What does hybrid workplace even mean?
In the second episode of Coffee with Gable, I had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Herd, the founder and CEO of FirstBase.
Chris and I spoke about the growing remote landscape, our thoughts about solving the challenges of hybrid work, and the meaning and importance of company culture. Our conversation sparked insights and confirmed some conclusions I gained through talking to 100+ companies this year.
Here are my insights from our inspiring conversation:
Remote work is the natural evolution of work
Chris spoke about how he sees the progression that leads us to remote work. In his opinion, offices came around as part of the transition from the industrial revolution to a knowledge-based economy. The assumption of the office is that technology needs to be on-site for people to be able to use it while gathered together on location.
With the incredible technological advances, we can now use the technology we need for work anywhere. This shift and progress enable flexibility on the technical level, but it still requires a shift in our thinking. The office is a workplace that works relatively well for everyone as a collective entity but not particularly good for each individual. The shift to remote work empowers every employee to design their workday in a way that maximizes their personal productivity.
Does hybrid work really exist?
I discussed the basics of what we call “hybrid work” with Chris, and his take on the hybrid is that a company can be either office-first or remote-first. The designation depends on whether the “company center” or the leadership is in the office or remote.
The important outtake for companies from now on is that no matter whether they are office-first or remote-first, they need to design processes to support their remote-first employees. The work processes and environments need to accommodate the flexibility of the workforce regardless of whether the company considers itself remote-first or not.
The challenges of hybrid-remote companies
With all the obvious benefits, hybrid work has some challenges attached too. According to Chris (and some recently published studies), the biggest challenges for companies are:
- Establishing trust and visibility between managers and employees
- Ditching micromanaging
- Focusing on performance and shifting from time as KPI to performance and productivity
Providing visibility and transparency in teams is crucial, especially if some of the team members are on-site and other work remotely at least some of the time. Making sure every employee is equipped with the same information, access to decision-making processes, and promotion opportunities levels out the playing field in hybrid companies. This is a challenge that many companies yet need to master, and it will take time to get it right.
One of the ways to make sure communication, management, and organization run smoothly in hybrid teams is for leaders to focus on data-driven decision making, measuring, and analyzing. Processes that can’t be measured can be hard to understand and iterate, and setting measurable goals can go a long way.
Finally, a critical challenge for hybrid and remote companies alike is prioritizing async work and avoiding distractions. Asynchronous communication and work depend on documentation, tools, and clear alignment of responsibilities, especially if the employees are scattered across time zones and locations. The async process is fundamentally different from the office work model, so it’s important not to replicate the office but instead focus on developing this work model effectively.
The new role of HR: Community over culture
With the rise in remote work and hybrid companies, the role of HR will continue to thrive and gain importance. The HR departments are usually primarily responsible for defining and maintaining company culture, but that term is sometimes confusing.
It can be difficult to define culture since it’s a word so often used in various meanings and forms. Basically, what we mean when we talk about culture is a set of processes, protocols, relationships, and behaviors driven by key people inside a company. And while culture can be useful for defining the values a company stands for, maybe it’s time to shift to building community inside companies. Companies can achieve community building by being less prescriptive and more organic with their employees, encouraging purposeful connections, and nurturing relationships on every level.
What will the new office look like?
Even though Chris is famous for his Twitter threads in which he announces the death of the office, what he really means is the absolute redundancy of flagship HQ locations in the new work landscape. In those big buildings, people are already separated by floors and departments, so they don’t really see each other often anyway.
This doesn’t mean there won’t be physical workspaces moving forward. In an often-used but very accurate parallel, we spoke about the rise of eCommerce vs. bookstores. Ecommerce made it possible for people to shop more effectively, have a wider variety of products, and enjoy convenience. Still, it didn’t kill the bookstores, especially if they focused on creating an experience for their customers.
In the hybrid work environment, this translates through the fact that spending time together with coworkers is no longer necessary, but it’s still useful and enjoyable for many teams. The difference is that time has to be purposeful and mindful. If employees are going to invest time into the commute, they need a return on that investment — a reason to be there.
The new office will be a place to meet, collaborate, and connect with your team and do it flexibly. For companies, this brings a need for flexibility in terms of real estate: reducing long-term leases, scaling their physical locations up and down when they need to, and having spaces in different locations for different teams.
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These are just some of the insights I gained from talking to Chris. To hear our entire discussion, head to our YouTube channel and check out Coffee with Gable!
