• hybrid work

Various technological, economic, and social disruptions, as well as new operating models, such as those connected to the circular economy, are reshaping industries, increasing the pressure on businesses to change (Dufva 2020). While some of the trends and their tensions are predictable, there might also be unpredictable external factors such as the Covid-19 pandemic or the war conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Working models are transforming because of these changes, including how people acquire work, the content of work, where they work, the skills required, the working environment, how they collaborate, and leadership. The changing working model opens new opportunities and at the same time introduces challenges for organizations. Leaders need to manage and lead in a way to maintain and boost employee collaboration, productivity, and engagement. At the same time, they should make sure employees’ well-being, health, and flexibility while transforming the working model.

This article is based on interviews of leaders in various leadership positions and a survey among employees in a big knowledge-intensive Nordic organization. The collected data revealed challenges for the leaders and employees to maintain smooth collaboration practices, and at the same time opened new opportunities that were unknown before.

This article reveals the challenges in the collaboration practices that leaders of a knowledge-based organization face when transitioning from the office to remote and then to a hybrid working model. In a knowledge-based economy, the production of goods and services is based primarily on knowledge-intensive activities. In these activities, the work does not require physical presence in the workplace. (Powell – Snellman 2004). In the hybrid working model, some of the employees will continue to work remotely and others would prefer to work from an office, and some would like to do both.

Collaboration

Employees can be more productive in hybrid work environments, but leaders must provide those opportunities on purpose. According to a recent Gartner report, 71% of executives are more concerned about employee cooperation than they were prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. Employee encounters are more scheduled than spontaneous when they are not physically collocated. As Alexia Cambon, Director, Research, Gartner leaders must encourage people to engage more consciously to increase innovation. According to their findings, teams of knowledge workers who collaborate intentionally are three times more likely to achieve high levels of team innovation than teams who do not. Baker (2021)

Challenges

Among the various difficulties leaders face, they highlighted difficulties with time management. Everyone’s calendars suddenly fill up with an unmanageable quantity of online meetings. Some factors that contributed to the excessive number of meetings was that leaders launched too many initiatives, such as virtual coffee breaks, and other online social events such as games and quizzes. Some of these initiatives should be dropped and actions such as breaks between meetings, shared office hours, and physical rather than virtual meetings for social and team collaboration should be added in achieve better time management.

Facilitation

It was also observed that facilitating cooperation in a hybrid working approach is more difficult. Without physical meetups, it’s difficult to foster inventive and creative teamwork. Only one person speaks during online meetings, while numerous parallel channels are open during physical meetings. It’s considerably more difficult to keep people engaged and attentive in online meetings, and it’s also a lot more difficult to ensure involvement and inclusivity. To overcome this challenge, new collaboration tools, asking questions to engage people, and turning on the video to retain the focus are some of the recommended options. In addition, another recommendation is to have a specialized facilitator and facilitation training for staff.

Relationships

In the hybrid working model, onboarding new employees and forming new relationships are more problematic. It’s difficult to get everyone to the workplace when they’re required. Even if individuals are in the workplace, their behaviors have changed because of their overbooked schedules, and they may not have time to chat with one other, even if they are in the office at the same time. At the same time, they might chat via online collaboration tools even though they are in another meeting. This has an impact on the previous point about concentration, attention, and engagement.

Leader Role

Another issue is the difficulty for the leader and personnel in following the guidelines. Guidelines for digital collaboration tools, collaboration practices, and working models are continuously changing, and it might be difficult to know how to interpret them. The employee survey found a clear relation between the leader role and employees’ adoption of changing working models. According to the survey, 82% of individuals who strongly believe that they receive clear guidelines and support from their leader to maintain smooth collaboration also agree or strongly agree that collaboration is smooth in a hybrid working model. And 64% of those who strongly disagreed stated they disagreed or strongly disagreed when asked the same question. For this reason, it is essential to make sure that the changes and guidelines are clearly communicated to leaders and employees.

Conclusion

The overall conclusion is that the leader’s availability, clear and often communication about the guidelines, and better facilitation for online/hybrid meetings are the keys to making collaboration smoother in a hybrid working model. With the right setup, good collaboration practices can boost productivity, creativity, and innovation. For example too many online and physical meetings should be dropped, otherwise employees become too stressed and will exhaust. Exhaustion at work has increased for employees of all ages in the second half of last year 2021,” says The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health’s recent How is Finland doing? study. According to the same study, hybrid employees, i.e. both remote and local workers, are doing best (Vuolteenaho, S.,9.3.2022, YLE News).

References:

Baker 2021: 4 Modes of Collaboration Are Key to Success in Hybrid Work. Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. Accessed 12.03.2022 from https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/4-modes-of-collaboration-are-key-to-success-in-hybrid-work 

Dufva 2020: The big picture of the megatrends. Sitra 2020. Accessed 04.11.2021. https://www.sitra.fi/en/articles/the-big-picture-of-the-megatrends/ 

Powell, Snellman 2004. The Knowledge Economy. Review of Sociology, 30(1), 199-220. Accessed 03.11.2021 from https://annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100037 

Vuolteenaho, S. (9.3.2022, YLE News). Pitkittyneen pandemian jäljet näkyvät työssä – tuore tutkimus: työuupumus on lisääntynyt, https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-12347055

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