5 tips for fostering a successful hybrid workplace

Businesses figured out how to work remotely on the fly when COVID-19 rapidly disrupted our way of working. Those planning to adopt a hybrid work model when they return to the office still have time to prepare. But managing a distributed team comes with its own unique challenges, like:

— What does hybrid look like for your company?

— How do you keep remote employees engaged?

— What apps and software do you need to create a seamless experience?

These are tough questions to answer and you’re unlikely to please everyone. But you get a chance to build a new office culture, and there’s something exciting about that.

“If I think about a transformational time for how people work — this is it,” says Megan Jarvis, vice president of talent at Lessonly, a software company headquartered in Indianapolis. “The door is open for companies to rethink how they work.”

1. GET EMPLOYEE BUY-IN EARLY

The biggest mistake you can make is rolling out a plan void of any employee input. Bring your team into the fold early, survey them to gauge their concerns and preferences, then enlist a select few to be part of a return-to-office committee.

Those employees will have skin in the game and will help get other employees on board when you announce your return-to-office plan, Jarvis says.

The feedback loop shouldn’t stop when the office doors reopen. Continue to touch base with employees through teamwide and one-on-one meetings so workers have a space to ask questions and surface concerns.

“Bring the team together so that you’re all on the same page and understand each other’s challenges,” says Danny Wright, chief operating officer of 1863 Ventures, a Washington, D.C.-based program that helps grow the businesses of new majority entrepreneurs — a term...