With constant economic and healthcare concerns and turbulence in the country, the remote culture is here to stay. According to research, “workers can often concentrate better at home.” Moreover, less or no commuting time makes one much more productive and leaves more time to connect with personal space.
However, with everything resorting to normal post-COVID-19, most companies call up employees to work from the office. Out of these, some companies rely on a hybrid working model initially. It grants some time to employees to resort to the normal and helps them manage work more efficiently.
Precisely, like remote culture grants the flexibility to focus more, the office provides much-needed space to socialise and work alongside our peers. Moreover, it helps generate a team spirit if working on a project with the team. The workplace is the best platform for getting to know each other.
However, the divide between the home and office doesn’t have to end in either “or”. You can begin the hybrid culture that respects both interfaces.
What is a hybrid work schedule exactly?
Hybrid work schedule is a flexible work remodel that combines remote and in-office work. It lets employees work from home some days in a week and rest days from the office. For example, most offices have 3 days a week as office working days in a 5-day schedule. In this way, the employees can benefit from both worlds- home and office space.
Moreover, some hybrid working models let employees choose 3 days to work from the office. While others set up a defined standard for hybrid and work-from-home schedules that employees must follow.
7 Ways to create a hybrid schedule that improves productivity
According to recent stats by the UK government, “Around 44% of workers reported to the survey conducted regarding home or hybrid. Out of these, around 28% chose hybrid and 16% prefer to work remotely or from home.”
Therefore, businesses want to optimise the offline working interface to maximise creativity and production. If you too want to create the best hybrid model for your workplace, the below tips may help:
- Ensure transparency in the business model
Your employees should be transparent about how and where they want to work. It will help you address the requirements of employees and provide a suitable workspace model for them. Micromanaging is one technique that helps look after the employees’ grievances. However, refrain from too much micromanagement that may make the employees uncomfortable.
Transparency will help you ensure the best times to communicate with your employees. If you want to be transparent, ensure your employees are transparent with you. It is important from the business’s growth perspective. For this, you must invest in tools and software that help ease the process. You would need a strong capital backup to finance the requirement. If your business is undergoing hardships because of economic change and hybrid shift, options like bad credit business loans may help you. You can use the loans to finance every requirement of the hybrid model. From catering to advanced technology infrastructure to in-office setups, you can finance the requirements hassle-free.
A strong transparency model helps create a bond between employees and the company. It helps employees relate better to the firm’s goals and mission.
- Conduct meaningful 1:1 meetings
For a hybrid work schedule to work, it’s important to schedule regular meetings with your employees. Check whether they struggle with something or have any inconvenience in doing a thing. If you encounter any such things, ask about their preferences.
1:1 Meetings are the best way to do so. You must conduct meetings at least once a week to track the employee’s progress, discuss the issues and guide them accordingly. You can set up or schedule meetings with individual employees by setting up the calendar.
No matter how occupied you are, make time for your employees and their concerns. It would help them feel valued and stay with you for the long term.
- Ensure employees’ accountability
To thrive in a hybrid environment, your employees must understand the accountability towards the business. They must be responsible enough to manage and complete their tasks timely.
Moreover, making your employees accountable fosters independence and makes them take a disciplined turn over the table. You can make employees accountable by launching the following guidelines:
- Sending or mailing daily reports with works and plans
- Having weekly/monthly catch-up meetings to discuss the work
- Tracking the performance in the performance management software
- Meeting Key Performance Indicators on a weekly/monthly/quarterly
Moreover, employees’ responsibility is important because tracking every employee through work-from-home mode is nearly impossible. Thus, as a CEO or founder, hire people who can take accountability for their actions. It would help you reduce the additional trouble of micromanaging everything.
- Provide continuous training to employees
The practice of hybrid work is evolving. And thus, there is no best way to accomplish the ideal structure. One must continuously analyse the needs of the hour and train your employees and managers accordingly.
It would help you thrive in the competitive environment without compromising the existing aesthetics of the setup. Moreover, there exists a lot of aspects that may require improvement like- communication, project discussion and meetings, meeting deadlines, and adopting new tools and their usage. Training your employees regarding the same will help you optimise productivity and improve the revenue gear.
- Foster a tradition of recognition
Everyone needs personal motivation and appreciation for their hard work. That’s a natural human need. It helps one improve and perform better the next time as well. Alternatively, overlooked employees become more estranged and can even leave the organisation.
In hybrid mode, it becomes challenging for the firm to appreciate the employee’s contribution to the project. However, the company can do so by honouring him with a gift, acknowledging his hard work and rewarding them accordingly. Follow the same process even if it’s teamwork.
How to foster a tradition of recognition?
Yes, there exist infinite ways to include a culture of recognition in your rule book. Here are some easy ways to incorporate so:
- Set up formal recognition programs
- Encourage employees to share positive things about each other
- Managers can guide at the end of the program
- Timely recognition is better than later
- Provide a surprise day off to your employees
Launching programs and appreciating employees uniquely requires employee assessment and reliable tools to analyse the contribution and capital to launch recognition programs. If tight on budget currently, contact new direct lenders in the UK marketplace. It would help you provide timely appreciation to your employees in the best way. Moreover, it eliminates panicking at the very moment.
Bottom line
These tips may help you foster a standard hybrid culture that focuses on your employees and business requirements. You must put your employee’s needs forwards before developing the hybrid schedules. Grant them the flexibility to choose the office days. Furthermore, it would help you establish a transparent relationship with your employees.