How are Managers effectively managing their teams in a Hybrid Working Schedule?
The necessity of the time required a supple behavior. Thus, the competency of the hybrid working schedule took up the baton. But, the building and the adaptability to the newfangled hybrid working environment were never too easy.
Since the post-pandemic times, corporations have efficiently managed to keep up the work and take care of their employees together!
The basic pillar behind these accomplishments’ are the industry managers. Their efforts and experience are the primary reason behind the sustainability of the hybrid working model nowadays!
Proceeding ahead in this article, we will be stating the following
- What are managers doing to manage the workings?
- Tips from Experts
- Advantages and disadvantages of a hybrid working schedule.
- How to build a hybrid working schedule?
What are managers doing to manage the workings?
The preparing up of the hybrid working schedule was new for everyone. The better ongoing of the business was completely based on the shoulders of the managers. They did a fabulous job in maintaining the business workings and also taking care of the employees. Let’s see how the managers took up the job and executed it.
Preparing Working schedules
The major obstacle found was how to divide the work between WFO and WFH. Also, whom to align the remote job and whom to ask to join the office.
Depending upon the job roles and the need of the hour, the managers scheduled the process for the complete team.
In major of the corporates, the managerial positions were asked to join the office for work. The aligned employees for the task were then bifurcated with their schedules. The Initials were performed in the office where all of the concerned members were all together communicating, panning and brainstorming, and when the planning is completed they can perform remotely.
Scheduling Progressive and scrum meets
The scheduling of daily progressive meets and scrum meets payed the major role in employee engagements and receiving proper reports of the tasks performed by each individual. This helped in time management and increase in productivity creating more efficiency towards the work.
Sprint Plannings
In order to ease the work, sprint came up. Sprints are the table where the tasks of a short span of time like say 15 days are set prehand with the estimated time. The estimated time here is equal to the number of working hours claimed in that period of time.
At the end of the sprint, the managers need to check whether the sprint is perfectly performed or not. And, if any of the tasks are incomplete or not worked upon then a fair reason need to be mentioned by the employees!
Planning of team parties and get-togethers
Breaks are also very important. They help in reducing stress and burnouts. Therefore, in these hybrid working culture it was observed that the team outings, parties and get-togethers increased significantly. It helps in meeting the team members and spend some goos time. It also increases the motivation in the employees!
Moving ahead, let’s showcase some of the tips from the industry experts and follow the path they obtained for successive growth by creating opportunities in disasters!
Tips from Experts
One thing is for sure: the hybrid working module is here to stay, and stay longer! The top tech industry giants have already adapted and created the formulae of being on track and utilizing the benefits of this novel culture which is warmly welcomed worldwide by all. Let’s look at the top brands and their hybrid working schedules.
Apple announced for 3 days WFO mandatorily and 2 days WFH as per their choice.
Microsoft stated its employees to be present in the office and work for at least half a week. On the other hand, the employees can opt to complete work from anywhere if the management agrees.
Linkedin left this decision to their employees will. They are free to choose their working module!
Spotify employees have the liberty to work both from the office and home. Also, in the locations where Spotify doesn’t have an office, it offers its employees an allowance to hire co-working spaces.
Twitter also provides location flexibility to employees.
The majority of the companies are doing so. But, the backbone behind these offerings is a perfectly planned and monitored hybrid working norms and schedules so that there is no space to compromise with the awesomeness of the culture within and the profits!
Building up the same, let’s look at the supposed secrets of the management used to fix the hybrid working schedules.
Bhagyashree Pancholi, All Remotely (Owner)
“I would say, manage the team as if it was an all remote team. And as a manager, to keep room for project and communication delays, as this happens a lot. Delays happen often, but will only reduce with time as the team evolves to adopt to the hybrid work, processes are refined, and communication is restored.”
She has been working for the last 4+ years and managing 62 members’ present cross-borders. She published India’s 1st remote work survey in 2018.
Shyam Mishra, Make Web Better (CTO)
“Process, for me, is the key to success. Whenever it is a planning or research phase for any project, we need the members boarded to office, sit together, and brainstorm and come up with fascinating results, else if everything is decided prehand then WFH is always there on priority.”
He holds expertise in WordPress and WooCommerce.Leads projects eCommerce solutions, CRMs, and Mobile development for approximately a decade now!
Ketan Mishra, CEDCOSS Technologies (Creative Head)
“To me, the most important thing is connectivity. Whether it be working from the office or WFH. Teams need to remember the ‘quick-conversation’ atmosphere, which was very vital for effective and efficient implementation and understanding of a project, tasks, sprints, or any corporate affair for that instance. It’s important to note that COVID-19 brought hard times, but along with that, it has also catalyzed the evolution of various businesses. Today, most businesses have embraced technologies that can replicate the ‘in-office’ environment as far as communication is concerned. No wonder change is always constant..”
Ryan Fyfe, Insightful (COO)
“The most important thing is to establish clear goals and objectives for the team and make sure everyone is on the same page.”
Sheila Nero, Nero Communications (Blogger, Speaker, and Coach)
“I’d recommend that they see their team as a collection of individuals juggling different priorities. It’s a team, yes, but it’s a team whose portrait is a mosaic. Working at home some days will mean personal aspects emerge. While fairness, policies, and equity are important, discussions will vary when managing, for example, the parents of young children who want more flexible hours and Gen Z workers who may prefer their days in the office because they’re living with their parents. There can be no one-size-fits-all exactly, because personal situations differ, but there can be consistent expectations for all.”
