Research* reveals numerous benefits to hybrid working, including improved agility, collaboration, and team performance. However, to ensure these advances aren’t just a novelty, organisations and their HR teams must be aware of some of the challenges that come with this new world of work that’s becoming the norm.

The international study by global people development company Insights, surveyed 3,000 office workers across Europe and North America and despite an overwhelming sense of positivity, hybrid managers require additional support in key areas. Particularly, ensuring new hybrid colleagues are properly onboarded, that strong, authentic relationships are established and maintained, and that there is sufficient support to avoid feelings of loneliness and being less visible.

Indeed, 76% of managers said that making strong connections with team members and onboarding new colleagues was challenging. Over a quarter of managers fear being less visible when working in a hybrid way and that, therefore, their contribution is less valued. Meanwhile, one-in-five managers report struggling with feelings of loneliness. Additionally, almost one-third of managers feel that they needed to prove their worth when working from home.

It’s clear from this research that HR professionals must find new ways to help managers develop themselves for the hybrid environment and have the skills to build and maintain positive team dynamics.

Investment in awareness and a common language for communication are the keys that can enhance the experience of individual managers and their teams – and shift hybrid working from being a success because it is something new, into a long-term solution.

Awareness
Awareness is essential for developing those brilliant human skills of compassion, communication, adaptability, collaboration, and conflict resolution that lead to improved relationships, and better personal and business outcomes.

Take time to activate awareness in individual team members, helping them identify their personal strengths and growth areas. This ensures that each team member is confident about what they can bring to the team, as well as what they might want to learn from their peers or managers. Individual assessments, profiles, and coaching are useful approaches.

Activate people’s awareness about the strengths and growth opportunities of their fellow team members as a way to build collaboration, emotional intelligence, and agility in a team. Workshops or facilitated opportunities for team members enable them to share what they bring to the team and what they would like to learn with and from the team.

Common language
Alongside increased awareness, Insights Discovery’s common language of colour can help make it easier and more memorable for people to understand themselves and others. Talking about issues in a non-judgmental, non-confrontational way, in a manner that is underpinned by mutual respect and positive regard, builds trust and cohesion. As a result, when a team faces a challenge, they use the strength of their connection to reach a positive outcome.

When a team comes together or the team’s make-up changes, take the time to review or refresh the team’s individual and collective strengths and growth opportunities. When managers make this a priority, team members are more likely to feel comfortable taking the initiative to extend these conversations themselves as well.

From novelty to a long-term solution
We know that hybrid teams have the potential for excellent quality and quantity of work. When correctly built and supported, the hybrid team structure can make it easier to pull together the right people at the right time for the right project, removing limitations of geography or other requirements for co-located teams.

However, in order to reap these benefits managers must be aware of some of the challenges that hybrid teams face, which is often in the area of building cohesive working relationships. They must invest wisely, both upfront and on an ongoing basis, to build and nurture strong relationships among team members. Equally, it’s incumbent on HR professionals to provide the right amount of information and support to achieve this.

*New Insights research