Hyrbid Workplaces Are Here to Stay, So How Can We Be Intentional in Creating Them?

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

In the era of COVID-19, humans have been forced to adapt to unforeseen precedents. Be it in personal or work environments, society has forever changed due to the pandemic. And around the world humans have found creative ways to adapt to this change.

Let’s look at workplaces as an example. The pandemic and the necessary shift to remote work reset employee’s expectations in a number of ways. As such, over the last two years, organizations have been on an ongoing journey to establish functional remote and hybrid workspaces.

According to recent research, 50% of individuals say they won't go back to jobs that don't offer remote work. There’s no question that hybrid workplaces are the future. As such, organizations face yet another challenge: being intentional in how they create workspaces that enable hybrid work. 

Organizations can begin their journey in reshaping their workplace by recognizing the different ways people form connections — both in person and virtually. It’s pretty simple. Something as small as speaking with employees and asking specific questions can be a great first step towards building workplaces that put people first. 

Consider the following questions, and how your employees might answer them. Trust me, your assumptions around how they feel about these things is more likely to be wrong than right: 

• How do you best collaborate with others?

• What do you need out of a work space? 

• Do you thrive in an office filled with other people or in the quiet of your home office?

• How do you think the office should be designed to support hybrid work?

• What changes would you most like to see that would be critical to support collaboration? 

Creating an open dialogue with your employees allows your workspace to accommodate various work and learning styles, ultimately facilitating a healthier and more productive environment. Plus, it allows leaders to stop relying on their assumptions and making decisions that might alienate one or more employees.

It’s also essential to recognize the value of connection in the workspace — whether it’s in-person or virtually. Before the pandemic, typical employee connections were based on convenience, connections made in the break room or shared spaces around the office. These organic forms of connections are difficult to re-create in a digital, hybrid workspace, but not impossible. This is where intention comes into play. 

According to Gartner, there are four available means to encourage intentional collaboration in a hybrid world. This is through either working together in person in a shared space or virtually online, working alone but in a shared area in person, or working alone virtually in one’s personal space. In sum, it is up to the leaders of organizations to take time to create intentional times and spaces for human interactions. Doing that work is bound to encourage good will and collaboration while also contributing to an overheal healthy work environment. 

Let’s look at the startup Mystery, its journey in creating the hybrid workspace, which was shared by Microsoft. Mystery’s COO states that to establish connections, there are three pillars they lean on: familiarity, similarity & vulnerability. 

To establish connections that will translate from in-person to online, getting to know the people in your organization by sharing your hobbies, or passions which will allow you to feel more connected and create a sense of familiarity. Through this, employees can establish similarities with their peers. Both of these simultaneously go hand in hand to create trust and vulnerability. Creating these valuable connections between employees encourages them to take more risks in their work as they have an established support system. 

COVID-19 has drastically changed how we do things. As workplaces transition to new layouts in hybrid models, keeping the same spirit of in-person human connections in the workplace is essential. Intentional conversations with staff to understand their wants and needs, as well as planned opportunities for staff to engage in team-building interactions, will allow your organization to effectively create hybrid workspaces that make sense for individuals and create workspaces that go beyond traditional concepts of productivity. 

Need insights on how to facilitate these conversations? We can help.