How to lead and manage in the hybrid workplace

I keep hearing how it’s a tough gig being a people manager right now. Sustained challenges from the COVID pandemic have left many leaders smashed and exhausted. It can feel like all four of the VUCA elements (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) have become ubiquitous and are impacting everyday decision-making, not just long-term planning. For those who were full-time in the office with their teams, there are now the added ongoing complexities of managing a hybrid workplace as the new normal. Continuing the flexibility around working from home means dispersed teams; building and maintaining trust and connection has become harder. Finding the balance is not easy.

Staff well-being has been a high priority during and post-pandemic, and will always be important. But as business demands increase, leaders are under the pump to deliver and may be suffering ‘compassion fatigue’. Managers are faced with the difficulty of adjusting the implicit messaging for their staff from “we’ll look after you” and “we can be just as productive at home” to “we can’t make everything right, we just need you to do your job” and “flexibility is good but you have to come into the office at least some of the time”. Having the confidence to lead in the hybrid workplace is tricky when critical staff networks have been disrupted, and lines of authority blurred by remote working. With everyone recalibrating, including top-level executives, people managers are left to figure out how to make these new arrangements not only workable but optimal to meet organisational expectations.

Leeds University research has uncovered a huge training need: 74% of office workers surveyed would like to receive training for hybrid working, yet only 8.5% had received any specific training for hybrid meetings (a key employee concern of hybrid working). Hybrid working is a distinct way of working, and investment in support and training is crucial to help employees and managers to thrive in the new workplace.

The research identified that when employees had a choice over where to work within a workspace they reported a whole range of positives, demonstrating the value of designing with more discretion for workers to decide how, when and where to get tasks done. The challenge for managers is to reconsider their role, particularly in relation to authority and responsibility, around employees’ expectations for greater self-management. Managers can also learn to pay attention to supporting social networks in the hybrid workplace, and to developing a sense of belonging and identity in their staff, especially for new starters. Learning to consider the team as a network or system helps managers recognise the location in the network of new and diverse employees. (Davis, M.C., Collis, H., Hughes, H.P.N., Wu, C., Gritt, E., Fang, L., Iqbal, A. & Rees, S.J. (2022) Where is your office today? New insights on employee behaviour and social networks. Leeds, UK: University of Leeds)

Helen McKelvie

May 2023

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ps If you’re a people manager who would like some support in your role in the hybrid workplace NIODA is offering a new workshop series ‘Optimising the New Normal’. The workshops aim to enhance capacity to manage the work boundaries relating to staff well-being and safety in the hybrid workplace; and to provide the sense of containment from leadership that has been compromised or lost in the move to working across onsite and online spaces.