How can you manage a hybrid workforce effectively?
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— The LinkedIn Team
A hybrid workforce is a mix of remote and onsite employees who collaborate across different locations, time zones, and cultures. Managing a hybrid workforce effectively requires a different set of skills, tools, and strategies than a traditional one. Here are some tips to help you lead your hybrid team successfully.
One of the biggest challenges of a hybrid workforce is ensuring alignment and accountability among your team members. To avoid confusion, frustration, and miscommunication, you need to set clear expectations for everyone. This includes defining roles, responsibilities, goals, deadlines, and performance indicators. You also need to communicate how often and through which channels you expect your team to report, update, and provide feedback. Make sure your expectations are realistic, measurable, and consistent for both remote and onsite workers.
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Giovanni Sisinna
🌟5x LinkedIn Top Voice: Project & Program Management, Artificial Intelligence, Executive Management, Technological Innovation🌟Director of Program Management | ISA Digital Consulting
💡 Based on my experience, precision in expectation-setting is pivotal for hybrid workforce efficacy. 🔍 Clarity in Metrics - Establish precise metrics for evaluation of remote and in-office output. 🌐 Regular Sync-Ups - Implement consistent check-ins to align remote and on-site team efforts. 📈 Progressive Milestones - Set incremental goals to maintain a steady rhythm of achievement. 🔗 Defined Deliverables - Clearly articulate expected outcomes for each role across work environments. 📌 Fine-tuning expectations is crucial for seamless hybrid workforce integration.
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Alex Elliott
Head of Connected Product & Experience at Jaguar Land Rover
My reflections since covid are: stop obsessing about people’s hybrid work patterns and instead focus on building a team culture where they want to be together. Naturally as a few gather more and more will start to join. Show the benefit of being together, focus on your common purpose, your mission, creating a happy, collaborative and creative environment. At the end of the day we are tribal, help them feel valued in that tribe and I believe they will choose to be together.
Another challenge of a hybrid workforce is building trust and collaboration among your team members. Trust is essential for creating a positive and productive work environment, especially when your team is dispersed and diverse. To foster trust and collaboration, you need to encourage regular and meaningful interactions among your team members. This can be done by creating opportunities for informal and social chats, as well as formal and structured meetings. You also need to recognize and celebrate your team's achievements, strengths, and contributions. Additionally, you need to model and promote a culture of openness, honesty, and feedback.
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Semih Altinay
Head of Division @ TransPerfect | Global Strategy, International Growth, Innovation
Recognizing and celebrating achievements and contributions really help to foster team camaraderie. Also, when promoting openness and feedback, make sure to engage the introverts in the team. Sometimes they can fly under the radar unnoticed but you can get amazing feedback if you can engage them in the conversation. Once heard, they often feel the courage the speak up more.
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Paul “PJ” Jackson
Trusted Growth Specialist 🔹 Proven Business & Go-to-Market Strategist 🔹 Experienced Entrepreneur 🔹 Develop Sales Training & Enablement Workshops 🔹 Team Builder 🔹 Leadership Advocate
Consider implementing a "Virtual Coffee Break" initiative. Encourage team members to schedule short, informal video calls with their colleagues on a regular basis, just as they might have casual chats in the office kitchen. These virtual coffee breaks can provide a space for personal connections. Tip: Set aside dedicated time for these virtual coffee breaks, perhaps once a week or bi-weekly. Keep the conversations light and friendly, encouraging team members to share personal interests, hobbies, or updates about their lives. Rotate hosts for these virtual coffee breaks, giving different team members the opportunity to lead the conversation and choose topics.
A hybrid workforce offers more flexibility and diversity than a traditional one. This can be a great advantage for your team's creativity, innovation, and satisfaction. However, it also requires you to embrace and respect the different preferences, needs, and styles of your team members. To embrace flexibility and diversity, you need to adopt a flexible mindset and approach to your work. This means being adaptable, responsive, and supportive of your team's changing circumstances and challenges. You also need to respect and value your team's diversity and leverage it as a source of learning and growth.
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Rudy Onfroy
CTPO chez CapCar 🚙
Pour avoir des équipes responsables, il est essentiel de leur donner un maximum de liberté. Le rôle du manager est avant tout de créer le cadre motivant où chacun a envie de se dépasser. Il est là pour donner le cap et mesurer la performance tout en apportant le bon coaching et mentoring quand l'équipe en a besoin.
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Kelly Ann Collins
Entrepreneur / Innovator
Embracing flexibility and diversity in a hybrid team entails crafting an environment where various working styles and backgrounds are seen as a collective asset. This involves flexible policies that cater to different life circumstances, ensuring equitable access to resources and opportunities for both remote and in-office team members. Cultivate an inclusive culture through regular inclusive meetings, open dialogue, and team-building activities that bridge the physical divide, while leveraging communication tools to suit different preferences. Recognize and celebrate diverse contributions and encourage an exchange of ideas that underscores the value of each team member’s perspective and skills, bolstering innovation and team cohesion.
A hybrid workforce relies heavily on technology and tools to communicate, collaborate, and coordinate. Technology and tools can enhance your team's efficiency, productivity, and engagement. However, they can also create challenges such as technical issues, information overload, and security risks. To leverage technology and tools effectively, you need to select and use the ones that best suit your team's needs, preferences, and goals. You also need to provide adequate training, support, and feedback on how to use them. Moreover, you need to establish and follow best practices and policies for managing and securing your team's data and devices.
