5 Tips For Fostering A Successful Hybrid Workplace

Businesses figured out how to work remotely on the fly when COVID-19 rapidly disrupted our way of working.

Those planning to adopt a hybrid work model when they return to the office still have time to prepare. But managing a distributed team comes with its own unique challenges, like:

— What does hybrid look like for your company?

— How do you keep remote employees engaged?

— What apps and software do you need to create a seamless experience?

These are tough questions to answer and you’re unlikely to please everyone. But you get a chance to build a new office culture, and there’s something exciting about that.

“If I think about a transformational time for how people work — this is it,” says Megan Jarvis, vice president of talent at Lessonly, a software company headquartered in Indianapolis. “The door is open for companies to rethink how they work.”

GET EMPLOYEE BUY-IN EARLY

The biggest mistake you can make is rolling out a plan void of any employee input. Bring your team into the fold early, survey them to gauge their concerns and preferences, then enlist a select few to be part of a return-to-office committee.

Those employees will have skin in the game and will help get other employees on board when you announce your return-to-office plan, Jarvis says.