An article from Forbes magazine observed that many organisational leaders believe managing communications to be an ongoing challenge. Some are concerned about the pivot to hybrid and how this will further affect communication management. Certainly, some issues arise as we sail off into a more permanent hybrid future. For example, as organisations roll out their return to work schedules, they’re met with greater demands to support a flexible work schedule that suits the employee.
As a result, there are some hybrid communication challenges that we need to get ahead of.
1. Communication across asynchronous teams
As we transition to a hybrid and remote workplace, we become more accustomed to asynchronous working, where teams might work on different days, times, or in different locations. This can impact the organic task communication supporting efficiency and productivity, and compounds for teams working across different hours. For example, when you’re working in a synchronous environment or in-person, you can walk across to someone and chat then and there. You also get the immediate feedback of seeing if they’re occupied in a meeting or a lunch break, so you know not to disturb them and come back later.
However, in an asynchronous model, particularly one that supports flexible hours, you’ve lost some of that physical feedback. You need to adjust your strategy for success in a hybrid environment. Here are some ideas:
- Create intentional intersection points. In other words, create definite points within the work schedule where holistic team communication takes place, for example, team meetings at set times. This reduces fragmentation by building consistency, thereby providing opportunity for individuals to realign to the big picture often. You can adjust the frequency of these intersection points as needed for your team.
- Utilise availability statuses within digital tools. For example, messaging platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams provide availability icons, work locations, and status messages that display important information at a glance for those wishing to collaborate and communicate asynchronously.
2. Hybrid communication methods
A lack of structured or formal frameworks to support day to day interactions can lead to confusion or communication across too many platforms. People tend to revert to the communication method that is most comfortable for them, which can lead, for example, to an employee sending an SMS where a phone call or video conferencing would better serve the conversation. This in turn can lead to misunderstandings or delayed resolutions.
In response to this, develop a communication guide or framework. Having a best practice communication checklist like this outlines communication expectations and protocols, the dos and don’ts, and what methods should be used in which scenarios. With a framework like this in place, people are not just thinking conveniently, but they’re thinking about the best way to get their message across. Furthermore, a guideline or checklist on communication methods is helpful for leaders as well, so they can guide the team in these best practices.
Often, we think communication is intuitive or people should just know what the best communication method is. But this doesn’t acknowledge the wealth of diversity of experience and backgrounds modern teams have. We all know the saying about assuming. Building a communication framework, on the other hand, sets your hybrid team up for success.
3. Team cohesion in the hybrid workplace
Team cohesion is hugely important in the hybrid workplace. However, the communication fragmentation that happens with both physical and remote workplaces can combine to create double-barrel challenges for hybrid workers when there’s no plan for engagement in empathy building. This can create a team with a much stronger transactional focus. So, it becomes very task-driven, and the relational side starts to suffer, eroding team cohesion over time. It’s not necessarily evident in a short period of time, but over a longer period, it can be a real issue and cause risks in retention, motivation, and trust.
To combat these risks, we need to repurpose the team. Now, what do we mean by that? Well, the great resignation and modern retention challenges relate to employees searching for purpose and belonging. Therefore, providing your team with a fresh sense of purpose and a focused goal for the future creates unity. To take this idea further, what you really need is to repurpose the team as a collective to cultivate a sense of being part of something bigger than themselves. This gives employees a sense of personal meaning and the feeling of making a valuable difference. Without that feeling, employees start to disengage because they don’t feel valued.
Now, this isn’t always easy to tap into, but good hybrid leaders find ways to engage their team as a collective; to be a part of something greater than they are as an individual.
4. Digital literacy skills in hybrid models
With the greater demand on technology and written skills in hybrid models, it becomes a critical factor for the success of internal and external communications that employees possess strong written and digital literacy skills.
Therefore, we need to assess the current skill competency of the team and identify where those gaps are in the digital literacy area. Once we’ve determined this, we can develop upskilling pathways that support where each team member is at. This isn’t a generic approach; it’s a highly customised individual approach, which is becomes more achievable within a hybrid environment.
This customised approach may look like providing employees with access to a training workshop, coaching, mentoring, or buddying. This can present more informally, for example, having regular check-ins to support the individual’s skills and to give them suggestions and maybe deal with their frustrations and challenges in getting to the required results.
5. Combating information blind spots
Information blind spots can cause employee confusion and anxiety through incomplete or missing information. An example of this is when someone is unwittingly left out of the loop on project updates. This, in turn, can cause dropouts, wrong assumptions, or voids of knowledge. In particular, someone who’s been excluded (accidentally or otherwise) may invent reasons for their exclusion, which will normally be more negative than positive.
The solution to blind spots is to design a customised communication plan. Now, when we design a customised communication plan, it should:
- Identify what the blind spots are.
- Conduct pre-consultation to determine what the drivers are.
- Map out a proactive response to ensure everyone has the best opportunity of being on the same page.
- Comprehensively convey the communication plan to employees and ensure they’ll be informed at the necessary level.
- Incorporate a relational inclusion and engagement strategy that integrates with the plan from a communication point of view.
- Set regular check-in points to review and monitor implementation and success.
Making hybrid communication a success
When you combine these strategies, something magical happens. You begin to embody what employees expect of a hybrid organisation. Asynchronous communication considerations, a communications method framework, promoting team cohesion, upskilling digital literacy, and combating information blind spots with a communication plan – together, these create your launching pad into the workplace of the future.