I don’t think I need to set the scene for you – I can’t get on public transport these days without overhearing someone having a debate about “has working from home gone too far?”. Our working culture has changed dramatically since March 2020, in some ways for the better and in some ways for the worse. Flexibility to work from home has freed up so many people to balance their personal and work lives (e.g. childcare and other caring responsibilities), and has saved companies money by reducing office space overheads. However, I speak to many people who now feel isolated and believe their team culture has suffered from reduced cohesiveness. For others, working from home makes it harder to maintain work-life boundaries, because they have lost the physical separation of starting work when they get to work and stopping work when they leave the office.

Even worse, MS Teams has insidiously appeared on many of our personal phones and devices, meaning that we are seeing work-related messages 24/7 and cannot mentally disengage. Research from Deloitte has suggested this is a key contributor to presenteeism (when people are at work but experiencing burnout or other conditions that significantly reduce their ability to do their job effectively), which represents an annual £27bn annual cost to UK private sector businesses!

What’s the answer? Make everyone come back into the office? I don’t think so – the culture shift is now embedded and most of us would feel resentful if our manager demanded our constant physical presence when it wasn’t necessary. In fact, it is so ingrained in our culture that it is now even enshrined in government regulation. However, a quick glance at this guideline reveals that the content is very woolly and open to interpretation, potentially leaving some employers more confused. How about prescribing exact days that everyone needs to be in? I don’t think so – this doesn’t allow flexibility for personal circumstances or the respective requirements of different roles.

The best solution I’ve seen comes from Dr David Rock, CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute (I recommend you check them out if you’re interested in science-backed approaches to leadership). In his article on hybrid working, Dr Rock talks about ‘The Patchwork Principle’, which advocates for a personalised approach to hybrid working, that is collaboratively agreed (as far as possible) with everyone and takes into account the requirements of different teams. He recognises that some employees prefer to work in the office all the time and that this should be enabled, whilst those that would prefer not to come in at all may need a minimum number of set days in the office to ensure the team remains cohesive. A sense of autonomy can be promoted by allowing teams to work out the finer details for themselves, and meaningful connection (a key predictor of wellbeing at work) should be promoted by organising regular social events. To me, all of this seems eminently sensible, but like most common-sense approaches, it will be easier said than done.

If you’ve already tried to work out hybrid working arrangements within your organization, you may have hit a number of barriers. These may include:

• Teams have become disconnected and don’t immediately feel a sense of cohesion when physically coming back together. You may have had a lot of staff turnover since 2019 (when most of us were in the office by default!) and some people may have never met face to face!
• People may already be experiencing burnout and displaying presenteeism – if this is the case, whether they are remote or in the office, their motivation and productivity will be low. They may also be more reluctant to come back in, as their perspective might be that more demands are being put on them when they are already struggling to cope.
• Some team managers may have more confidence than others in finding a balance between finding a collaborative hybrid working solution to match a team’s specific needs, and firmly setting clear boundaries and expectations where necessary. Upskilling managers in communication skills and assertiveness (both elements of Compassionate Leadership) may be essential here.

No leader is an expert in everything. The most successful businesses reach out to experts to support them with specialist aspects of their delivery. Empresa Psychology has bespoke, evidence-based team training solutions for these issues and many more! If you are interested in increasing team cohesion in your organisation, reducing presenteeism, and cultivating leaders who are able to develop and land a personalised hybrid working culture, I can help. Send me a LinkedIn message to set up a chat or email me at NatalieIsaia@EmpresaPsychology.co.uk