Employee conducting virtual meeting while in the office with coworkers

Creating Structure for Hybrid Teams

February 8, 2024

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Successful leaders in the modern world must be capable of adapting to new and shifting environments. If you’ve led teams and organizations, you know this statement to be true.

Just a few years ago, the U.S. workforce overwhelmingly reported on-site each day – with less than 5% of all working days being from home or a remote location¹. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, this swung drastically in the opposite direction – with 61.5% of organizations engaging in full-time remote work² . The average workplace is now a blend of the two – with 82% of employers adopting a “hybrid” work model of both in-person and remote work expectations³.

But a hybrid work environment can be a double-edged sword for leaders. On one hand, it offers considerable flexibility to your employees – leading to benefits such as improved work-life balance and engagement. However, hybrid work can lead to significant organizational challenges if implemented poorly – such as decreased team productivity and output. For hybrid teams to thrive, leaders must create structure.

If you are a hybrid leader – or seek to be one in the future – consider these best practices to help your team thrive.

Determine a hybrid work model that best fits your team.

First, there is no “one-size-fits-all" approach to hybrid work. Some common hybrid work models include^4:

Fixed Days Hybrid Model – Employees have designated days for remote work and designated days for in-person work.
Core Hours Hybrid Model – Employees can choose their work location, but are required to be available in-person during specific hours
Team Rotation Hybrid Model – Teams alternate between remote work and in-person work on specific days or weeks

As a team or organizational leader, you must determine and implement a model that best fits the unique context in which you operate (industry, job function, geographic location, etc.) – no two teams will be alike. Consult with your organizational leaders and team members to determine a method that makes the most sense. But to maximize employee engagement, consider the following: Studies show that a structure of 2-3 days per week in-office is optimal for most teams⁵.

Establish clear communication expectations.

A hybrid work model can create significant communication challenges for leaders. Approximately 50% of workers report their productivity being negatively impacted by ineffective team communication⁶. Poor communication also impacts levels of trust in both the leader and team members. Therefore, it is critical to set clear expectations and create a balance between synchronous (real-time) and asynchronous (self-paced) communication.

For leaders, assigning communication channels can be a simple and direct method to set expectations and promote individual and team accountability. With my team at the Leadership Initiative, this looks like the following:

Planned project meetings, weekly huddles and brainstorming sessions held in-person (preferred) or via Microsoft Teams video call
Department announcements, project reports and proposals, and other high-importance items via email
Impromptu conversations, questions and meetings held in-person and via Microsoft Teams
File sharing and collaboration via Microsoft Teams and OneDrive

Maximize your time in-office.

With years of experience in both in-person and virtual meetings, we can now definitively say that in-person should be the preferred method for eligible teams and organizations. Studies show that in-person meetings provide many benefits, including⁶:

Increased productivity
Better collaboration
Higher engagement
Stronger employee relationships

Leaders using a hybrid work model can use this to their advantage by structuring their team’s work accordingly. At the Leadership Initiative, we utilize a fixed hybrid work model where our entire team of six is in-office together on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. We intentionally schedule project meetings during these days for the reasons mentioned above, optimizing remote work days for individual tasks and focus-time.

Hybrid work is here to stay. To maximize your team’s performance, make sure that you give them structure and create an environment in which they can flourish.