Effective Management in Hybrid Teams: Breaking Down Virtual Barriers
As company leaders urge employees to return-to-office full-time, resistance from the workforce has solidified Hybrid work as the new normal. In fact, 82% of all survey respondents have higher job satisfaction if they can work from anywhere. Of those participants who work in a hybrid or remote modality, 56% say their teams have increased creativity and 55% report increased collaboration since before the pandemic.
In 2020, as office shutdowns became the norm and the world shifted to remote work, teams adapted remarkably well. People worked harder to support one another, and hybrid communication became the new standard.
However, in 2021, as employees began returning to the office, new challenges emerged, especially for managers. They found themselves at the center of a growing communication and geographical gap between remote employees and their in-office counterparts. While employees had higher job satisfaction from being able to work from anywhere, managing these different working styles gave rise to more challenges - How do you overcome the challenges of supervising employees in different locations and time zones? What steps should you take to build trust and open lines of communication? How should you establish routines? And how do you help remote workers feel part of a team?
At OnLoop, we strive to demystify what it means to be a good manager in this new hybrid work setting through our proprietary Collaborative Team Development™ (CTD) framework. In the pre-pandemic world, you likely had effective management practices in place while working in a room with your entire team. However, the key differentiator in the current setting is ‘intentionality’.
Leaders generally want their people back in the office for one of two reasons: either they are anxious about not being able to ‘see’ people working, or they are accustomed to an in-office setting where they can simply tap someone on the shoulder for a quick 5-minute conversation instead of intentionally preparing for a scheduled online discussion. In this context,
‘Intentionality’ means being very clear about each aspect of work while incorporating rituals and cadences that consistently drive clarity around tasks and expectations.
Being an Effective Hybrid Manager through Intentionality
1. Evaluate your communication strategy
Before creating new workflows and embracing different communication strategies, it’s helpful to assess the existing systems being used by your organization. To get a better idea of the current state of your communication strategy, ask yourself these questions:
How are day-to-day tasks communicated between team members?
How do we usually announce important information to the team?
How do we conduct confidential, one-on-one conversations with employees?
Do we include our remote employees in face-to-face conversations?
Which tools do we use most often when communicating remotely?
Can everyone on your team access these communication tools?
Based on your reflections, you can decide which collaboration software or tools work the best for your team - Zoom, Slack, MSTeams, WhatsApp or any others.
2. Be clear about communication standards and expectations
Once you’ve decided on your communication channels, set up practices that give you more time to chat with your team members - weekly virtual townhalls, 1:1s with reportees, team huddles. Based on your practices, you can clarify how communication works. This includes how they interact with each other, how they impart information to clients, and how they manage projects. For example, do employees keep each other informed about where they’re working for the day by sending an email, text, or via Microsoft Teams?
Take your own preferences into consideration. On Google Meet or Zoom meetings, do you expect team members to keep their cameras on for all meetings or only for project presentations to clients?
Assign which communication channels to use in a simple but direct way. For example:
Company announcements and initial client interactions through email
Weekly huddles, brainstorming sessions, and client presentations on Zoom
Impromptu meetings or conversations throughout the day using Slack
These practices not only give you more visibility it also creates more familiarity and trust within the team.
3. Use the CTD framework to track your team’s performance
OnLoop’s Collaborative Team Development™ (CTD) framework helps managers enhance team effectiveness through five essential layers: Energy, Goals, Celebrate, Improve, and Grow. These layers, which should be managed bottom-up, represent a hierarchy of needs that drive individual and team performance. You can leverage these layers for your hybrid team:
Energy - Check-in with your team every morning. A simple ‘hello, how is everyone today?’ on a shared team channel can start your day with visibility on how your team is doing.
Goals - Use our habit-stacking practices to clarify Targets, Projects and Skills for your team during team huddles and 1:1s.
Celebrate - Implement a system for recognizing and rewarding employees for their achievements and contributions during frequent townhalls or team meetings.
Improve - Use your 1:1s or dedicate a few minutes during your team huddle to reflect on areas for improvement which could encourage team members to be more mindful and prepared.
Grow - Use a data-driven approach to identify your team’s skill gaps and common struggles while setting learning and development initiatives.
Using OnLoop to Automate Action across your Organization
The widespread acceptance of remote work and hybrid teams has ushered in a whole new level of flexibility and freedom for today’s employees. However, getting the most from hybrid communication requires a level of time, effort, and cooperation from us all.
At OnLoop, we have productized these processes to help automate some of these manual practices for teams. Leveraging generative AI, our platform streamlines practices, enabling seamless feedback delivery and fostering a culture of continuous growth.
Ready to unlock the full potential of your team with OnLoop? Book a meeting with us today and discover how our AI-powered platform can revolutionize your hybrid team while fostering a culture of continuous growth!
