Written by Arnie Skelton (MA, MSc)
Clearly Covid has had a significant impact on work location, with many employees now preferring to work, partly or permanently, from home. In contrast, the enforced isolation of lockdown has made others really welcome a physical return to work, with all the social and psychological benefits it brings. So to accommodate this significant change, many organisations are struggling to work out the best balance for hybrid working.
So here are some of the less obvious issues that we feel should be taken into account.
Reasons for coming in to work
Passive learning:
Typically a lot of real learning takes place ‘on the job’ by observing how others behave, and in the reality of work (rather than the training classroom). This is far less likely to occur when the main interaction is online, usually in a meetings setting. Online there is far less opportunity to just watch others at work, and learn. Prior to Covid, when working in the office was the norm, consider how much of your operational learning had occurred through watching and listening to others, and the way they worked? And how likely is it that such learning would occur online?
The R Factor: rules, routines and rituals
The office environment creates formal and informal rules, routines and rituals that maybe harder to replicate at home. And it is these ‘R’ factors that can provide the glue that keeps people ‘on task’ and less likely to drift, and/or have the opportunity to socialise and share. Examples might include:
- dropping in on someone
- having lunch together
- lifts to and from work – car sharing
- conversations in the corridor, on the stairs, in the lift
- queueing in the cafeteria
- designated smoking areas
These and many more are commonplace at work, but less likely when everyone works from home.
DPC (Direct Personal Contact)
For many, there is nothing to beat direct personal contact: being in the same physical space as the other person or group, without the intermediary barrier of a TV or laptop screen. There is little doubt that DPC provides all parties with more information than would happen online. Three factors in particular are enhanced through DPC:
- full awareness of the individual’s reactions – whole body posture, sense of comfort and engagement, much more than can be provided by a ‘head and shoulders’ image online
- a strong sense of ‘the mood of the room’ – as an experienced trainer, I can sense any prevailing or emerging mood of the group quickly and easily, far more than I can with a view of a dozen heads sitting in different places with different backdrops (and some with no camera or voice to form any impression from)
- Inclusion – again, as a trainer, I can scan the room quickly – and bring people in quickly – and this is powerful and necessary for people to feel included. This just isn’t as possible online.
Fundamental beliefs
There are two common beliefs about the benefits that naturally occur through on-site working: closer supervision (leading to a further belief of better performance), and better teamwork. There are those who feel it is easier to manage performance by controlling it rather than trusting it, and a key part of that control is supervision – literally ‘over-sight’ of the workforce, which in turn is easier if both manager and worker are in the same location, rather than dispersed. And there are also those who believe teams work better by sharing the same physical space. But, like most beliefs, they can be self-fulfilling, and prone to confirmation bias; plus there are many examples of high performance individuals and teams who are geographically dispersed.
Reasons for working from home
Surreptitious efficiency
Suppose you are one of 10 people attending a meeting in work, You are in everyone’s line of sight, and that level of ‘visible presence’ may inhibit you from surreptitiously getting on with other work ‘on the quiet’. Whereas attending the same meeting with the same numbers online, you are less observed – especially if you have your camera off – making it much easier to be getting on with other things (eg checking emails, planning your next task) whilst still being ‘present’ in the meeting.
Resistance to being told where to work
As Bob Dylan said, ‘the times they are a changing’; whereas pre-Covid it was the norm to ‘come into work’, the lockdown proved that working from home was not only necessary, but possible, and even desirable. In fact, there are many younger staff who got their first job during Covid, and have had no experience of ‘office based work’. For those who prefer working from home, and work perfectly well from home, there can be real resentment at being told to take the alternative.
Valuing diversity
It’s about choice: some people want to come in, some don’t. And if there is no material gain one way or the other, maybe allowing choice is a priority, if what also matters is motivation, satisfaction, performance and loyalty.
Culture shift
This is inevitably a generalisation, but the younger employee tends to have a different anticipated relationship with work than those who have been in work for longer. The younger employee is more keen to assert their preferences about work, including the extent to which there is alignment between their own expectations and those of the workplace. Put simply, such employees would rather walk than work for an organisation whose expectations and values don’t align with theirs. In effect there is a potential culture clash – the longer serving employee who expects to ‘fit in’ with work expectations, and the younger employee who, in effect, sees the relationship in reverse: the organisation needs to fit in with the employee’s expectations.
Social Media
Frankly, it has never been easier to work from home, particularly for those who want to. So many jobs that can be done in the office can be done from home. What’s more, lockdown inadvertently provided a real boost in use of technology, particularly for those who, until then, had been wary of it. How many people, at the outset of lockdown, had even heard of zoom, or teams or WhatsApp, let alone were familiar users of it? As a consequence, far more people are comfortable with technology generally, and with social media in particular – allowing them to be comfortable working from home. It’s also apparent that, since lockdown ended, those returning to work now hold far more online meetings – despite being in work!
An Effective Approach to Hybrid Training
In the context of the above considerations, it is clear that effective training workshops play a vital role in maintaining productivity, upskilling employees, and preserving company culture within a hybrid working model. Traditionally, these workshops have been conducted in-person, but as we’ve seen during the pandemic, they can be adapted to an online format quite successfully.
However, the hybrid workplace presents an opportunity to marry the best of both worlds, leveraging online tools for their convenience and scalability, while capitalising on face-to-face interactions for their unparalleled depth and richness. This might involve holding a portion of a workshop online to cover theoretical material, using platforms that allow for interactive learning, and then bringing employees together for in-person sessions focused on collaborative tasks, practical applications, or socialising.
Importantly, effective training workshops should also take into account the preferred working styles of employees. For instance, for those who thrive in the office, it may be beneficial to hold a greater number of in-person sessions. Conversely, for those who prefer remote work, online training modules could be more heavily utilised.
The key is to be flexible and adaptable in designing and delivering these training workshops, always bearing in mind the diverse needs and preferences of employees in a hybrid work setting. The education sector is utilising professional language services to cater their eLearning content for their staff. By doing so, organisations can maximise employee engagement, optimise learning outcomes, and ultimately, achieve better bottom-line results.
So – what’s the hybrid prescription?
Ultimately, for most businesses, the bottom line is crucial. So which workforce deployment gives the best ROI? In all probability it is a combination of factors, as was always the case.
But just as there are 9 ‘Protected Categories’ such as age, gender and disability, there perhaps now ought to be a tenth – work location. Might it be discriminatory to ‘force’ someone to come in to work – or work from home – when there is no compelling bottom line justification?
About the author:
Arnie Skelton (MA, MSc). CEO, Effective Training & Development Ltd
Arnie Skelton is a Cambridge University graduate, and the founder and CEO of Effective Training. Over the past 35 years, Arnie has provided professional development for individuals and businesses. He has achieved this through 1-1 coaching, courses, workshops, and ongoing consultancy, helping over 180 clients in the UK and abroad reach their full potential.
