In this article, you'll find five ways for improving collaboration in the hybrid workplace.
We've seen firms of all sizes abruptly change from offices to remote work over the last year, leaving leadership, managers, and employees scrambling to digitize their workflows. Unfortunately, although employees have successfully used digital tools to work from home, this may not translate into the most efficient or streamlined organizational processes.
Many teams no longer share an office location, and many more now collaborate across states and time zones.
Even if these groups cannot meet in person, they must collaborate successfully daily. Collaboration not only aids team success, but it also allows individuals to share and improve their ideas.
The Term "Hybrid Office" Doesn't imply "Hybrid IT Systems."
Employees should have complementary tools and methods to get their work done, whether they are in the office or at home, for an actual hybrid workplace. It's hardly a proper hybrid workplace if individuals are excited to return to the office since they'll have more access to files and tools than working from home. Everyone in the hybrid workplace is on an equal footing to collaborate.
Moving systems and files to the cloud help to provide a single location where employees can access what they need to complete their tasks no matter where they are.
Here are five suggestions for improving collaboration in the hybrid workplace:
1. Encourage asynchronous cooperation
Organizations must set clear expectations for workplace collaboration around asynchronous and synchronous workflows as employee demands and preferences change and work environments evolve.
Asynchronous workflows will become more common in the hybrid office, and your collaborative environment should be designed not just to handle but also to support this transformation. Intranets and business social networks, for example, can make everyone feel involved and able to offer their voices, regardless of where they are situated or when they are contributing.
2. Encourage the occurrence of serendipitous collisions
Serendipitous collisions should be encouraged by companies and HR departments. To put it another way, make it intentional for people to communicate, brainstorm, ideate, and engage in informal talks.
Employees from various departments, for example, sitting next to each other in the physical office, may pick up on a snippet of information and begin discussing a creative solution. Conversations around the water cooler are a common term for this type of interaction.
More fortuitous collisions will occur due to managers directing employees with intentional frameworks for collaborating in and out of the office, allowing employees to share ideas, learn from one another, and be more effective in their work.
3. Learning new opportunities
Teams can plan more casual seminars, lunches, and other activities favorable to creativity and cooperation when employees can securely meet in person.
Unfortunately, serendipitous encounters are more difficult to come by online, where members of digital workspaces, meeting invitations, and chat groups are carefully selected for specific goals.
It's true that "planned serendipity" on the internet can be awkward. However, smart methods for casual collaboration and brainstorming in designated locations (such as a specialized channel in a Microsoft Team or Slack) or at designated times can make it less so (Q&A during weekly town halls). HR should deliberate how they use these technologies to generate and encourage casual conversations about employee pets, Netflix series, and intriguing industry news.
4. Incorporate IT into your talent strategy
IT has traditionally been the department responsible for providing digital tools for onboarding new employees, implementing new norms and innovations, and responding to technical issues and security concerns. In our increasingly digital environment, however, IT is becoming a more strategic partner, assisting businesses in being more productive and secure.
IT must assist with staff education to provide flexibility in a hybrid workplace so that teams may continue to collaborate, whether in person, via intelligent video conferencing, or in a shared Microsoft Word document.
5. Pay attention to the employee experience
The hybrid workplace is a first-of-its-kind experiment. During this time, leadership teams will need to poll and monitor company morale more frequently.
Whether completed quarterly or delivered via Teams at a Town Hall, surveys are a wonderful method to get a pulse on the employee experience and real-time feedback. To increase productivity, organizational coordination, and culture, it is important to focus on employee involvement.
The hybrid workplace can produce happier people, more innovation, lower risk, and competitive advantage if done correctly.
Team communication should be encouraged.
You want to increase the innovation in your hybrid workforce, which you can do by improving inter-team communication and collaboration. For example, organizing company-wide or multi-team meetings can help teams communicate better.
The primary challenge will be to locate a time when everyone is available. If possible, schedule these sessions regularly, so that team members know when to anticipate them. In addition, allow small conversation during meetings so that coworkers can converse freely with one another.
When you summon everyone to the office, attempt to mix teams so that everyone in the hybrid workforce gets more exposure.
Last Words
Because hybrid work is still in its infancy, teams and leaders are continually learning as they go. As a result, teams improve, and managers become more proficient in maximizing collaboration between the hybrid work environment and their organizations.
When leaders are first starting, the most important thing they can do is demonstrate to their staff that they are fully dedicated to making a hybrid workforce effective and meaningful for everyone.
