Hybrid Working

Since the start of the pandemic many organisations have been forced into some form of hybrid working, where employees spend some time in the office and some time working remotely, be that at their home or another location. As the world starts to return to some from of normal businesses and employees alike will be grappling with the issue of do they want to be back in the office permanently.

The majority of businesses and staff have found both positive and negative aspects to hybrid working. We believe to attract and retain the best talent going forwards businesses will need to offer a mix of working environments. Similarly many businesses will have seen it's possible to operate with lower overheads, or with a remote workforce opening up new resourcing models.

Each company is unique in their mix of roles and activities and how those suit hybrid working. What models are adopted and how business activities are organised in the future will be key to the success of businesses going forward. In addition to other core components technology, culture, working practices and the working environment, both when remote and in 'the office'.

Hybrid optimisation

The activities businesses have struggled the most with during pandemic hybrid working, have been collaborative tasks; creative tasks; building working relationships; onboarding new employees; and up-skilling talent, particularly fresh talent who benefit significantly from coaching by experienced staff. There has also been a steep learning curve from some in leading remotely and management of employees remotely.

One of the other gaps felt from both sides has been missing the serendipitous water cooler moments where you find out about things going on in other parts of the business, that you wouldn't otherwise have known about where you might add value.

The two main staffing complaints tend to be being cut off from the social interactions around the office, leading to potential well being issues; and the feeling of being micro managed, which also adds to stress and frustration. However employees invariably also report significant improvements in some aspects of their work life balance.

Our unique framework provides a basis for setting long term vision for Hybrid working, who would be eligible for which modes of working, what toolsets will be needed, what the working environment should look and feel like and what skills will be needed to support the new way of working.

It will require some experimentation within each organisation to find the right balance in its future working policies, but our roadmap can help you set your course and navigate to the new normal as quickly and effectively as possible.

Click here >> start shaping the future of your working environment now

Staff interviews

In 1-1 interviews we uncover what is involved in each of the roles types across the business, what the hopes and fears are of the staff, and what the challenges and potential benefits leaders across the business foresee in relation to the future working environment.

Role assessment & analysis

Using insights from the interviews and our assessment framework we score roles as to creativity, collaboration and complexity of the activities involved to ascertain what future modes of working may suit each role type.

We also provide insight from the interviews about workforce sentiment towards any potential changes.

Develop personas & map to models

Personas will reflect a profile of a member of staff, with their goals, challenges and traits. Staff should be able to identify with one of these personas even if it is not in the exact same role as they).

These personas will be mapped against each of the options for hybrid working depending on their needs and what each model is able to meet. This should help envision what their future working environment may look like.

Propose models and identify impact

We will now be able to propose which models will suit your workforce, tasks and activities (it is possible multiple models could be deployed within your Hybrid framework) with a potential benefits case.

Alongside this proposal will be an impact assessment of the change relating to technology, processes, skills, culture and working environments that will be required to support this transformation.

Share and consult on proposals

We will present finding to your leadership team, seeking consensus on the proposed models and eligibility criteria, as well as what forms of support will need to be provided, and over what timescales we recommend you transition.

Once agreed we can help shape your vision statement, and communication to the wider organisation in order to start gaining feedback and shape the final roadmap.

Develop Hybrid roadmap

The roadmap will lay out your organisations journey to agreeing the final hybrid working model and all its supporting detail.

It will capture any assumptions that need to be tested and what experiments should be performed along the way to challenge those.

Providing a guided path towards your future ready working environment.

"Spiderling has worked with CLA now on a number of projects, fostering good working relationships while getting to grips with the unique problems we face. Their skills have helped us challenge our thinking, through activities tailored to our particular needs and focused on clear actionable outcomes"

Mat Pfleger