Supercharging productivity with hybrid working

Nick Gold at Speakers Corner explains how hybrid working can supercharge — rather than suffocate — a business’s productivity

Hybrid working has long been depicted as a boon for work-shy employees capitalising on being out of sight to do the bare minimum, while the beleaguered employer pays through the nose for unused office space and has no idea where his staff are or what they’re doing.

However, in my view, this simplistic portrayal is a legacy problem that ignores the very positive impact that hybrid working can have on a company’s bottom line.

The pandemic fast tracked the introduction of this new style of working. That meant that the conversations around it started from a place of being very black and white. “We can’t do this, so we’re doing this instead.” There was no thought about how such an approach could benefit both employees and employers, and I don’t really feel that the conversation has become any more nuanced since that point.

We’re still seeing a dichotomy set up, which has the employees wanting to work at home and the employers wanting them to be in the office. Whereas actually, what we need is a mutual trust and some mature conversations about how to create a hybrid working environment that works for everybody.

Because increasingly, employers are seeing the value that hybrid working can bring to an organisation. If you’ve got a list of jobs to do, then working at home where you can get your head down and get them done is fantastic. But if you’re looking to think collaboratively and creatively, or to strategically drive the business forward, then being together is where it’s at. So combining these is, by definition, the best for the company.

And there is evidence that those at the top are starting to realise that. We carried out research with 500 directors and business owners, and almost three quarters of them (72%) agreed that hybrid working offers employees a better work-life balance.

Perhaps more surprisingly, almost the same proportion (70%) also agreed that a hybrid work style enhances productivity, and that’s essential because the UK ranks 7th out of the G7 countries for productivity. More than half (51%) of the business owners we spoke to said that improving productivity was their main priority over the next two years.

It’s not surprising that they see hybrid working as a means to that end. I remember talking to one of our speakers, who specialises in teamwork, about the post-pandemic return to the office. She talked about the fact that if you end up with a situation where all the leaders are in the office five days a week, you’re going to end up with a presenteeism culture that rewards those who turn up to the office, but that’s not necessarily what’s best for the business. 

Instead what we should be doing is creating an environment where it’s clear that your main place of work is the office. And, as part of that, we need, as leaders, to demonstrate that the office is a great place to be, that offers better opportunities for progress than being at home. Employees also need to feel ownership of their workplace so they feel attached to the company and aren’t going to jump at the first opportunity that comes their way.

At the same time, we need to acknowledge that working from home is sometimes going to be the best option for both the health of the business and the health of our employees. From a practical perspective, having clearly defined days when you’re expected to be in the office so that, say, teams can work together is the best way to start.

But you also need to remember that you’re dealing with grown-ups, and if people don’t need to be in the office or have a reason not to be, forcing them in just for the sake of it simply doesn’t make sense.

It all comes back to trust and honest but nuanced conversations. You want an employee to be able to say, “I’d like to work from home on Tuesdays because that means I can take my daughter to ballet at 5pm and I’ll make up that hour later on in the evening after the kids are in bed.” But you also then need to have a conversation about what happens if an emergency comes in at 5pm.

We’re starting to see a business culture where there isn’t the separation of home life and work life that there used to be, but I’m not sure we’re yet at a point where, as a business society, we’ve worked out what the priorities should be when those two aspects are in conflict.

We’re also discussing all this at a time of great political change, with a new government that’s talking about the right to switch off. That, in itself, isn’t a bad thing. But it’s not necessarily a helpful background to these conversations.

If we want to work towards a place where flexible working is embedded in our society — which, for the good of both our businesses and us as individuals, I think it should be — then creating a framework of regulation and control means we’re, by definition, starting from a place of structure, rather than a place of discussion and flexibility.

Nick Gold is MD of Speakers Corner

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and celiaosk