Hybrid working strategy at a team level

In my last blog, I looked at Hybrid Working and the key questions any organisation should be addressing in developing an effective Hybrid Working Strategy (HWS). 

In this follow up blog, I want to look at what this means for individual teams and the questions they should be working on to make sure hybrid working is just right for them.

It may seem like a simple matter of taking whatever your company’s Hybrid Working Strategy is and applying it to your team but to make it truly successful I always recommend that my clients adapt and build a bespoke set of policies for their team.

What is more they should build it together as a team and capture it in a document or charter so that they can explain it to others, refer back to it when they need to and quickly onboard any new members of the team.

What are the questions they need to ask themselves? They cover a range of dimensions:

• Strategic questions
  • What do we need to achieve as a team?
  • Which pieces of work are best done when co-located and which when remote? [e.g. analytical and report writing pieces of work to be done remotely whilst brainstorming and creative exercises kept for when teams are co-located]
  • How do we operate when some of team are in the office and some are working remotely? [perhaps it is a case of if ever there is a mix then we do all meetings as though we are working remotely]
    
    
• Practical questions
  • What days do the team prefer to be in and what days do they prefer to work remotely?
  • Which other teams do we need to interact with most and might we benefit from being in on the same days as?
  • Where do we want to sit in the office when we come in?
  • What rules do we agree for when we come in and when we work remotely? [e.g. office working hours are 9-5 so as to maximise the point of co-location or all cameras must be turned on when doing remote working meetings]

• Culture questions
  • How strong are the relationships in the team and what might Hybrid Working do to them? [often if a team hasn’t properly formed and stormed then moving to a Hybrid Working world can be more challenging]
  • How do we maximise the team bonding when we are all co-located?
  • How do we best share feedback with each other when Hybrid Working?

• Capability questions
  • What strengths do we have in the team that will aid our attempts at hybrid working?
  • What pitfalls might we face as a team?
  • What training might we need as a team to make this work?
  • What roles should individual team members take to help make hybrid working a success?

• Review questions
  • How do we monitor if hybrid working is being effective? How often do we review it?
  • How do we keep ourselves accountable to our team charter?
  • How do we celebrate success? What incentives or penalties might help?

Once again, simply asking these questions is not enough; any good team will constantly review and update their approach to hybrid working and this checklist is a good first start. In fact, even broaching the topic as a team is a healthy sign of a functioning team and the perfect place to begin your hybrid working journey.