There’s no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to re-evaluate the way they operate. For some, the shift to remote working has been a success, with employees proving that they can be just as productive outside of the office as inside. However, there are also challenges that come with this new way of working, and as we enter a new phase of the pandemic, businesses are faced with the question of whether to return to the office or continue with remote working.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, and it will ultimately come down to what works best for your business. However, these factors may influence your decision.

Top 7 Benefits of Hybrid Workplaces

If you are a business leader considering a hybrid workplace, here are the top seven benefits you should know about:

1. Balance / Employee Satisfaction
   Greatly-reduced commuting time provides more time for individual interests and pursuits. Increasing numbers of online collaboration tools pave the way for timely interaction. 
2. Less emphasis on facades
   The status of workwear brands has taken a back seat to the ability to create and produce in a timely fashion.
3. Positive Impact on mental health
   WFH can provide the space many people need during critical times of crises.
4. Increased competitiveness in the talent war
   When flexibility is at the core of organizations, it attracts those who ‘make things happen’ in their own way. They seek empowerment, trust and ownership and are repelled by a supervised timetabled approach. 
5. Increased Productivity
   Less distraction and/or office politics reduces the chance of diluted productivity. 
6. Reduced FFE business costs
   Furniture, fixtures and fittings were previously an essential asset, yet now can be downsized.
7. Shift in operating culture
   Micromanagement is dying a natural demise, paving the way for trust and empowerment

There is an 8^th research-based benefit, ‘hot off the press’ at the time of publishing this blog post, as shared by @Siobhan Morrin, Editor of LinkedIN, July 2022. Morrin quotes research from Stanford University: 

“Hybrid work arrangements make people less likely to quit, research shows. Nicholas Bloom, remote work expert at Stanford University in the US, says quit rates are down and satisfaction is higher at a range of global firms that offer hybrid work options, with attrition falling 35% at one tech firm. Surveys have shown that workers prefer hybrid work, citing benefits such as less frequent commuting and better work-life balance. It’s these advantages that lead Bloom to believe hybrid work will thrive, even in the face of economic downturn.“

CHALLENGES FOR HYBRID WORKPLACES

Challenges always accompany any major change: resistance to change, changing structure, resourcing and policy requirements, the need for ever-evolving training and support, along with the probability of unforeseen problems and reactions. These ‘mountains’ have been climbed in many differing change contexts previously, and therefore will also be able to be navigated for the ‘to hybrid or not to hybrid’ argument with a little thinking, exploring and planning. There’s absolutely no reason these challenges should become insurmountable barriers for this current ‘hybrid’ issue.

The bottom line is that the decision to move to a hybrid workplace is not one to be taken lightly. It’s a complex challenge that requires careful planning, thoughtful execution, and – perhaps most importantly – strong leadership that allows people their freedom, and moment to shine. Are you up for the task?

We help organizations build their hybrid workplace

The post 7 Reasons why the future of work is hybrid. appeared first on business en motion.

To work digitally some days and talk to a computer screen for 8 hours does take effort, self-discipline and organization for a myriad of reasons. To turn up physically on other days and interact with on-again, off-again face to face relationships can at the very least be, inconsistent. Inconsistency erodes dependency, a vital ingredient of trust.

Yet why has the evolution of hybrid workplaces become such a tricky one to navigate? Could the dilemma actually be rooted in something much more profound than balance sheets, productivity formulae and satisfaction surveys? Could hybrid models currently be challenged by the very concept of leadership, or more specifically, self-leadership?

When the ability to trust, or be trusted declines, two vitally-important human beliefs are negatively impacted:

• The concept of ‘I matter’
  • ‘I matter’ ordinarily breeds an air of self-worth, self-confidence and self-care, recognizing and rewarding social, emotional and economic well-being.

• The concept of ‘making a difference’
  • When ‘I matter’, purpose-driven beliefs can emerge and extend into, I can ‘make a difference’ is also nurtured, inferring that even in the toughest of times, opportunity exists to contribute, and build ‘we-ness’.

When an environment revolves around positive self-leadership , around empowerment for thinking and acting differently, along with the anchors of ‘I matter’ and hence ‘I can make a difference’, it is not unusual to see processes updated, customer satisfaction actions increasing, efficiency suggestions more forthcoming, creativity soaring, an emerging willingness to step beyond the known, openness of sharing increasing, impartial and frequent recognition, all without intervention, coercion or demands of the leader. In any hybrid model which depends on trust at its core, positive and creative action that sparks change just seems ‘the right thing to do’ for the team members, firstly because they care and secondly, they are cared for. 

Everyday heroes do exist around us, yet there still can be a vast increase in their numbers to tip the power in rapidly-evolving hybrid corporations. Team members without title, position or authority often feel so compelled to make a change because the alternative is simply unacceptable to them. For example, the informal leader (individual contributor) who watched her 150 colleagues receive redundancy notices during the pandemic could not sit back and watch her colleagues’ livelihoods collapse. She stepped into the unknown, reached for What’s App and requested help from anyone able to give, and within days, a series of remote, rolling learning initiatives was underway, giving these people opportunity to reposition their careers with new skills. Not only was she self empowered, yet also her contribution had far-reaching positive impact. All was achieved without question, approvals or policy from managers or leaders, rather just courage, commitment and capability – just pure self-empowerment.

The future of work should not be about ‘to be or not to be hybrid’ but rather ‘to be or not to be trusting and trusted’  within any future hybrid environment. This is, after all the space where true difference will emerge and endure, or simply be locked away forever. Could business afford the latter?

More Resources

hybridIt with heart – a strategic yet sensitive business approach to hybrid work

‘business en motion’ youtube page

The Leadership Challenge® Self Empowered

The post The evolution of the hybrid workplace appeared first on business en motion.

Refreshingly-retro or adaptively-now? We say ‘both’.  Engaging intention or intriguingly-impactful? We say ‘both’.  

The Leadership Challenge® Suite leads in so many ways, through equally as many channels. Workshops are just one of many – what! In 2022, still a workshop! Oh yes indeed, workshops with a difference; we keep them relevant for today’s 70-20-10 learning rule.

Imagine the difference in ‘adaptively-now’, ‘intriguingly-impactful’ workshops. Embedding the 20 into the workshop suite, the social learning, the social media, the social experience, the social communities, the social support groups, the social networking, alongside the 70 of experiential reality, team and relationship application and solution-making makes for a winning combo in 2022.

The Leadership Challenge® Workshop, facilitated by Certified Master, Debbie Nicol

• astoundingly simple to apply the practices and behaviors
• meet yourself from where you are
• data-driven information steers your decisions
• highly dynamic and interactive, online or face-to-face  

The Leadership Challenge® Facilitator Workshop, facilitated by Certified Master, Debbie Nicol

• co-creating resources and pathways that suit differing needs
• find yourself in the methodology, while becoming the methodology
• emerge ‘with title’, while understanding the responsibility you now carry
• create the future with others; digitalize the experience 

The LPI® Coach Training Workshop, facilitated by Certified Master, Debbie Nicol

• short, sharp, indisputable results
• correlations for depth
• a toolbox for coaching

Be the change that keeps workshops (in any format, in any structure, using any mode) alive, dynamic and relevant. Is that your challenge – your leadership challenge?

The post Refreshingly-retro or adaptively-now? appeared first on business en motion.