The challenges of hybrid: time to check-in?
In a recent blog I spoke about the advantages of a greater focus on role outcomes, particularly when trying to instigate more of a coaching approach to leadership. But a focus on outcomes is also important from another perspective – and that is the role it plays in navigating the challenges of hybrid working.
Around two years ago, OE Cam developed a Hybrid Simulator as a means of helping organisations understand the potential implications of the hybrid approach. Two years on and we are hearing about these challenges more than ever, as people grapple with the reality of what hybrid working really means. It seems as though organisations are still struggling to strike the right balance between giving people the freedom to choose when and where they work, and in stipulating minimum requirements for attendance to ensure that (at least some of the time) the office actually sees some human activity.
Even when forward-thinking CEOs and HR Directors make the case that people should only come into the office based on ‘need’, most then find it almost impossible to resist putting boundaries around what ‘need’ really means. Guidance such as “We think this will be at least two days a week” is all too common, and somewhat defeats the object of a needs-based approach.
Even when forward-thinking CEOs and HR Directors make the case that people should only come into the office based on ‘need’, most then find it almost impossible to resist putting boundaries around what ‘need’ really means.
I would like to make the case here for strengthening the ‘needs-based’ approach, but with some clear and key additions:
The problem with a needs-based approach to hybrid working
I still maintain that if the focus is on the outcomes of a role, then the question about where and how people achieve those outcomes becomes moot. If role outcomes are achieved, then it doesn’t really matter whether people do this at home, in the office, on a park bench, or on an all-day trip on the Circle Line.
The crucial factor is what we consider role outcomes to be.
When we talk about role outcomes, most of the time we are talking about the ‘hard’ deliverables – the figures, the numbers, the reports, the products, the results. But equally important are the ‘soft’ role outcomes – the less tangible aspects that should be part of everyone’s job description such as contribution to culture, a feeling of ‘team’, being present, and acting as a role model.
The ubiquity of the aforementioned ‘job descriptions’, which focus largely on hard role deliverables is part of the problem here. Even when they are outcome-based and not task-based, very few job descriptions refer to the softer outcomes that we require from people, particularly middle to senior managers. Check the job descriptions in your own organisation – how many of them refer to the role contributing towards the softer elements of potential role outcomes?
Widening the role to embrace soft outcomes
Solving the hybrid challenge may simply be a matter of improving our definition of what ‘the role’ really is.
As soon as you include the soft outcomes, it becomes more difficult to claim that anyone, and certainly not senior leaders, can ‘do the job’ from a remote location 100% of the time. These soft outcomes are far less tangible, but utterly essential to successful organisations. From junior staff being able to observe the way experienced leaders go about their business and those accidental (but fruitful) catchups that Teams can never quite replicate, right through to a contribution to the feeling that the organisation is more than just a building, populated by people who speak to each other on screens alone.
These soft outcomes are far less tangible, but utterly essential to successful organisations
This blog is not intended to add to the occasional rallying calls we hear from some CEOs to get everyone back in the office. Rather it is an acknowledgement that fully remote working, and many of the corporate guidelines for hybrid are simply not working for most people/organisations. It is an attempt to find a way through the challenge by starting with widening the definition of ‘the role’ to embrace both hard and soft outcomes.
Introducing the Hybrid Audit
Two years on and we have evolved the Hybrid Simulator to become the Hybrid Audit.
Given that Hybrid is new for us all, it is imperative that leaders adopt a new cadence of ‘test & learn’ and (most crucially) adapt.
Now that many organisations have chosen to operate in a hybrid way, leaders need an effective way to quickly and regularly assess whether their approach is working as intended. New working practices are far more dynamic and there is a different rhythm in the workplace.
Rethinking your perspective on job roles is a strong place to start, but it is only one element of the workplace. Given that Hybrid is new for us all, it is imperative that leaders adopt a new cadence of ‘test & learn’ and (most crucially) adapt.
OE Cam’s Hybrid Audit evaluates the most critical dimensions of organisational effectiveness across four themes of Culture, Talent, Performance and Well-being. It enables leaders to identify and prioritise the consequences of moving to a Hybrid model, and the issues to be addressed.
The Audit comprises three core steps:
- Hybrid diagnostic. This includes a quantitative survey to measure performance against the four key themes and identify both risks and opportunities. In parallel we conduct key stakeholder interviews to add richer, qualitative insight. (Optional -focus groups to elicit views of a wider population).
- Half-day workshop to playback insights to the leadership team using a common language to talk about performance in a hybrid world, and facilitated discussion to agree on themes that require improvement, or opportunities to be realised.
- Final report with recommendations based on research and benchmarks.
The outcome is a concise evaluation of how your organisation is performing against its hybrid aspirations, with a clear assessment of gaps to be addressed, and suggested ways of doing so. The Audit is designed to be repeated on a regular basis for continuous listening and learning.
For more information about OE Cam’s Hybrid Audit, please email mike.thackray@oecam.com