Hybrid Working: Data-driven approaches to make work worthwhile in remote organizations

Hybrid Working: What is it and what are the benefits?

Not many of us have spent as much time at home as in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To minimize the risk of infections, companies across the globe sent their employees to work from home, and ‘home office’ has shifted to becoming the norm for those of us lucky enough to carry out our jobs from the comfort of our own dwellings. With today’s collaborative technologies such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, trello, zoom, Skype and others, white collar workers as well as their employers recognized that remote working is in fact very much possible.

In many cases, and if physical presence is not necessarily required at certain days, it is up to the employees to decide whether they would like to work from home or the office. These so called ‘hybrid working models’ create hybrid teams, a flexible work structure where some employees work remotely and other team members work from the office. While this situation brings certain benefits, social consequences arise at the workplace that need to be managed.

What are potential risks of Hybrid Working?

While employers are quick to recognize the economical up-side of remote work — in order to create a hybrid organization that is equitable, engaging, and relatable — it is crucial to recognize the social consequence of remote work. In every hybrid organization there are and there will be certain groups of employees that require more co-located work and greater exposure to decision makers and leaders. On the other hand there are groups of employees which — by the nature of their job — require less on-site presence to fulfill their duties. In this context, the risk of disconnectedness and potentially arising inequality within the employee workforce needs to be managed carefully.

Ideas on how to use data to make Hybrid working a success

Modern HR management techniques and HR analytics provide a rich toolbox to respond to the diverse consequences of working in hybrid or remote teams.

Beyond demographic reporting that allows businesses to identify vulnerable or more isolated groups of workers, modern analytics and a digitized workplace provide options to make previously immeasurable performance visible.

Employees in highly interpersonal roles (such as Business Partners) require performance measurement beyond solved tickets or passed technology tests. Digitizing all interpersonal relationships in a remote setup allows HR Analysts to make use of scheduling meta-data, reporting on interconnectedness of workers in complex and horizontal roles. Not only does this provide options to counteract a lack of exposure for remote workers, but even adds new, scalable performance assessment criteria to the HR Managers’ repertoire.

Additionally, workers with great interpersonal skills attain a role of even higher importance, providing the social cohesion so dearly required for performative distributed teams. Identifying workers with these skills is a task best assisted by HR data and analytics.

Managing employee engagement and satisfaction with the help of engagement surveys or explanatory analytics applied to employee health and attrition allows organizations to monitor potential disengagement of remote workers, highlight groups most negatively affected by the lack of personal interaction, and even forecast health risks and turnover.

All that aside, digital modes of collaboration provide entirely new avenues for organizations to attract talent. Hiring employees from remote locations is now easier than ever, not needing to provide costly relocation services. Also, offering and attending global career fairs in a digital setup allows whole new modes of interaction with global talent.

Authors

Capgemini’s People Analytics is an offering for organizations understanding the value of all the information gathered about their employees and want to get a head start using analytics to optimize their People Management. We help businesses realize their potential by accelerating change towards a data-driven culture, designing People Data strategy & architecture, implementing Analytics solutions and helping HR teams simplifying their daily work.

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