5 Things Every Hybrid Worker Needs to be Productive

1. Clear expectations and guidance

All organizations should have some form of remote worker’s policy and guidelines. Similarly, management must set clear expectations for hybrid workers. Their concerns matter, and you need to ensure they understand the scope of their role when working from home and your expectations of them. For example, you may require your employees to be available during set working hours, or they may be able to have full flexibility. The important thing is ensuring you give them the information they need to meet expectations.

2. A suitable working environment

Management has little control over the environment where remote employees work, and this plays an important role in productivity as employees need to have the space and comfort required to concentrate fully. One research study found only 58% of remote workers had proper ergonomic chairs at home, and another survey saw 72% of respondents confirm they have no dedicated office space to work from.

Companies thriving on the hybrid model know it takes investment on their part. Brands such as Google and Shopify provide remote workers with stipends to pay for office furniture and create comfortable and effective office spaces in the home. This helps ensure employees have the right working environment that isn’t a barrier to their productivity.

3. Coordinated in-office time

Remote employees routinely find themselves disconnected from the office-based team. It can be hard to feel that connection unless their employer actively ensures they’re included and engaged. To overcome this, structure your hybrid environment to ensure employees have set days or times to come into the office or allow them to arrange a schedule to ensure their in-office time coordinates with other key people within their team.

Many companies opt to include regular in-office events where the whole team is invited in and given a chance to get together. Maximizing these events is vital for ensuring hybrid workers feel connected to the wider organization. In addition, they’re the perfect opportunity to arrange team bonding sessions, company-wide training programs, performance and project reviews, and appraisals.

4. Video-first meetings

Video is one of the most effective tools for engaging and motivating hybrid and remote employees. They may use it for socials, informal get-togethers, and work-based meetings. However, your formal meetings and conferences should be video-enabled and prioritize video access to ensure no employee misses out on anything important.

Using video allows for a closer sense of connection and minimizes interruptions or drawn-out communications after a meeting for people who couldn’t attend in person. It also enables a more collaborative approach to work. Employees can comment and question in real-time, providing a wider range of perspectives and potentially offering a wider scope of ideas and opportunities.

Tools like RingCentral MVP allow anyone in your company to host and join video meetings from any device—desktop or mobile. The best part is it’s integrated with your team messaging and business phone, so all of your communications live in one single platform.

Hybrid workers don’t want to be bombarded with constant video communications either, so it’s important to strike that balance of ensuring meetings are productive and task-focused rather than used for every small chat—there are other tools for that.

5. Maximize the potential of asynchronous collaboration

We’ve already made it clear that endless video meetings aren’t productive or a suitable solution for hybrid workers. Instead of scheduling meetings for every small change or development, democratize conversations, and give employees more freedom to include their thoughts, visions, and ideas on any given project. Employees can document and note down ideas and brainstorms throughout their working day or week and drop in this information as it comes to them. Not only will this allow more people to participate, but it helps guarantee more productivity in meetings.

Asynchronous collaboration removes the pressure of delivering specific information at a particular time. Of course, you still need deadlines, but the beauty of asynchronous collaboration is it allows hybrid workers to maintain the flexibility they require without missing out and makes it easy to keep track of notes and projects. You can record and share videos or documents for easy referencing in the future.

Giving hybrid workers the tools to succeed

Employees are demanding a more flexible approach to their work, and the hybrid model achieves this. That being said, managers and employers need their workforce to operate at the same capacity wherever they’re working from. Therefore, hybrid work can’t result in a drop in productivity.

While the transition period is bound to have challenges, there’s no reason why your hybrid workers can’t be just as successful and productive as any other employee with the right tools, communication, and motivation.

Further reading

• How to Get Maximum Productivity From Your Remote Teams
• What Your Business Needs for a Hybrid and Remote-First Workplace
• What Your Employees Need to Keep Your Customers Happy