A hybrid team is one made up of workers who can choose whether they want to work in person, home-office or merge the two possibilities. This is a work model that attracts many professionals.

Among the various benefits, it allows individuals to keep their personal lives in balance with their professional ones, solving their problems without interfering in productivity, delivery times and other aspects that can hinder the company’s results – which is also an advantage for organizations.

If your organization is aware of this trend and believes in the success of hybrid teams, see how to build an engaged and productive team!

Centralizing communication

Managing remote workers, in person or on a hybrid team, in general, contemplates the same challenges. One of them is related to corporate communication. Team members must find an open and transparent channel for exchanging experiences, feeling safe and able to trust each other.

For this, it is necessary to create an efficient communication strategy. It is not enough to invite workers to a video call, it is necessary to plan a schedule of meetings, subjects and duration.

The objective is to centralize the dialogue and balance the frequency, so that the meetings are really useful and can add value to the teams’ routine.

Learning to recognize signs of stress

The hybrid journey involves remote work, which can make it difficult for the leader to recognize signs of stress and other conditions that impair the well-being and productivity of the teams. It is important to pay attention to possible signs of exhaustion.

If someone starts to behave differently, you need to check what’s going on. It may be that some team member is overloaded, or does not know how to properly manage the time between the classroom journey and the home office.

Helping employees to overcome these challenges and providing the support needed to find balance within the hybrid model is a function of the company and the leaders of these teams and a fundamental conduct for achieving success through the workforce.

Developing a culture of remote working

Implementing a remote work policy does not mean simply releasing professionals to perform their duties outside the physical environment of the company. Despite the fact that the context of the crisis has forced organizations to adopt a forced home office, it is still necessary to take into account changes in mindsets.

That said, companies must restructure the work culture, make processes more inclusive for employees who are at home and eliminate any practices that can negatively affect these people.

For example, meetings do not need to be centralized in offices, they can be held by virtual mechanisms. However, a few times a year, they need to occur in person.

In this sense, it is possible to establish a calendar where the main meetings require face-to-face participation, while others can happen via Zoom, Google Meet. Microsoft Teams and other applications.

The important thing is to ensure that the employee’s experience is the same, regardless of the chosen journey.

Preparing the leadership

In the corporate environment, leaders are the references of employees about organizational culture and everything that permeates the business. The company can invest in the hybrid work model, prepare the environment and its processes for this format, but everything can go downhill if those in the leadership position are not prepared.

The leader, more than any other professional, must be aware of the profile of the new journey model. It is necessary to let go of the old habits and adhere to new practices, such as, for example, learning to deal with productivity indicators and charging the team for the results delivered and not just for the time dedicated to work.

This preparation is the responsibility of the company as a whole. It is necessary to submit managers to training and development programs, and to create an action plan that allows these people to be aligned with the hybrid work model and also with the teams.

Making the team feel safe

Maintaining a hybrid team – especially in the first months after changing the journey model – can bring insecurity to those involved. Periods when they are away from the office can awaken the false feeling that they need to show service and, therefore, make them work longer hours than necessary. This can overwhelm teams.

In addition, this lack of security can cause productivity and job engagement to fall, as employees feel their jobs are threatened.

To avoid these situations, it is important to act with transparency, recognize the results achieved and practice constant feedback. That way, teams will feel included, monitored, respected and safe to work on a remote journey whenever necessary.

Keeping informed about technology

The use of technology in the corporate world is nothing new. The tools to facilitate routine in the offices have been used for a long time, and are fundamental to the hybrid work model.

Companies must keep themselves updated on the available software, which facilitates the work of hybrid teams and the control of managers over these jobs. For example, it is possible to adopt online electronic point control, applications to track projects and tasks and share goals and deadlines that need to be met.

In addition, it is necessary to keep an eye on the tools for videoconferencing and their updates, since these are the main instruments to enable meetings and virtual meetings.

Another point worth mentioning is cloud storage. As employees work on a live or remote journey, it is necessary that the files are safely stored and can be accessed quickly, from anywhere with internet.

The success of a hybrid team must be measured by productivity, and not by the time that employees spend connected. In this process, it is necessary to consider the specific needs of face-to-face and remote sessions and find the balance point for efficient management.

Finding talent and aligning it with the hybrid model can be challenging. Take advantage of being here and read about the advantages of having the support of a specialist recruitment consultancy.