Poly releases insights into hybrid work

Poly, launched the ‘Hybrid Heaven Or Hell? The Journey To Hybrid Working’ whitepaper, touches on the importance of reshaping the corporate culture for organizations to succeed in hybrid work.

Technology, office settings, and designs have all gotten a lot of attention. However, businesses must take the hybrid working culture into account to get over obstacles that could jeopardise the success of hybrid working.

According to a recent Gartner survey 76 per cent of HR leaders now believe that hybrid work undermines employees’ sense of belonging to the company’s culture.

According to the Poly research, presenteeism and office presence are frequently closely linked by organisations to productivity, which makes them a contributing factor to the difficulties encountered with hybrid solutions.

Remodelling the 9-5 hell of the olden days into modern-day heaven 

According to the research, while organizations have the right technology and office design in place, most of them have not implemented a culture that will be able to complement the amenities as it takes a lot of work and intentionality. Naturally, only one in four hybrid workers surveyed by Gartner felt connected to their company’s culture, leaving ample space for high turnover.

To achieve successful hybrid working practices, a successful hybrid culture must be established. Individual desks accounted for an average of 65% of office space before the epidemic, according to Poly’s research. If hybrid models are deliberately implemented, it is predicted that this would drop to about 40%.

The research also stated that to build a proper hybrid work culture, the appropriate technology must be used to support the appropriate spaces. Additionally, asynchronous communication must be considered when teams are physically meeting less frequently and may be dispersed across different time zones, even though digital equity in synchronous meetings is crucial.

Mental remodelling: reshaping the organizational culture

Rebuilding the culture for hybrid working requires relearning what is expected of employees and the workplace. To take a strong stand on the hybrid culture and ensure that employees know what to count on, businesses must have a shared vision and direction that extends beyond the purely tactical.

It is necessary to reorganize face-to-face gatherings around goals and concrete outcomes, to be more purposeful in promoting network building, and to establish precise, evidence-based standards for when people should come in and when they might work from home. Leadership should take centre stage when a clear vision needs to be established, stated the Poly research.

Applying change from top to bottom

The research identified that for hybrid work solutions to succeed, the CEO and C-Suite need to communicate it with the organization, emphasizing their role in the company culture and how changing culture will involve both a top-down and bottom-up strategy.

While the study showed that leadership is crucial in establishing a company’s culture, it also showed that stringent rules may not work, particularly in settings where workers feel like they are beginning to have some influence over their working lives.

For teams to successfully handle hybrid work, leadership and support from top managers must be matched with a certain amount of team empowerment.