Shruti Tiwari, CedCommerce (Content Lead)
“As much as I miss my good old ‘office’ days, I am still trying to adapt to the hybrid work culture. Being a people person, I have always loved making friends, and CEDCOSS has always been my second home. I shall miss this all the time (if the hybrid work continues). However, the hybrid work culture has its advantages of giving you the flexibility to work from literally anywhere. All you need is a good wifi connection and your laptop, and you are sorted for the rest of your trip!
For me, it is about perfect balancing between WFO and WFH.”
There is a lot for you in these tips. Let’s club them up.
- Create processes that help you and your team communicate effectively.
- Schedule adequate deadlines
- Help your employees maintain a perfect balance between WFO and WFH
- Build strategies for the betterment of the company’s growth
- Provide the employees with opportunities to grow
- Offer end-to-end Support
- Maintain a broad perspective
And you will emerge as a perfect manager managing the expectations of your employees and your company together.
Advantages and disadvantages OF Hybrid Working Schedule
Remote working is the choice of people now. It has smothered the culture of permanently working from the office (At least for now).
According to a survey, 37% of employees prefer permanent work from home, while 63% of them love the idea of a hybrid working schedule.
Everything has both pros and cons, and so has the hybrid working culture. Let’s throw some light on them and start with their advantages.
Advantages of hybrid Working culture
Low running operational costs
The expenditure of running a full-fledged working space has been lowered to a great extent. While if we work from the office, the management need
s to take care of the parking, cafeteria, office boys, Guard, electricity bills, Internet, rentals, and much more. While hybrid working, no such costs are involved. In fact, for the betterment and employees’ welfare,, these savings can be used for team parties, outings, events, etc, giving employees more satisfaction and motivation.
Work-Life Balance
You don’t need to rush to the office, spend the whole day working and come back home every day fatigued. The hybrid working schedule allows you to have time for yoand your family. The employee needs to understand the authority of the work and the given deadline to perform the tasks. If this is done well, he can easily achieve a proper balance between work and life.
Better Collaborative Working
With the use of the latest technological tools, employees can connect and brainstorm on projects being in more collaboration with internal and diversified teams.
Access to a pool of talent
Working in a hybrid culture gives you an opportunity to reach brilliant minds anywhere possible and achieve possible results in a short span of time.
Disadvantages of hybrid working culture
Failure in communication
If in any way, you are not able to communicate with the team properly, that will result in work delays and enhanced pressure. So, it is very important to maintain a proper communication.
Excess Burnout
You don’t know when your mate is having a happy time with the close ones or is not reachable for some or other, and you have an urgent requirement. The only way is to wait for him and have an extra workload on yourself. Well, this is just the scenario. Things like this are common in a hybrid working environment. So, an adequate functioning to eradicate these issues should be in place.
Keeping Up the schedules
Being a manager, you need to see that the scheduling of the working of your employees is easy and consistent. Failure to keep it up may take you to several variations, which can hamper productivity and results as desired.
Build personal relationships
A hybrid working environment brings a hurdle in building and maintaining personal relationships, so if you are the kind of person you need to be present out of the box and maintain your personal well-wishers and friends.
If you are new to the managerial level or want to enhance your skills in hybrid working culture, here are pointers through which you can build a healthy hybrid working schedule!
How to build a hybrid working schedule?
It was all initiated with remote working. During the pandemic, when everything was enclosed within the abodes’, the businesses were operational as all of us were working from home. But, it was a critical solution to that scenario.
For the betterment, it was sooner realized that the operations could not be completely dependent upon remote, and then hybrid working schedules were implemented.
The hybrid working models are such that the people with peculiar assignments will work by their physical presence, and the rest can be remote. Another way round, the set schedules would be allotted, stating the allocations of WFO and WFH on set dates for everyone.
The aspect of analytics for a healthy work culture depends on the following,
- Employee Engagement
- Productivity
- Time management
- Revenue
Engagements:-
To build a culture where no one feels left behind. In a hybrid working culture, it is very genuine that people are not regularly connected and communicated with each other.
Lack of effective communication can lead to friction, confusion, and frustration in professional beings. Therefore, routing effective communication paths within the team and among concerned members is very valuable and contributes much to healthy work culture.
Productivity:-
Productivity here refers to the work an individual performs in a certain amount of time. Being in distracted scenarios like Work from home or the hybrid working schedule where you need to get on and off from the office’s physical presence, it is very important to maintain and increase your productivity.
Time management:-
It is the process of planning and executing the workload assigned to you within the set deadlines with the highest quality of work.
Managing your time well helps you become more productive with fewer stress ratios and obtain a perfect work-life balance!
Revenue:-
This is the end result. After all, everything works well if the business is making money. And, you, as an employee, are a part of the system. It’s on your shoulders that your brand makes good revenue and stands upright!
To build a sustainable hybrid working schedule, being a manager, you need to pay thorough attention that these pointers are fulfilled considerably and revised with corrective measures at certain intervals of time-based upon the requirements of the business niche!
Conclusion
Everything has its own presence and aura. It depends on the process and taking responsibility, and a hybrid working schedule is a gem for you. The manager’s strategies and planning are taking up the responsibility of taking care of the team and the company.
If you wish to be a part of any such organization which is excelling by maintaining all the required parameters, you need to get off your couch and find something which suits you best.
Hope this will bring good results in your managerial journey ahead. In case of any queries, you can contact us in the comment section.
Hasta la vista!
