Hybrid work has much to recommend it. As Gallup research shows, it’s linked to higher engagement than on-site work, and the majority of US employees prefer it to entirely in-office or completely remote work.
But reaping the benefits of hybrid work requires intentionality and having the right mindset. Recently, remote work experts Gleb Tsipursky and Ben Wigert. Tsipursky, CEO of the hybrid work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts and author of the book, Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams, and Wigert, director of research and strategy of workforce management at Gallup, recently shared their top tips for making hybrid work successful with CFO Brew.
Quotes from their interviews have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Consider a team-led model in which teams decide on their own hybrid boundaries.
Tsipursky: When you look at the research, that’s the model that best combines engagement and productivity. Collaboration is effective. Decisions are made at the level where they really need to be made, where people know how and when they need to come in. A sales team is going to have different needs and project management than an IT team, which might have two-week agile spreads, than an accounting team which needs to come in maybe a few times at the end of the month to close the books.
Wigert: We ask team members to commit to a team charter which outlines their mission, their goals, and their performance metrics, and then they agree to the guidelines that help them work together most effectively in a hybrid work environment.
Have team check-ins at least quarterly.
Wigert: Check-ins are a good opportunity for team building, camaraderie, and employee engagement, but also to discuss [individual] progress towards the team goals. By having that conversation first, it sets you up for more productive individual one-on-one conversations about how the work’s getting done and what you need. It also gives you a time and place to work on your team from a cultural or collaboration standpoint.
Create a set of shared expectations.
Tsipursky: There are a number of other elements of a hybrid-first culture—for example, creating a hybrid work playbook. One of the challenges with hybrid work is: How do you communicate information? Where do you store information? Having a hybrid-first policy involves setting and developing those shared expectations so that everyone is on the same page.
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Train managers on how to lead remotely.
Wigert: There are very few managers who’ve actually been trained to lead in the hybrid environment, despite them being the No. 1 determinant of the team’s engagement. Ultimately, managers are the linchpin of how your team works together, how they perform, how they feel about the organization. And right now, they’re just really overwhelmed. They’re just not getting the support they need.
Use the right criteria to track performance.
Wigert: Unpack performance expectations [for individuals] in terms of their individual achievement expectations, their team collaboration expectations, and their customer impact expectations. Back into that with the metrics and goals that make the most sense for that employee. That’s a good place to start when you’re worried about the productivity of your remote workers, because not only are you defining success, but you’re defining it in a well-rounded way that can ensure they’re getting the work done. And now the manager or leader can be more comfortable that they know how things are going regardless of where that person is working.
Have a mentoring program for newer staff.
Tsipursky: There’s extensive research showing that junior folks are less productive when they’re hired remotely unless the companies apply the right approach to mentoring.
[For a hybrid mentoring] program, you want to have two mentors for each person. One needs to be from the person’s own team, and will [cover] the tasks solely associated with a team: their primary on-the-job training, what kind of activities are involved, the team dynamics and team etiquette. Ideally, if possible, you would want to start those meetings in person.
The second mentor [would be] from outside your team. And that person’s goal will be to help you develop connections across the organization because one of the big challenges with remote work is that people don’t find connections across the organization.
And the third element is a group mentoring cohort, with a senior person who is mentoring a group of four to six junior people, because you get a lot of benefit from learning from your peers.