Six tips for clear working arrangements when working in a hybrid way

Many organizations opt for “hybrid working”: even after corona, employees are given the opportunity to work from home one or more days a week. To make this possible, a good home workplace and a custom office decor necessary. In the past period, many organizations have come up with temporary solutions to make working from home possible.

Make clear work agreements‍

In order to optimize hybrid working for both employer and employee, it is important to make fixed, structural agreements with each other about this. For example, in the form of clearly communicated and shared etiquette and protocols. This will increase acceptance, fairness and engagement and create a sense of inclusion and belonging among your employees. As an employer, you can use this to clarify expectations for your employees. And vice versa, employees know what is expected of them.

What are good working arrangements?

We have six tips for you for making structural work agreements around hybrid working:

-1- Make a transparent schedule‍

Develop a planning system to communicate who works in the office and who works remotely. This affects who comes to the office (for example, if your immediate colleague is in the office, you probably want that too). And that in turn affects the space and technology required. Make this system transparent to everyone, so that employees can plan the best possible way of working together.

-2- Make a social introduction‍

At a (video) meeting, make a good introductory round so that everyone in the room and on video is familiar with each other (remote participants should have video where possible) and start each meeting by checking in with each other for a few minutes.

-3- Make sure everyone can hear and be heard‍

Clearly know and mark where microphones are in the room and make sure anyone who is remotely can hear what's going on and be heard. Ask people not to make noise that makes listening more difficult (loud typing, cracking, side talk).

-4- Make sure everyone sees and is seen‍

Consider assigning a physical participant who pays attention to what they see from a distance. For example, does the camera have to move? Can the content be viewed?

-5- Pause with a purpose‍

Stop regularly and ask participants remotely for their input. Develop engagement protocols based on group size and type of work. Is everyone raising their hands digitally? Who is watching the chat? How do you ensure that participants can participate remotely and be interactive?

-6- Make clear next steps‍

One of the worst experiences as a remote participant is missing the closing call that takes place after a meeting has officially ended. Prevent this by ending each session with clear and visible next steps.

In addition to clearly communicated shared etiquette and protocols, it is also important to think carefully about adjusting the office workplaces. It traditional office concept because it no longer works. Do you want to know more about the space design to support in-office and remote collaboration? Take contact with us.

Want to know more?
Do you also want to create a comfortable work environment by improving acoustics? You find partitions, cubicles and others acoustic solutions customized. Let us know.

Or check it out here project at Alkmaar Sport where we have improved acoustics and at the same time the space corona-proof have created.

Source: Steel case