Talent is always in short supply. An organisation that has secured some bright individuals with lots of potential can’t afford to lose them in the first few months because they felt lost, out of their depth and unsupported. But this is a real risk with hybrid working.
How much did I learn from being in an open plan office listening to experienced colleagues on the phone or simply asking one of them how I should tackle this problem , what to do, who to contact, when to use the phone, when to use email and when to do it face to face. Questions I had but didn’t want to bother my line manager with who was in any case out of the office much of the time.
Some times it was tips like make a list and cross off tasks when completed and better still if you’re having a frustrating and unproductive day put tasks already completed on your list and then cross them off, very satisfying. If you’re going to ring people up write down what you want to say beforehand because people are busy and they appreciate someone who is clear and to the point.
The flexibility of working from home and doing away with the commute to work may be very attractive but this needs to be balanced with psychological needs that are met by face to face contact, working along side others, fostering cooperation and developing a team spirit. This is particularly important for young people starting out perhaps less important for the older more experienced worker.
In recognition of this many organisations that adopted hybrid working have introduced Office Days and Check-in’s. Yes check ins with the boss can be done on line but especially for new young employees a weekly, gradually moving to fortnightly, face to face will allow the relationship to develop and provide much needed support in the early days.
When every one was office based team meetings were hopefully business like with a focused agenda on work issues because there was plenty of opportunities for what use to be called the ,”water cooler “ conversations now these meetings need serve a broader purpose. Now the informal catch-up takes place over a team lunch which follows the weekly team meeting. The team building yearly away day may now benefit from being a quarterly event.
The needs of teams will vary depending on circumstances, history and make up but the social side is more important in a hybrid set up so getting together to celebrate successes , religious festivals and birthdays are opportunities not to be missed.
In the old days you used to get to meetings early and have a chat with colleagues before the meeting started, some times the chair would encourage this informality by asking colleagues if they had seen the match or was any else watching Line of Duty/Game of Thrones. After the meeting there was an opportunity to ,” have a word “ may be even a coffee. This all got knocked on the head as we responded to increased workloads and the pressure to be more business like.
But Hybrid working is making us recognise the importance of the social side of business, starting with making opportunities for new starters to integrate themselves, feel they belong and have joined a friendly supportive organisation.
