A hybrid team is a flexible work structure where some employees work on-site, whereas others work remotely. Moreover, employees can choose between working in an office setting or remotely from anywhere in the case of such work structures.
Creating and managing hybrid teams allows organizations to be more adaptable and flexible, which improves employee satisfaction and productivity. Moreover, employees enjoy a better work-life balance and autonomy in hybrid teams, making them more engaged. If you are looking for ways to keep your hybrid team engaged, you’re at the right place. Keep reading to learn more.
Managing Hybrid Team: Tips to Keep Your Workforce Engaged
Here are simple ways to level up your engagement game while managing hybrid teams:
1. Create a Supportive Work Structure
Although hybrid teams are flexible, they require a structure to perform efficiently. Ad structure also helps connect the team and align processes. Moreover, a structure also ensures team collaboration and appropriate connection points. Structured workdays also help leaders become accessible while increasing accountability.
Therefore, a great method to let your team know you are available for help is to work with them to establish a work structure. Regular one-on-one and team meetings are among the most effective ways to create a structure.
Keep the meetings brief to ensure they foster better engagement rather than deterring it. Long meetings may adversely affect the employee’s workflow.
Moreover, to achieve inclusion, you should simultaneously hold all remote and on-site employee meetings. This strategy serves as a reminder that employees can come together as a team, even in hybrid settings.
2. Determine Communication Preferences
In hybrid settings, all employees have diverse tasks and requirements. Therefore, to foster employee engagement, hybrid team leaders must first recognize their set of needs. That said, it is also critical for team leaders to establish when and how team members should communicate, considering their preferences.
Hybrid teams offer a relatively flexible work schedule to employees. For example, some remote employees may have fit quick gym and workout sessions into their work schedule.
Therefore, it would be helpful to discuss and determine communication preferences for team members. For example, this includes communication strategies as simple as sending a message or meeting invite rather than calling without prior notice or replacing long weekly meetings with daily ten-minute syncs.
3. Combat Fatigue Caused By Daily Video Conferences
When meetings and long video conferences take up most of a person’s day, it can result in burnout, reducing employee productivity. In severe cases, burnout may also lead to depression. Therefore, it is best to combat the problem early on.
Employers are adopting employee engagement applications to foster a more collaborative work culture. These applications allow hybrid team leaders to effectively interact with smaller groups, giving individuals who don’t need to be involved a choice in how they spend their time.
To improve employee engagement, you can hold short quizzes, interactive events, and polls during presentations and meetings.
Also, ensure meetings are recorded and made available to those unable to attend. Doing so provides employees access to important meeting materials and guarantees a more long-lasting resource for anyone who requires a second look.
The aim is to find innovative approaches and technologies positive impact on productivity by creating a frictionless workplace ecosystem.
4. Offer Access to Amenities
Huge workloads and long working hours can result in fatigue. Hybrid team leaders can solve this issue by offering amenities and perks to keep employees comfortable at work and home.
For example, this could include on-site health and fitness facilities, games like pool, free lunches, pick-up and drop-offs, free dry cleaning service, healthy snack options, corporate cafes, and more.
The same perks can be offered to off-site workers, for example, free gym memberships, library memberships, and more. You can use workplace experience apps that offer engagement touchpoints to connect all hybrid team members. These tools ensure all employees have access to the same benefits and tools and share the same experiences, regardless of their location.
5. Encourage Teamwork and Mentorship
Collaboration and teamwork are equally important in hybrid settings. However, it takes extra effort to ensure all team betters are well-connective. Hybrid team leaders can promote collaboration and engagement by encouraging personalized interactions, developing genuine relations, and adopting an open-door policy.
You should always be available to offer additional support and help team members. When all team members become comfortable answering and asking questions, they can work together and improve their skills.
As a manager, you may promote these connections by encouraging teamwork and establishing mentorships amongst workers with varying experience levels. This method of teaming up encourages accountability and collaboration among employees.
6. Offer Employees Fresh and Innovative Engagement tools
Although communication tools such as Teams and Slack are great for encouraging employee collaboration, they don’t do much for employee engagement.
Therefore, offering other innovative tools for employees to share their experiences, offer feedback, and connect without switching between different applications and tools would be beneficial. These tools can maintain team communication across distances and promote engagement.
Final Word
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