Pitfalls of remote and hybrid Workplaces and how to fix them?

Remot and Hybrid work pitfalls and how to fix them (Image by Freepik)

A paradigm shift is needed on many levels for a well-functioning, flexible working place. Mindset change and adaptation are necessary on both sides — employer and employee — in this article we will investigate the challenges of workplace flexibility and how to overcome and benefit the most from it using the two perspectives method (organization/employee).

First of all, to excel in a remote or hybrid setup, employees need a solid basis. This basis is the right mindset and organizational culture. Consisting of the basic core principles (vision, values, goals), objectives, and processes helps the employees make the right choices and decisions even when nobody supervises them. Let’s see the other concrete requirements to establish a well-functioning hybrid or remote workplace.

Clarifying expectations

A lot of frustration and misalignment can be avoided through clear expectations right from the start including:

• Company/Project goals and mission
• Workflows and processes (how your team works)
• Communication channels
• Scheduling, availability, deadlines
• Performance and feedback
• Roles and responsibilities

Communication and Collaboration

With remote colleagues, it is almost impossible to over-communicate. Since you are not in the office, you cannot check in at each other’s desks or chat in the kitchen to stay up to date. This means there has to be another way to communicate with your coworkers.

Firstly, companies should invest in the right tools to help their employees communicate and work efficiently. These tools are cloud-based services for collaboration, file, and document storage like Office 365, Google Workspace, etc.

There should also be a platform where daily communication is performed: Slack, Teams, Twilio, Hangouts, Zoho, etc…

Secondly, a shared place where the company policies, workflows, working agreements, team-level agreements, and best practices are stored. Having a central knowledge and learning management system for internal training is also good practice. Making these materials as easy to access as possible is imperative once the coworkers can’t ask each other so quickly.

Finally, some project-management software like ClickUp, Microsoft Project, Zoho Projects, and Jira. These are just the bare minimum tools for starting.

Fighting against isolation

Managers must organize meaningful interpersonal interactions to fight isolation.

One of the fears associated with hybrid and remote work is that it weakens cross-functional, inter-team connections, therefore, cutting social ties (it is backed by studies performed by MIT and Microsoft. For more information, check my previous article). In the following section, I will share the 3+1 strategy to give some ideas to the managers on how to help remote workers to connect and bond:

1. Hub model — This can be achieved by choosing several cities as hubs or satellite offices where the company hires at least 5–10 employees in each location. This allows the employees to socialize and meet in a coworking space. Many multinational companies use this strategy to hire talents across the globe.
2. Back to the office — Another option is to bring employees back to the office occasionally. Dropbox, the file-sharing company, applied this strategy in late 2020 and announced its office would be redesigned for team gathering and community building.
3. Annual in-person events
4. Metaverse — +1 In the future, people will also meet in metaverses and socialize there. It is hard to imagine now what this could look like, but my bet would be something similar to what we have seen in Steven Spielberg’s movie: Ready Player One (2018). If you haven’t seen it yet, this is another reason to do so 🙂.

Feedback culture

All coworkers should be aware that the first thing which gets lost when working remotely is feedback. However, feedback is an essential tool thus the team members know how they are performing. Also organizations with strong feedback culture significantly improve employee engagement. Let’s discuss the 5 critical points for building great feedback culture:

1. Lead by example — The leaders must show good examples by honing their feedback-giving and receiving ability.
2. Nurture growth mindset — People with a growth mindset can develop their abilities through dedication and work by nurturing their inner love for learning and challenges. This mindset is valuable in a feedback culture.
3. Create psychological safety — It is the work environment where team members will not embarrass, reject or punish each other for sharing ideas, speaking up, giving feedback or taking risks. Teams with high degrees of psychological safety are capable of higher performance levels than others.
4. Use appreciative and corrective feedback — You should focus on providing corrective and positive feedback. Find the right balance of positive and corrective feedback.
5. Highlight decisions based on feedback — There is no better example of valuing the feedback culture than highlighting when a decision is based on the provided feedback. Try this out, you will be surprised how effective this trick is!

In conclusion, flexible work can be the THING, the future way of working. However, both sides have to adapt and change to have a well-functioning, flexible workplace. Organizations and leaders must start with the right mindset, great organizational culture, clear expectations, right tools, trained managers for the new era, and openness to iterate rapidly 🙂.