Your colleagues have been through a lot of change recently! Think for a moment about just how different our working practises are today, compared to January 2020. From an almost exclusively on-premises working style, people began working from home overnight.

This was a dramatic shift for many, and unsurprisingly, data shows that a majority struggled with technology at some point during lockdowns.

And change just keeps on coming to your colleagues’ working lives. As the restrictions ease, many businesses are preparing to introduce hybrid working. Your colleagues will work at the office some days of the week, then work remotely the rest of the time. Once again, this represents a major change to how they work.

In our upcoming webinar, Hannah Paton-Brown explores techniques for hybrid work adoption. But why is the shift to hybrid working so problematic?

The challenges of hybrid work adoption

Hybrid work is unlike anything that your employees will have seen before. It introduces a variety of new challenges that will take months or even years to adjust to. These include:

  • A whole new way of communicating

During the lockdowns, most of us became accustomed to attending meetings over platforms like Microsoft Teams – although it certainly took some getting used to! With hybrid working your employees are about to experience another shift in the way they communicate.

Ever more meetings will involve some staff calling in from home and others being present in the office. This is going to force them to change behaviour patterns while finding ways to ensure everyone’s voices are heard.

  • New technology

To make hybrid workplaces function successfully, you will also need to invest in new kinds of technology. Whether it is a hot desk reservation system, meeting room hardware (HD cameras and microphones), VPN’s, or tools that allow managers to check in on staff even if they aren’t able to see each other face to face. Finding ways to incorporate these different technologies into your processes will of course entail a significant amount of change management.

  • A sense of fairness

How will you ensure that people feel hybrid working is fair and guarantee that remote workers aren’t left out? Some staff may resent it if they are not able to work from home as much as other colleagues. At the same time, many junior workers, who might not have enough space to work remotely in their own homes, may prefer to be at the office all the time.

  • Maintaining culture in the hybrid workplace

Every company everywhere was disrupted by the pandemic – and so maintaining culture during that relatively short period was not necessarily a top priority. But if you want hybrid workplaces to be a success in the long term you will need to consider ways of maintaining your organisational culture, even if many staff are away from the office several days a month.

Ultimately, all of these issues come down to managing change, and every organisation will eventually have to adapt. But having a plan will make the move to hybrid working a lot smoother – and avoid unnecessary disruption.

 

How to manage change for hybrid work?

To avoid unnecessary disruption as you adjust to hybrid working, you will need a plan to manage the change. At its core, the solution here is about:

  • Putting people first

Whenever implementing a major change in a business – whether to technology or your underlying processes – you need to consider ‘what’s in it for me?’. Ask how the shift to hybrid working will affect individuals and explain the benefits to them.

 

  • Address their problems

Most people today will understand the reason we are doing hybrid working. But if you are adopting new technology and internal processes, you need to understand what individuals’ challenges are – be that the amount of space they have at home, the kinds of work they do, or their desire for social interaction.

 

  • Understanding the psychology of change

In the aftermath of the pandemic, many people are understandably jaded by the change they have had to live through. It can therefore be valuable to understand what people go through when they are forced to change their behaviours and find ways to make this adjustment easier for individuals and organisations.

eBook: Your guide to business change management


Join our webinar to learn how to drive hybrid work adoption

In our webinar, we will be looking at the practical steps involved in managing change as you adopt a hybrid workplace. Hannah Patton-Brown will be sharing her insights into change management when it comes to technology and business processes. Sign up to find out how to prepare for the practicalities of adjusting to this new approach to work.

Sign up to the webinar here.