9 Ways to Manage Hybrid Employees for Better Productivity

Transparency and setting clear expectations have always been organizational best practices, but they are even more essential in a hybrid model, where employees have less visibility into colleagues’ work lives and experience more variability in working processes. 

“Enable employees to spend less time figuring out how to do the work and more time actually doing the work,” says Duffy. Visibility into others’ schedules is one way to improve employee performance, engagement and inclusion in a hybrid model. However, less than half of organizations do this.

Many leaders may still believe teams need to return to the office to generate innovative work, and 41% of HR leaders think innovation has worsened due to hybrid work. However, the reality is that asynchronous collaboration has nearly the same impact on team innovation as synchronous work. 

“To succeed in the new normal, organizations must balance different collaboration modes — both synchronous and asynchronous — to unlock employees’ full potential,” says Duffy. “This requires a deeper understanding of employees and the work they do.” For example, extroverted employees may perform best with access to on-site, in-person collaboration, while introverted employees may excel when working individually in their own spaces. New hires may benefit from working on-site alongside their peers, while caregivers may find that collaborating virtually best accommodates their schedules.

Effective recognition motivates recipients and serves as a strong signal of behaviors their colleagues should strive to emulate. Recognition doesn’t need to be monetary; consider public acknowledgment, tokens of appreciation, high-visibility development opportunities and low-cost perks. 

Given decreased visibility in a hybrid work environment, use simple pulse surveys to ask specific questions or track output to collect data and find opportunities for recognition. By meeting with employees and asking what barriers they have overcome or how their peers have helped them, you can identify behaviors worth recognizing and reward and share the accomplishments of teams and individuals more broadly.

This may require more than just a mobile phone and laptop. Even if you don’t have an extensive set of technology and collaboration tools available or budget to offer them, you can equip employees to function effectively both remotely and on-site. But don’t assume that people automatically know how to operate with virtual communications — or are comfortable working in that environment. 

Acknowledge that virtual communications are different — and won’t be perfect — but should still be professional and respectful. Be mindful that they may be less comfortable and effective for some, and create norms around how to escalate ineffective virtual exchanges. For example, if you haven’t settled an issue within six emails, the conversation may need to shift to a virtual meeting to get closure.