5 Steps to Create a Sustainable Hybrid Workplace

How to Maintain a Sustainable Hybrid Workplace

The 5 steps to create and maintain a sustainable hybrid workplace are: building a back-to-office roadmap based on employee input, communicating plans clearly, personalizing engagement activities, understanding competencies and behaviours, and continuously monitoring satisfaction levels.

The hybrid model of work, meaning a workforce that works flexibly both in the office and remotely, has been quickly adopted across many teams following the pandemic. The benefits have expanded beyond keeping everyone safe, with employees gaining better work-life balance and companies gaining access to a global talent pool.

This way of working is here to stay, and some teams are still considering how to adopt it. Others shifted to hybrid quickly as a COVID response, but often overlook maintaining and tweaking the model to keep it sustainable long-term.

We spoke to people leaders of successful hybrid companies and identified 5 common themes to create and maintain this new way of working successfully.

1. Back to Office Roadmap: Understand Employee Expectations

This is an essential first step to creating a model that fits the culture of your business and people. Without incorporating their needs into your plans, changing their way of work will be more divisive than beneficial.

There are several ways to do this, and the simpler and more honest, the better.

• Collect Suggestions: A digital, anonymous "Suggestion Box" is an extremely effective way to do this, giving all employees a voice and freeing them to improve their surroundings. Anonymity is key, as it encourages conversation at every level and creates a culture of open, honest feedback. Everyone can see the suggestions being replied to and interact with them.
• Deliver Pre and Post Employee Engagement Surveys. The most widely used way of understanding employees. You can use engagement question examples to find out what your employees are thinking before and after they return to the office.

You can check the following questions prior to coming back to the office:

• How many days a week do you prefer to work from the office?
• Which days are more suitable for you to work from the office?
• Which of our offices would you choose as a co-working space?
• Do you prefer to hold team meetings in the office?
• Is it important for you to have different departments at the office on the same day? If yes, state which department you'd most like to be in the office with.

5 Important Points to Consider When Creating Surveys

1 - Make sure your survey does not exceed 10 questions. 5 to 8 questions result in ideal completion rates.

2 - For multiple-choice questions, enable selecting more than one option for detailed analysis.

3 - Ensuring your surveys are anonymous will increase the participation rate.

4 - Make sure your surveys are compatible with mobile devices - this results in much higher participation rates and feels more intuitive.

5 - Looking at the survey data at the departmental level will give you a clearer picture of which back-to-office strategies to choose.

2. Communicate Your Plans Clearly

It's important to provide clear context and explanation when it comes to hybrid working models. People should be fully aware of their options and how flexible they can be, but also the reasons why your new way of working exists in the first place.

To maintain a sustainable hybrid workplace, communication should be continuous, with employee feedback driving change, big and small. The best way to do this is by using different channels and testing which is better received by your teams. So not just email! Some favorite alternatives include:

• Instant Messaging: Tools like WhatsApp and Slack humanize workplace communication, especially effective in smaller teams.
• Stories & Mobile Tools: Many teams lean toward mobile-first communication, especially as younger generations join the workforce. Automated announcements in the form of "Stories" (like Instagram) have far higher open rates than emails.
• Intranet: A place to connect all the information employees could ever need for their daily activities. Centralizing information helps avoid disrupting workflow and causing unnecessary stress.

Overall, the best channel mixture differs for each business. For communication to be clear, it should also be simple in the channel used. That's why mobile-first approaches work so well.

3. Personalized Engagement Activities to Maintain Culture

Most people missed each other during the isolation of the pandemic. Socializing is a key component of building company culture and maintaining values within a hybrid workplace. It comes back to making it personal: different people are engaged by different things. For some, a digital quiz might be enough; others prefer face-to-face interaction.

The vast majority need a mixture of both. Some effective activities include:

• Happy Hours! Business and beers as usual.
• Support Groups. Mental well-being has come even more to the forefront as hybrid models are adopted, but there's still a long way to go. Providing safe communities for people to share their thoughts can go a long way.
• Inclusive Sports Socials - Table Tennis, Mini-Golf, Bowling

Some engagement ideas that are digital-only include:

• Digital Morning Brew - Connect over a tea or coffee for some casual conversation to start the day.
• Peer to Peer Recognition - Let employees share feedback quickly and meaningfully at any time using digital stickers.
• Digital Pub Quizzes - Bring together fun and unknown facts about your company in a short quiz to give your team some quality time.

The possibilities are endless. The key is to have fun and make activities relevant and appropriate for each team.

4. Understand Competencies and Behaviours

Understanding your people professionally and otherwise is critical to a great workplace. What are their strengths, and how do they perform in different circumstances?

Answering this can be time-consuming, and until recently was only done yearly or bi-yearly. People change, especially in their skills, more often than this, so a lot can be missed.

More importantly, people care about their career development. The best way to support this is with real data, not just 1 to 1 conversation with managers (which are equally important) that leave things in the air. Employees are most engaged when their goals are connected to the bigger picture.

Keeping up with your people in real time is especially important for remote and hybrid models. Some of the best ways to do this:

• Digital 360 Feedback - Many systems shorten the cycle of this process by months. On mobile especially, you can automate reviewer groups and deliver surveys directly to people.
• Use the DISC personality test to understand how best to support your people.
• Align everyone's performance to the same goal. OKRs give everyone a view of how their contributions matter in the big picture.

Once these are understood, you can personalize your people strategy and offer specific help rather than general training.

5. Continuously Monitor Satisfaction Levels

Many teams implemented great hybrid working models but aren't as active as they should be in understanding how it's being received over time.

What was fit for purpose a few months into the pandemic is no longer so as we return to a new normal. There is heightened awareness of how people want to experience work, with more expectations and control wanted by newer generations. If these things aren't recognized and acted on, retention takes a dive.

One simple solution is asking questions continuously and implementing small changes based on results.

Some examples of questions for surveys might include:

• Which work style is more efficient for you?
• Are you satisfied with coming to the office on x days?
• Are you satisfied with the number of days you come to the office?
• Are you satisfied with the procedures for visitors after coming back to the office?
• Are you satisfied with the procedures for the new food and service system?
• Do you have any suggestions for social distancing measures taken in our company at the moment?
• How would you rate your company out of 10 for internal communication during the period you work remotely?

Automated pulse surveys are also excellent for tracking workplace atmosphere in real time, more naturally. These surveys should be short and allow employees to answer intuitively without taking up their time.

These 5 steps will get you well on your way to a hybrid model that employees actively engage with. Communication is of great importance and must go both ways to ensure real collaboration. Building a workplace fit for the future of work requires leaders to think of the individual like never before. Personalisation and a people-first approach are key to long-term growth and success in the modern workplace.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 5 steps to create and maintain a sustainable hybrid workplace?

The 5 steps are: build a back-to-office roadmap based on employee input, communicate plans clearly, personalize engagement activities, understand competencies and behaviours, and continuously monitor satisfaction levels.

How can companies understand employee expectations before returning to the office?

Use anonymous suggestion boxes and pre/post engagement surveys with 5-8 mobile-friendly questions to gather honest feedback and identify preferred hybrid schedules.

Why is communication important in a hybrid workplace?

Clear, continuous communication across multiple channels like instant messaging, mobile stories, and intranets ensures employees understand hybrid policies and feel heard.

How can companies maintain culture in a hybrid workplace?

Through a mix of in-person and digital engagement activities, such as happy hours, support groups, digital pub quizzes, and peer-to-peer recognition.

How often should employee satisfaction be measured in a hybrid model?

Continuously, using short automated pulse surveys that track workplace sentiment in real time and allow for quick adjustments.