The COVID-19 pandemic has made remote and hybrid (in-office and remote) teams more prominent than ever before. The pandemic forced many employers to allow their staff to work from home.
Now that we’ve passed the peak of the pandemic, many companies, big and small, have become comfortable with having fully remote or hybrid work arrangements for their employees.
As hybrid teams and remote work becomes a new normal, managers are learning to ensure employees maintain the same level of productivity in a hybrid work environment. In this blog post, list 10 tips for managing a hybrid team’s productivity.
1. Build trust
When some employees are in the office and some aren’t, trust can become an issue if it isn’t managed well. In-office team members may not trust that remote colleagues are pulling their weight. On the other hand, remote team members can feel invisible and overlooked, mainly if information isn’t communicated to them effectively.
Having frequent check-ins with remote workers may leave them feeling stifled. Instead, hybrid teams need to develop the habit of voluntary communication of updates, especially in the beginning. As time passes, your team will learn to trust each other.
In-person meetups are another way to build trust, so try to meet your remote staff occasionally. Pick video calls instead of chat or email where possible. Seeing and hearing each other regularly will help build trust within your hybrid team.
2. Clarify goals and expectations
Contributions in a hybrid team cannot be measured using outdated metrics like office hours — not that it was ever a good way to effectively manage employee performance. It is far more effective to focus on work outcomes, even if you don’t work in a hybrid office.
Set clear expectations for job deliverables for both remote and on-site workers. Discuss team goals, what an individual needs to achieve in terms of individual tasks, the role of individuals in project work, and agree on timelines for getting things done. Focus on results rather than time spent on the computer or at a desk.
Set clear expectations for job deliverables for both remote and on-site workers. Discuss team goals, what an individual needs to achieve in terms of individual tasks, the role of individuals in project work, and agree on timelines for getting things done. Focus on results rather than time spent on the computer or at a desk.
3. Establish core business hours
If your hybrid workplace has team members across multiple time zones, discuss when synchronous work time (i.e. during what hours can everyone be online at once) can happen. Honor the agreed hours and schedule team meetings and one-on-one meetings during this slot.
Be upfront about occasions where the remote worker in a different time zone may need to come in outside of core hours, but keep that to a rare occurrence.
4. Make work schedules transparent
If your employees are out across time zones, make sure everyone is able to find out everyone else’s working hours. Sharing work calendars where everyone can see each other’s active hours and free time slots will make scheduling hybrid meetings a lot easier.
5. Keep everyone informed about team and company updates
Team members who aren’t in the office may not aware of decisions that are made on-site. Remember to keep the entire team in the loop about water cooler moments, impromptu discussions, quick chats, and decisions that were made during management meetings.
Avoid, at all costs, having team meetings that leave out your remote team members due to poor planning. This can leave remote employees feeling unimportant, leading to low motivation, and ultimately leaving your company.
Ensure transparency by including such details in regular team calls. This will ensure that all hybrid team members have an equal and clear understanding of the organization and team’s direction. This contributes to individuals feeling like part of the team and company, which can enhance morale.
6. Be well prepared for team meetings
Team meetings are essential to team collaboration: they’re places to brainstorm, align on shared goals, and come up with ideas. A team meeting can, however, turn out to be a waste of time. Many hybrid team meetings consist of fumbling with conferencing tools in the first part followed by a discussion that lacks intention or structure.
A virtual meeting needs a bit of preparation. Delegate responsibilities of preparing for a video conference meeting between your team members. Have someone prepare the conferencing tools ahead of time, a meeting facilitator to help move the agenda, and someone jot down meeting notes.
Sending everyone in your team a clear agenda for the meeting so that they can prepare ahead of time will also help everyone be on the same page about what will be discussed in the meeting.
7. Pay special attention to communication
Taking turns in virtual meetings can be more challenging than in in-person meetings. It can be difficult to assess tone and emotion over digital communication channels, even if it’s a video call.
Silence doesn’t necessarily mean agreement, especially with introverted colleagues. Explicitly ask for feedback and follow up privately if you suspect a team member didn’t share their full perspective.
Sound and video may not be clear during the call, despite your best efforts, so it will be useful to distribute meeting notes or a summary of the meeting after the event.
Keep in mind that a remote colleague may not be able to hear or see everything that happens in the conference room from which you are calling. Use online visualizing tools instead of physical whiteboards. Clarify anything said and discussed out of your camera or microphone range to make remote participants feel included in a meeting.
8. Have small talk with remote colleagues, too
If there’s one thing that remote workers miss out on the most, it’s small talk. They don’t get to drop by your desk or bump into other colleagues in the pantry for a casual chat. It may seem trivial, but talking about things other than work can be beneficial for your employees.
Small talk is important for building rapport among teammates. It makes people feel ‘seen’ as a real person. Call your remote employees to have casual chats and encourage team members to do the same.
Don’t limit it to calls, either. Having dedicated chat channels to talk about non-work stuff can be a great way for your hybrid team to find common ground and build a bond.
9. Be aware of equality risks
Managers of hybrid teams should be careful to avoid ‘proximity bias’, where employees working in the office with you and other colleagues are perceived to work harder than their remote teammates. Proximity bias is when employees that are physically present often receive more recognition and promotions. Remember to focus on the results that all individuals in your team produce when measuring productivity and quality of work.
Another aspect of the hybrid model is that it gives remote employees the flexibility to develop a healthy work-life balance. You could offer other forms of flexibility for in-office workers who commute to work on a daily basis so that they can do the same. For example, instead of a rigid 9 to 5 schedule, you could offer them a flextime arrangement that allows your on-site team to choose when they want to start work.
10. Provide the right tools
Communication, collaboration, storage, and many other processes can be difficult in remote environments. With the help of technology, however, employees working remotely can stay on track, reach high-performance levels, and stay engaged with other team members.
Tech developers were fast to create a number of remote working tools for a variety of needs. Whatever you choose, the most important factor in choosing the right tool is ease of use. Many managers have learned the hard way that useful but complicated collaboration software usually ends up being neglected.
Look out for tools that can handle multiple functions e.g. find a time tracking tool that allows you to schedule across multiple time zones.
Your suite of tools should include:
Communication tools
Video conferencing tools
Time tracking tools
Project and task management tools
Scheduling and time converter tools
File sharing and collaboration tools
Conclusion
A lot of the same management principles still apply when managing a hybrid team. Building trust, clarifying expectations, communicating clearly, and managing people are all elements that good managers must master to create highly productive teams, even if they don’t work in a hybrid work environment.
Managers need to establish team norms around the new way of working with hybrid teams. It only takes a few adjustments to workplace habits and rituals for hybrid teams to be just as productive and effective as teams that work in the office.
