benefits everyone—with work responsibilities split between home and the office. However, companies that switch to the hybrid model without making strategic adjustments often experience drawbacks.

As renowned psychologist and author Dr. Bryan Robinson wrote in an article for Forbes, “While a majority of employers have embraced a change in ‘where’ people work, many have not adopted the new practices to ‘how’ they need to do it well.”

The Case for Hybrid Jobs

Many critics emerged when remote and hybrid jobs became mainstream. Notably, detractors said that these flexible arrangements negatively affected productivity. Others were concerned that these more free-form jobs would decrease employee engagement.

Numerous studies proved otherwise. For example, Stanford economist and expert on work-from-home policies, Nicholas Bloom, cites evidence that hybrid work boosts employee output, performance, and morale. In an article for the Stanford Report, he details findings from a recent study based on an expansive randomized controlled trial.

“This study offers powerful evidence for why 80 percent of U.S. companies now offer some form of remote work, and for why the remaining 20 percent of firms that don’t are likely paying a price.”

In another Forbes article, author and IPC CEO John W. Mitchell uses a Gartner study to support his assertion that hybrid work is good for the bottom line. Gartner researchers surveyed 5,000 employees to learn the impact of hybrid work on performance. They found that in companies that enforced standard 40-hour, on-site schedules, 36 percent of their staff were high performers. That number rose to 55 percent in organizations that offered a choice of when and where employees worked.

Researchers at Robert Half found that companies continue to find value in offering hybrid jobs in 2024 and project that the work model will remain popular. “The future of remote work in the United States is shifting firmly toward hybrid, while fully remote opportunities appear to be fading.”

Backing up that claim, Gallup research shows that 53 percent of remote-capable U.S. employees now work in hybrid jobs, and an even larger percentage would prefer that option. Companies must adapt to remain competitive with the momentum shifting toward hybrid work opportunities. Companies refusing to offer flexible job arrangements experience higher incidences of burnout and costly turnover.

Hybrid Work Structure

Like genetically altered plants, hybrid jobs have many variations. In some organizations, everyone can work off-premises for part of the week. In other companies, some staff works on-site while others perform their jobs remotely. A workforce with asynchronous scheduling is another variation.

Many organizations combine some or all of these options. Each business leader constructs the hybrid model that makes the most sense for their company; there is no cookie-cutter formula. However, some universal guidelines can help leaders avoid the pitfalls that can accompany atypical work models.

The Challenges of Operating with Hybrid Teams

Bryan Robinson offers insight into why hybrid teams can be problematic. He believes the main issue is that many companies haven’t committed to meeting the needs of a flexible workforce.

He cites findings from TechSmith’s 2024 Workplace Flexibility Trends Report that show 75 percent of hybrid workers say “their employers haven’t trained managers to lead a distributed team, established team or meeting norms or adopted best practices to support working across distances.”

We are beyond the pandemic-induced emergency mode of adopting atypical work structures. Leaders now have time and incentive to consider how processes and practices must change to make the most of a hybrid workforce. The report lists the variables and factors that can diminish the effectiveness of hybrid teams, including:

• Asynchronous communication
• Interruptions
• Unplanned meetings
• Generation and job status
• Size of company
• In-office flexibility

Robinson quotes Global Workplace Analytics president Kate Lister, who notes:

“The report reveals the pain points in how people are working in addition to offering nuanced insights into the demographic differences that necessitate bespoke rather than one size fits all solutions.”

Lister thinks hybrid workforce leaders should build a culture that empowers employees to do their best work and deliver results whenever and wherever they are on the job.

In his book, Culture by Design, CultureWise CEO David J. Friedman writes that intentionality is the key to building a vibrant workplace culture. Leaders must thoughtfully develop the culture that will ensure team success; they can’t leave it to chance. He notes that leaders must be even more purposeful when dealing with teams that don’t typically work in person together.

“We have to schedule time for coaching and checking on the state of mind of our team members. We have to plan ways for people to connect and get to know each other better. We have to create routines around how we stay in touch. It can all be done well, but only if we’re purposeful.”

