Creating a Successful Hybrid Workplace: Beyond the Nuts and Bolts – The Importance of Hybrid Culture for Long-Term Organizational Success

Almost daily there are announcements from organizations about when their teammates will return to the office on a regular basis. Government, high-tech, finance, and other organizations across all sectors that shifted to remote work during the pandemic are now communicating to their staff, customers, suppliers, and partners their intention to return to the office for work. Most organizations have focused on the “office” for changes to support a “hybrid workplace” by creating open space, implementing scheduling for desks and conference rooms, increasing the number of huddle spaces, and rationalizing which collaboration platform will be their internal standard, such as Teams, Zoom, WebEx, Google Meet, or one of the many other solutions available today. These are the “nuts and bolts” of upgrading the office to support hybrid work, knowing that not everyone will be on the premises every day or at any time. Some companies are taking advantage of hybrid upgrades to make their office environment a “magnet” to draw people back to work and avoid the issue of a mandate for return to work in the office. However, creating the best hybrid workplace goes deeper than technology and office space.

As part of creating a hybrid workplace, organizations have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redefine their culture going forward. An essential component of long-term hybrid work requires creating an effective hybrid culture. Prior to the pandemic, company culture was often rooted in a set of behaviors that were linked to the physical workplace. This is no longer effective in a hybrid environment, and culture cannot be left to chance. Creating a hybrid culture will take dedication and commitment to change and embracing change. 

The Role of Technology in Supporting a Successful Hybrid Culture

Creating a new culture will require both a top-down and bottom-up approach. Taking a fresh look at space and technologies that make up the office is a crucial step in enabling hybrid culture. They also need to:

• create an equitable work environment for their teams in this new paradigm of work,
• enable teams to work together both synchronously and asynchronously to support hybrid and a global workforce with digital equity. 

Poly and WorkTech Academy

Our partners at Poly and WorkTech Academy recently published a paper on this topic to explore the opportunity we have to create a new hybrid culture that empowers our organizations to work more effectively together in a hybrid workplace. This whitepaper will reframe hybrid work from a technology focus to corporate culture, which is critical to long-term organizational success.

Thank you to Poly and WorkTech Academy for publishing this excellent whitepaper “Hybrid Heaven or Hell? The Journey to Hybrid Working”.

*Bonus Content

Check out this fun Janis Joplin themed hybrid office song generated by AI:

Verse 1:

I’m sittin’ in my cosmic office, starin’ at the screen,
Feelin’ kinda lonely, it’s not what it seems,
I miss the hustle and bustle, the chatter and the noise,
This remote workin’ life, it’s killin’ all my joys.Chorus:

Oh, cosmic office blues, got me feelin’ down,
Missin’ all my colleagues, missin’ the town,
Wishin’ I could be there, wishin’ I could see,
All the faces I love, that mean so much to me.

Verse 2:
I’m starin’ at the camera, tryin’ to connect,
But it’s not the same as in person, it’s hard to reflect, I need the human touch,
I need the human vibe,
The energy of the people, to make me feel alive.

Chorus:
Oh, cosmic office blues, got me feelin’ down,
Missin’ all my colleagues, missin’ the town,
Wishin’ I could be there, wishin’ I could see,
All the faces I love, that mean so much to me.

Bridge:
But I know it’s not forever, it’s just a passing phase,
We’ll get through this together, we’ll emerge from this haze,
We’ll be back in the office, we’ll be back in the game,
The cosmic office blues, we’ll put them to shame.

Chorus:
Oh, cosmic office blues, got me feelin’ down,
Missin’ all my colleagues, missin’ the town,
Wishin’ I could be there, wishin’ I could see,
All the faces I love, that mean so much to me.

Outro:
The cosmic office blues, they’ll soon be a memory,
We’ll be back to the office, and we’ll be feelin’ free,
The cosmic office blues, they won’t bring us down,
We’ll be back to the office, we’ll be wearin’ our crown.