Our best 5 tips as a recruitment agency

Modern times require modern solutions. The pandemic affected all spheres of life in the last two years, and we’re over the phase where we thought that everything was going back to a state we called “normal”. Our working life is no exception: many companies (including most of our clients) had to switch to remote working and try to navigate within a system that seemed like something way too futuristic to be a reality only 2 short years before. But now, as regulations loosen and people are fed up with being isolated and quarantined, a part of our society is eager to innovate and try to blend remote work with their good old office lives. It’s called hybrid work, and it is exactly what it sounds like: something that allows workers to choose, or more importantly, switch between the two options on a regular basis.

Here at IseeQ, we’ve been perfecting our hybrid system for months now, and have encountered both incredible challenges and unexpected benefits. Having gone down the road already, we thought it would be useful to share our best practices, especially for company leaders or pioneers that want to keep up the pace of the business world. We found that the following things are essential to be able to operate successfully in a hybrid environment:

1. Be as transparent as possible

Make sure to communicate the idea of hybrid before you make the actual decision. It’s important to have a chat and discover the actual needs of your employees, as opinions can differ quite a lot. Some may miss going into your office if you’ve been working from home during the pandemic, but some may actually find staying remote more convenient. Whatever decision you make in the end, it will affect everyone working for the company, so transparent communication is key in the process.

2. Transition slowly

Regardless of your reasons for wanting to switch to hybrid, we recommend you take it slow. We spend a lot of our time with work everyday, so changes like this have a huge impact on our routines and general well-being. Try to work out a trial period, and see how your employees react to the new setting, and find solutions to the problems that occur on the way. This will be much easier than designing a system and implementing it in a day, only to find out that it doesn’t really work for your people.

3. Involve all colleagues in the process

We have already mentioned that all colleagues should be notified about the details of the switch, but we recommend involving them in the details too. Whether it’s about providing multiple options or creating a structure that satisfies all, try to design the processes together. We recommend you prioritize communication, structure availability, and keep a close eye on productivity tracking methods.

4. Create clear policies

There are 3 known types of hybrid office: remote first, office-occasional and office first (the names are quite descriptive, they all differ in the proportion of home office compared to remote work). Whatever setting you choose, make sure every expectation, duty and opportunity is clearly described and communicated. This will save you dozens of confused emails and countless headaches once the system is actually live. Think of: number of remote days per week or month, number of obligatory office hours or days, any administrative task one has to do to signal where they wish to work from…

5. Make communication and workflow easy and effective

Find tools that make it easy to communicate with everyone on online and offline days too, even if the team is split between locations. No co-worker should be excluded from participating in important meetings or conversations, so finding ways to enable them to be present is essential for the success of your business. We recommend using online versions of previously used office functions, like Trello instead of to-do boards and Discord for separate meeting rooms.

For further information, book a consultation through our website or via e-mail.