LEADERSHIP
Good Recognition for Hybrid Employees is Essential for Workplace Success Kim Harrison, Cutting Edge Hybrid work looks like it is continuing to evolve as the way of the future. The concept of a hybrid workplace is very appealing, but employees in hybrid work modes can be difficult to manage because their varied locations make team management, communication, and relationships more difficult. What’s really important in managing hybrid workers is the culture created along the way. Among the important cultural conclusions is that good recognition for hybrid employees is essential for workplace success. • Hybrid working is here to stay. That’s the key message from Microsoft’s global 2022 Work Trend Index,” published in World Economic Forum (WEF) article in April 2022. • Regardless of their current situation, nearly seven in 10 workers say they would prefer to be fully remote or hybrid, according to a February 2022 Gallup study of over 12,000 US employees,” published in Gallup article in March 2022. • “9 out of 10 organizations are switching to hybrid working, according to McKinsey survey,” published in WEF article in May 2021. What is hybrid work? Hybrid work is a flexible work mode in which employees work partly in the physical workplace, and partly remotely – at home or from another workspace. The extent of the hybrid mode being used varies according with each the organization using it. Workers may come to the office on most days, a couple of days per week, or may only attend a monthly staff meeting in person periodically, e.g., once a month. Some organizations may use a combination of all of those, tailored to the requirements of each business unit and the individuals employed there. Hybrid working started around five decades ago, with flexible working and teleworking gaining popularity with the emergence of personal computers in the 1970s and then with the internet in the 1990s. However, at the beginning of 2020, still only 5% of work hours in America were spent at home. Then COVID forced a dramatic change. By spring 2020 this had risen to 60%. And by October 2021, that figure was still at 40%. 30 ROTOWORLD® ISSUE 2 • 2022
This has been a worldwide trend. Millions of people who had never had the opportunity or interest in working away from an office were now experiencing a different mode of work, and many found they could work as effectively in a hybrid or remote mode. However, a hybrid workforce is more diversified than organizations expected. For example, Canadian company, BI Worldwide (BIW) reports that they employ a multi-generational workforce, with baby boomers leaving the workforce in a few years and Gen Z entering the workforce. This generational shift has changed the landscape and how they engage employees. BIW employs flextime workers, gig workers, part-time, and contractors. The company has people who work in an office vs. a factory or a retail store or a warehouse. They have a vast range of employees with different personalities. How they handle the new work environment, their personal situations at home and in life, and, of course, the growing diversity of the workforce, is something they must contend. Experts predict the hybrid workplace will continue in the foreseeable future. Some employers will see great advantages in it, but others may decide innovation, creativity, and collaboration work better when everyone is together. It will depend on what top management consider are the net benefits and costs.