Maximizing Hybrid Team Productivity

In a recent Gallup Workplace article, Gallup research executives Ben Wigert and Sangeeta Agrawal zero in on how hybrid teams can boost productivity and offer strategic advice. They pulled data from a study of thousands of U.S. hybrid workers that indicate “opportunities for improvement in the plans, practices, feedback, and training of hybrid teams.”

The authors of the article list four steps leaders can take to improve the productivity of a hybrid workforce:

1. Plan for success
2. Coordinate hybrid collaboration
3. Reflect and adapt
4. Upskill

PLAN FOR SUCCESS

Wigert and Agrawal write that hybrid workplaces that fare poorly lack a plan for this kind of work model.

“Half of hybrid workers are on a team that has not discussed an informal or formal plan for how to collaborate effectively.”

They stress that while organizational policies that set clear expectations are essential for these teams, leaders must also create structure and plan activities.

“Hybrid teams need a plan for working together effectively. A plan helps teammates know what to expect from each other and what is expected of them. It also balances team needs in an environment where individual autonomy can overrun priorities that aren’t explicitly defined.”

Wigert and Agrawal write that these “team charters” should include the team’s agreed-upon mission, goals, strengths, and methods to achieve results. The methods should highlight the behaviors needed to build a culture where hybrid teams can excel. They note that hybrid employees working under this kind of plan report much higher levels of collaboration and engagement and less burnout.

COORDINATE HYBRID COLLABORATION

Hybrid work plans should include multiple ways to facilitate coordination among team members. The Gallup study shows the following practices help increase success:

• Regularly scheduled team check-in meetings
• Guidelines for in-person and online availability during work hours
• Guidelines for communicating periods of unavailability
• Guidelines for how often people work on-site versus at home
• Guidelines specifying days or times designated for on-site teamwork
• Guidelines for prioritizing specific on-site activities, e.g., collaboration, feedback, or team-building

Wigert and Agrawal note that this latest Gallup study reinforces previous research showing that “guidelines for prioritizing certain high-value activities while working on-site were more likely to increase hybrid workers’ engagement than any other practice examined.”

REFLECT AND ADAPT

Once guidelines are implemented, leaders and team members should regularly communicate about how well the process is working. In addition to coordinating logistics, they should use team check-ins to review their progress as a hybrid team and identify where improvements are needed. Wigert and Agrawal write:

“Three in five hybrid workers have some form of ongoing discussions throughout the year about improving hybrid teamwork, which translates to 84 percent better team collaboration and 50 percent higher employee engagement. Through routine feedback and problem solving, these hybrid teams learn to reflect and adapt together.”

Successful hybrid teams continuously look for ways to improve and work together more effectively.

UPSKILL

Wigert and Agrawal stress that businesses need to step up their training for the hybrid model to succeed. “Currently, only 21 percent of hybrid workers have received required or optional training for how to work effectively in a hybrid work environment. The managers who lead these individuals are not much better off: Just 28 percent of hybrid managers are trained by their organization to lead a hybrid team.”

Leaders can’t just expect their teams to thrive in a hybrid setting; they must teach them how to do it. The upskilling should begin with guidance, training, and support for the management tiers.

“Plans and best practices for elevating teamwork are more effective when organizations teach people how to work differently. Hybrid workers need to individually and collectively learn how to make the most of hybrid work while adapting to its challenges.”

Wigert and Agrawal make the case that hybrid teams can perform at a high level if they follow the four steps listed above. Just as with organizational culture, they stress that leaders must be intentional about creating this structure—it won’t happen organically. Yet, as Stanford’s Dr. Bloom notes:

“If managed right, letting employees work from home two or three days a week still gets you the level of mentoring, culture-building, and innovation that you want,” Bloom says. “From an economic policymaking standpoint, hybrid work is one of the few instances where there aren’t major trade-offs with clear winners and clear losers. There are almost only winners.”