There have been many changes in working life during the Covid-19 pandemic. While many employees have experienced working remotely, they have also changed their work-life balance expectations. While some employees said that they found working in an office environment more efficient, many companies switched to a brand new working model. The transition period to the hybrid working model, which offers employees a freer choice regarding the working environment, also led companies to discover new solutions to increase employee motivation and productivity.
So what is the hybrid working model that we have heard a lot recently in this period. Let’s take a closer look!
We can briefly define this working model as remote or semi-remote – office based. In other words, a working combination that allows you to work from the office on certain days of the week and remotely on other days.
Another prominent point in this working model, which provides space and time flexibility for employees, is that it provides the opportunity to establish work-life balance in line with the needs. At this point, especially the impact of the pandemic period increased the demand for this study model.
Currently, many companies around the world are preparing for the transition to the hybrid operating model.
Correct communication plays the most important role:
Especially when working remotely, it becomes more important to communicate within the team. At this point, both managers and employees should make extra effort in communication. In addition, companies are expected to focus on their investments, especially in technology, in order to make communication and cooperation easy and sustainable. On the other hand, the greatest expectations of employees in their relations with their managers are understanding and feeling comfortable. If these expectations fall into uncertainty, the anxiety level of the employees increases and this leads to a decrease in their motivation to work.
The critical point is to maintain mutual trust:
Mutual trust is required to achieve success with remote work. This situation also stands out in the hybrid operating model. Correct communication has a great role in increasing and maintaining the sense of trust. It is important for the managers to restructure their communication methods. Recent studies show that flexible working methods such as the hybrid model are particularly effective in increasing motivation and productivity and revealing creativity. In order to ensure the continuity of this, it plays an important role to make the teams feel that they are trusted and managers should support them in managing their business processes. At this point, the issue to be considered is the protection of workload balance.
Empathy is essential:
It should not be forgotten that the feeling of empathy is the most fundamental thing of communication. Gaining and developing empathy depends on the practice. Especially managers and team leaders should take care to improve themselves in this regard. Many factors affect the motivation to work in the home environment. Parents with children complain most of the distraction while working. On the other hand, employees with family or health problems demand a flexible working model much more than other employees. Therefore, managers need to adopt a fair approach at this point. As a result of this approach ıt allows for the establishment of strong relationships as well as more comfortable sharing of personal problems.
Employee autonomy should be strengthened:
The needs and expectations of each employee differ for an efficient work. While some employees prefer to start and finish work early because they want to spend time in family life, some employees say they can focus more late at night. At this point, it is thought that providing flexibility in terms of time as well as spatial flexibility of working with a hybrid model will be beneficial in terms of both efficiency and motivation.
