Little by little, things seem to be returning to what used to be our normality. What do I mean by this? People working from offices, leaving their homes every day to earn a living. After being confined to our homes for more than a year, the change can be abrupt, and to be honest, not all of us want to go back to working from offices.
Some of us learned to enjoy remote work, and even developed a routine based on it, so what happens when our bosses call us to work conventionally? Or rather, what happens when our employees do not respond to our call? What strategy can we develop so that productivity levels do not decline and we can still resume the previous work rhythm?
As in many things in life: middle points may have the solution.
We previously talked about hybrid work routines, and how useful they are for this period when we are getting used to not being in preventive quarantine again, and we advised freelancers and other workers on some ways to create a hybrid work routine that will suit their specific needs.
Now we want to address the other side of organizations, those who manage and rule the roost. How to find the balance between the new and comfortable remote work and the already known and necessary conventional work?
Here we tell you.
Understand Your Team’s Needs
You may think that by maintaining constant contact with the people who make up your company, you know and understand what they feel, but this is not always the case. In order to develop an effective plan, you need to know your team’s needs and come to understand them. Only then will you make an empathetic and responsible decision at the same time?
The main thing you should do is seek to engage in conversation about this before giving a final order. You can do it through a group or individual videoconference, or by talking using the way you prefer, and in this conversation ask these people directly what are their chances of going back to work in the offices, their disposition, and their feelings about it.
In this way, you will be conducting a survey not only of the spirits of your team concerning this idea but also of the possibilities they have to carry it out. This saves misunderstandings and long-term problems as well.
You can start by asking your team:
- How have you been feeling about relationships with your colleagues lately?
- Do you think you used to be more productive before quarantine, or now?
- How comfortable are you now with your work routine?
- Do you have the possibility to return to work in our offices?
And other questions of that style that may arise spontaneously during the conversation. It’s important to remember that you can never please absolutely everyone, except by making such an important decision, but understanding and having empathy with your employees will favor relationships and indicators of commitment to the company, which in turn will benefit overall productivity.
Highlight Structure’s Importance
Although, health comes first, and the mental health of your employees should be one of the priorities of your company, do not confuse this with letting yourself be carried away by emotions only, neglecting the order and discipline that any type of work needs to stay on feet and improve every day.
It’s important that your workers know that you care how they feel and that they work in an environment in which they feel comfortable and listened to, but at the end of the day, you have to make decisions as adults and give in to certain situations that we may not like too.
Discipline and structure must be maintained when developing a hybrid work strategy since this is usually personalized according to the needs and possibilities of each worker, so it requires much more organization and practicality. Everyone should be on the same page, even though they are in the office at different times and on different days.
Be Flexible
As I just mentioned, structure and order are things that can never be sacrificed in a work environment, however creative and liberal it may be. But this does not mean that you cannot take a second look at the rules and reform them from time to time.
Today’s world has changed, so it wouldn’t make much sense to uncompromisingly stick to the rules we used to have before we were confined to our homes.
Reaching certain agreements and allowing you to adapt your rules so that they are more in line with the current situation of your company and the world, will help your company move more easily towards a hybrid way of working.
For example, if presence was mandatory before, and sick or holidays were limited, you can rethink these questions, taking into account that your team has shown that it can keep the company running even when they are not in a short radius of the offices.
Just as your team must adhere to the rules, you can balance the needs of the company with their own, and reach a point where both parties receive what is fair and necessary.
It’s important not to confuse presence with engagement in the company. In many cases, the most dedicated and efficient workers show it the least through social media or comments at meetings or workshops. An employee’s engagement is measured in the results that they obtain, in their work performance, and in their attitude towards the work carried out. Either from home, or being physically in the office, a dedicated and efficient worker will do a good job, you just have to identify them.
Hybrid work is the new normal established by the twists and turns of life during the eighteen months we thought we were on hiatus but moving faster than ever. So it is convenient for both freelancers and companies to learn to work with this new style. What are you waiting for?
