Hybrid Working: Five Things You Can Do Now to Engage Your Hybrid Team

The move to hybrid working has been a huge positive for many employees—more time with family, less time commuting, more flexibility to manage work schedules and accommodate out-of-work activities, and the ability to come together in person when required for creative or team-based activities.

Employers, too, are seeing the benefits—increased productivity, a better balance of deep-focus and creative work, access to a more diverse and dispersed workforce, better resilience against the pandemic, and lower property costs are often mentioned.

But with workers less frequently—if ever—all physically together, many leaders are finding it challenging to build and sustain emotional engagement. Reports of “Zoom fatigue”, burnout, and isolation among remote-based workers are increasingly common.

And while virtual cocktail hours and online team activities can help, they’re no substitute for the mentoring and emotional bonds that build when leaders constantly interact with their people throughout the day.

With the “Great Resignation” putting increased pressure on leaders to attract and retain good employees, finding ways to engage people in a hybrid team environment is no longer optional.

So what can leaders do?

Through my CEO roles over the last two decades, I’ve identified five points that help leaders build and sustain high engagement—what I call “The Leadership Star”. Applied to a hybrid working environment, these “5 Cs” point the way to a large number of actions that leaders can take to offset the challenges that partial remote working creates.

Here are five specific examples.

Pick up the phone:  The first “C” engagement is Care.  Show people that you care about them as individual human beings—not as a generic “human resource.” It’s not enough to do a quick “how are you doing” at the start of a team video call.

Instead, make a habit of calling people individually on the phone, during a non-frantic time of day, and see how they’re really feeling. In my experience, traditional phone calls allow people to relax and connect in a way that distracting video doesn’t.

Ask “how are you?”, pay attention, and look for ways to help that show you’re genuinely interested in their wellbeing and career growth.

Highlight impact:  The second “C” of engagement is Context. People need to know why the organisation exists—beyond making money—and why what they do all day matters. So, find ways to bring this to life: Invite a customer to address the team about how they are benefiting from their products.

Ask a product manager to showcase the new product that people will be building.  Invite an internal business partner to discuss how they benefit from the team’s work. Or take the team on a (virtual, if necessary) tour of the client’s site where their services are being used. Help create stories that resonate—the more emotional, the better.

Set stretching goals:  The third “C” of engagement is Clarity. People need to be clear on what’s expected of them—both in terms of their job scope, expected outcomes, and behaviour.  In addition to giving people a sense of control, clarity of objectives can also inspire people to be creative—thereby firing a level of intrinsic motivation.

Try asking your people: “What goal, if you achieved it, would make you immensely proud?” The answer may surprise you and energise your team members to achieve more than you thought possible.

Knock over a barrier:  The fourth “C” of engagement is Clearing the way. Employees face any number of barriers as they try to achieve the goals that are set for them.

Physical distance, technology constraints, and “invisible” emotional, political, or intellectual barriers can all get in the way and de-motivate people working in a hybrid environment.

The most engaging leaders make a point of asking their people, “What’s getting in the way?” and then proactively work to eliminate those barriers.

Ask your team as a group to nominate the things that are getting in the way of their success, and then commit to fixing the top 2 or 3.  Nothing motivates a team like believing that their leader really wants them to succeed.

Surprise & recognise:  The final “C” of engagement is Celebrate. Recognition is about much more than pay rises, promotions, and digital shopping vouchers. Rather, it’s about building a positive spiral of emotional commitment, by linking the achievement of specific results to the employee’s sense of self-worth.

In my experience, the most impactful recognition is unexpected, personalised, and heart-felt.  Write a letter to a young employee’s parents, talking about how valued they are and what a great job they’ve done on Project X.

Surprise a team member with a hand-written note and box of their favourite cupcakes when they return to the office from a successful sales visit. Or surprise a team by inviting their partners to join them at an important team milestone—by video if necessary.

In short, be creative, and help them see that what they’ve personally achieved really matters—to you as the leader, and to the organisation.

Hybrid working doesn’t have to be an impediment to high engagement—but it does take initiative and creativity to bring the 5 C’s of engagement to life.

Show you Care, provide Context, give Clarity, Clear the way, and remember to Celebrate—and you’ll build a highly engaged team who will continue to thrive across both office and home working environments.

Written by Brian Hartzer

Brian Hartzer is a world-leading financial services executive, leadership mentor, and author of The Leadership Star: A Practical Guide to Building Engagement (Wiley). Available now priced £15.50.