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Christopher Lind
12x LinkedIn Top Voice | Living at the Intersection of Business, Technology & Human Experience | Workplace Transformation | Devoted Husband and Father of 7
Having the right technology is essential to running a hybrid team effectively. You’ll need to be intentional about building an ecosystem of tech around you that makes a person’s physical location irrelevant to their work performance. What that looks like for teams will look different, so don’t look for a checklist of tech. Instead, lock on your objectives and flow of work and be intentional about getting to know the personalities and culture of the team. From here, experiment with tech until you find the right fit. All that said, even the best tech won’t solve team dysfunction, so don’t expect it to. In fact, it can exacerbate issues, so make sure you’re addressing process and interpersonal gaps. Also, be prepared to adapt along the way.
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Erin Bryant, MSN, RN
Manager, Clinical Education, Interior Health | Organ Recovery Assistant, BC Transplant
Be cautious and mindful when booking a virtual meeting. Why are we gathering? Is it because we are looking for dialogue, collaboration and feedback? Great! Team members have a chance to feel they contributed and that the meeting had purpose. Is the meeting heavily revolved around sharing status updates? Please reconsider. Update meetings are a motivation and productivity killer.
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A hybrid workforce can pose different challenges for your team's well-being, such as isolation, burnout, stress, and anxiety. These challenges can affect your team's performance, morale, and retention. To support your team's well-being, you need to show empathy and care for your team members. This means listening to their concerns, offering help and resources, and acknowledging their efforts and achievements. You also need to promote a healthy work-life balance for your team. This means respecting their boundaries, schedules, and preferences, and encouraging them to take breaks, exercise, and socialize.
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Dee Llewellyn (She/Her)
Director of Partnerships &Growth - Pride in London/ Director - Pride Cymru / EPEV Mentor
Creating an inclusive work environment is key here. Check in regularly with your team on both a one to one and group basis. My personal favourite is a virtual coffee to start the day. I ask my team to grab a cuppa and then join a virtual whole team online meeting which is not about work but an opportunity for us to just chat socially as if we were stood by the coffee machine in the office.
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Semih Altinay
Head of Division @ TransPerfect | Global Strategy, International Growth, Innovation
Constantly check in with your teams. I noticed that many leaders don't check in with their top performers. The issue is, once they and/or you realize they are burnt out, it may be too late. Help them avoid the burnout by slowing them down, helping them take a break, perhaps even getting them out of the office for a day on a team building event.
Managing a hybrid workforce can also be challenging for you as a leader. You need to develop and demonstrate a range of skills, such as communication, collaboration, flexibility, empathy, and technology. To develop your own skills, you need to seek feedback and learning opportunities from your team, peers, and mentors. You also need to reflect on your strengths and weaknesses, and set goals and action plans for your improvement. Furthermore, you need to take care of your own well-being, and seek support and guidance when needed.
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Todd Hopwood
Mental Health Advocate | Governance Top 100 Finalist 2020-2023 | Change Maker | Board Member | Director - Local Government Professionals NSW
I think this is key. How many organisations have actually invested time and resources in training existing managers in the skills required to successfully manage remote and hybrid teams?. Calling staff back to the office just so managers can manage in old ways, by watching people is doomed for failure.
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Semih Altinay
Head of Division @ TransPerfect | Global Strategy, International Growth, Innovation
Time management becomes even more important when managing a hybrid team. Make a sincere effort and schedule time to meet with your teams regularly, especially if they are remote. People can get isolated and lose motivation, eventually even leave, due to gradually growing apart.
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Nikesh John Varughese
Business Head Siemens Healthineers/IIMK/Country head/PGD- Finance/Capital medical equipments/International BD/P&L/Product,Regional,Key-accounts,Govt,Dealer business
Since COVID, "hybrid" is the one of the biggest buzz word in industries - hybrid workforce, hybrid marketing, hybrid events... The hybrid workforce was existing for long time - there were bigger service sector IT companies which had these policies earlier and they all worked well. The success of the any team - hybrid or not, depends on: 1. Clear expectation of output from the individual and from the total team. 2. Effective and continuous communications within the team and with other teams. 3. Regular team catch-ups :physical meetings have its own benifits and bondings. 4. Scheduled Reviews - to analyse where are we! 5. Flexibility - as long as it doesn't affect the results 6. finally - TRUST in your team!
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Archana Lokesh
Global Sales and Biz Dev Leader 🌍 | Pipeline strategist 📈 | SDR BDR Leader 👩💼 | People Coach 🙌 | Gen Z advocate & Coach 🎯 | Woman In Sales Leadership 💪
This is my most favourite learning during Covid. Leading a successful hybrid team involves: 1. Clear Communication: Ensure concise and consistent communication across all platforms. 2. Use of Technology: Utilize collaborative tools for seamless interaction and project management. 3. Flexible Work Arrangements: Allow adaptable schedules accommodating various time zones and preferences. 4. Cultural Sensitivity: Respect diverse cultural practices and work styles within the team. 5. Regular Check-ins: Schedule frequent catch-ups to ensure everyone is aligned and connected. 6. Supportive Leadership: Offer guidance and support to enhance team performance and motivation.