WEBINAR - Psychology & Reality of Hybrid Working

The Psychology & Reality of Hybrid Working

Last week we delivered a webinar for the London HR Connection network on the topic of “The Psychology & Reality of Hybrid Working“. There were more than 330 registrations – a record for LHRC’s webinar series, clearly a popular topic!

We were delighted to be joined by Jenny Sawyer, Director of People, Culture & Change at Stonewater Housing Association to share her experience of leading Stonewater’s journey to Hybrid so far

It was a timely webinar with many organisations now starting to communicate their plans for returning employees to the workplace. Whilst we’ve all experienced ‘normal’ working in the office conditions and ‘remote working’ during lockdowns, few organisations have lived (at scale) with a true ‘hybrid’ model where teams are split across multiple locations.

The concept is seems simple – deliver the best of both worlds; the flexibility & autonomy of working from home complemented by visits to the office for richer collaboration with colleagues and those ‘big’ meetings where complex decisions are made.

However, the reality is that it is far more complex than simply ‘introducing flexible working’.

Hybrid may unconsciously exacerbate diversity issues…

What we are already beginning to see is ‘present privilege’ and the formation of ‘in-groups’ and ‘out-groups’ – those working in the office being the ‘in-group’ with greater visibility and more regular, direct access to key decision-makers, and those remote workers being on the periphery as an ‘out-group’.

When you consider the types of individual who are most likely to opt to work more from home, you can see how discrimination and diversity issues will begin to emerge. Those with caring responsibilities – who may wish to reduce their commuting time – are more likely to choose a working week favouring being remote. Those less able or disabled – for whom the commute can be more of a challenge – would be similarly motivated. There will be gender inequalities too – when given the option of greater flexibility, women may choose (or indeed feel obliged) to remain home with children over their male counterparts.

When you consider the types of individual who are most likely to opt to work more from home, you can see how discrimination and diversity issues will begin to emerge…

No matter the type or size of an organisation, in the Hybrid workplace we will potentially see less diverse representation on complex decisions in the business; those in the office being promoted more readily than their remote peers and despite everyone be able to choose how they ‘want’ to work, the culture will actually become less inclusive.

Leaders and managers will need to carefully navigate this next phase to mitigate the risk of in-groups and out-groups and prevent longer-term challenges around discrimination.

Navigating the shift to Hybrid…

In this webinar Gary Ashton and Julie Brophy shared a framework for thinking through some of the key leadership challenges – for example, how do you effectively motivate and communicate with hybrid teams? How can you find a balance between the traditional ‘command & control’ style of leadership and the increased empowerment of a hybrid workforce?

OE Cam’s framework looks at four key areas:

1. Focus and Perspective – how do leaders ‘clear the way’ so that employees know where the organisation is going and have clarity about the role they play?
2. Autonomy – how do you shift the mindset of leaders to operate in a hybrid environment?
3. Attachment – how do you keep the ‘one team’ feeling so that members of hybrid teams continue to feel part of something?
4. Security – how do you manage the mental wellbeing of your team so that employees know where to get support?

The webinar tackled each of the four areas in turn using examples and anecdotes to illustrate the key points.  For more detailed insights into the challenges of shifting to hybrid, please read our latest journal.

We invite you to watch the recording of the webinar (shown to the right) and use the form below to download a copy of the slides.

For more information or to discuss how we can help your organisation prepare for the hybrid workplace, please do contact one of the team – gary.ashton@oecam.com or julie.brophy@oecam.com