The workplace has changed drastically after the pandemic lockdown. Meetings, documentation, and other activities became online. By now, most businesses have offered remote working options for their employees and for some hybrid working. Hybrid work arrangements are a flexible work model that balances working from home and in the office. With technology like no-code development, many businesses were able to continue despite being locked at home, However, this showed that employees can still be productive even if they are not present in the office.
With the Great Resignation showing how much employees value remote working, hybrid working was born. In a survey done by Dimensional Research, 57% would consider leaving their company if they had to return to the office full-time. This is why businesses that did not adopt lost a lot of talent. Hybrid work led to the need for guidance in hybrid leadership. Department heads and leaders need to adapt to this new work arrangement to foster productivity and efficiency.
What are the challenges of a hybrid work arrangement and how can technology like no-code help leaders?
As much as hybrid work is favored by employees on the freedom from commuting and dealing with office dynamics, leaders and managers are configuring their style. This can be seen not only in big businesses but small to medium, size businesses as well. For them to create a hybrid leadership, they need to identify its challenges of it.
Building a Company Culture
Company culture can be best experienced when people are at the office. By doing this the positive values exhibited by other members can be practiced by others. When you're working remotely, it is a challenge to stay connected with your colleagues and build rapport. Why is it important? Having a good working relationship with the team allows for a better working environment and higher productivity. If teams are aloof, indifferent and at worse, fighting with one another, it can lead to a disorganized team. Even connecting with other departments with people you dont know can be tricky when done online.
Managing and monitoring productivity in the office can be a challenge to some industries and most especially in hybrid setups. Maintaining a productive routine can be difficult if an employee is exposed to other things in their home. However, businesses are slowly adapting and realizing that productivity is not a function of physical location but rather of output.
It can be difficult to find a balance between tackling tasks that have the greatest impact and a sense of accomplishment. Managing tasks within the work time can be difficult to monitor when someone is not in the office. Just like productivity, some leaders are beginning to see creative ways to measure efficiency without the need to actually “see“ an employee.
By understanding what kind of manager you are, you will begin to realize the things you can change and the reason behind it. According to this study, there are 4 types of hybrid managers
These leaders are the holy grail. They are growth-oriented, open-minded, and skilled at addressing people which offers the greatest leadership for a hybrid workforce.
These leaders anticipate a successful hybrid workforce in the future but lack the necessary abilities to successfully manage a hybrid workforce.
These leaders can be great hybrid managers but don’t believe their teams will be successful in the hybrid environment.
These leaders have a fixed attitude and reject innovative prospects.
There had been a dozen tools that can cater to better communication even when working remotely. No-code has been essential in helping teams collaborate easier even if they are a mix of tech and non-tech departments. No-code tools have been beneficial to prevent online meetings from being boring as well. However, these tools will be worthless if people are not willing to participate.
During on-site meetings, focus on team meetings and interactions so they have a growing connection even if they will be working remotely from one another.
Probably the hardest and most complicated part of the job is giving and receiving trust in your team. A team with good trust issues can work more productively since they can rely on each other to do the work even if you didn't see them do the work. This can be developed by frequent communication, building a more aligned team, and developing reliability. By placing good trust, you can avoid common managerial mistakes like micromanaging and growing insecurity.
Trust and togetherness are imperative to support employee innovation and creativity. Plan the week together so you will know each person’s deliverables and this can lessen the strain among the team.
Hybrid work is the future. When employees saw that their productivity and efficiency can be managed and done remotely, people in general don’t want to waste time and money commuting to work anymore. However, team rhythm will not be fully recognized if there is no connection. Managers need to balance the benefits and disadvantages of a remote workplace to keep their team running. This can be done by adopting new strategies and utilizing technology like no-code.
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