Hybrid working is about people
During the first lockdown in March 2020, we still thought that working from home would be temporary. Working from home was made technically possible. Teams were turned on and we were at peace with that. It would only be temporary and soon we would be working in the office again.
The reality turned out to be different. More than a year later, the motto is still working from home as much as possible and many organizations are slowly starting to embrace the concept of hybrid working. Less often to the office. More remotely. More often than not, you don’t have everyone on your team physically around the table at the same time. Carina de Vries, founder of Workspace Heroes, talks about the transition we’re in.
“With just turning on Teams and letting your employees figure it out, you won’t make it anymore. It is necessary to rethink working. How can you use the Microsoft tools in such a way that it does not matter who works in which location? Hybrid collaboration can happen anytime, anywhere. It’s not about having the tools turned on, it’s how you use them.”
Hybrid working is therefore ‘the new way of working’. Any individual can work from home or in the office, without causing any problems.
That’s right. Yet hybrid working goes beyond just looking at what the individual needs. Hybrid working is about how you work together as a team, what you have to do as a team and how you get there. Even if you see each other physically less often. Hybrid working is the future. The old image of the chef in a dust jacket who supervises whether his employees are really working, by occasionally looking over his glasses, that is really passé.
Hybrid working also requires a different way of leadership, especially since it is becoming increasingly common for colleagues to have not seen each other in person at all. How do you create a team that works together on the set goals? We thought: it’s temporary, but this situation remains. My prediction is that going to the office every day is now really over. That requires a different use of the tools you have at your disposal. The tools remain the same. How you deal with it, that’s what changes.”
Quote: Change is the only constant – Heraclitus
You help companies hybrid work through your self-developed approach. Workspace Heroes is all about the heroes on the work floor, can you tell us a bit more about that?
We have known for a long time that real learning happens in the workplace. And that’s where we support the people. Because we make the subject matter directly applicable to the workplace, the matter lasts longer. Changes happen so quickly, you can no longer manage with a one-off training on the tools and nothing else. We ensure that the conversation is started from the workplace, from the bottom up.
Because we make it measurable what support employees need, we can respond to those specific needs. Every month we provide appropriate training and coaching. And because we do that online in our Teams App, we need fewer consultants. By continuously measuring and adjusting, we ensure that employees learn what they need when they need it, so we keep costs low and returns high.
“Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t want to”. – Sir Richard Branson
Suppose I want to work optimally hybrid in a short period of time. Can I also contact you?
Sure! In collaboration with three other parties, we have set up the Hybrid Work Academy. With our Academy you get enough tools to work as optimally hybrid as possible in just 4 short training sessions. Various topics are discussed such as: How do you digitally take your stage if you are not in one room, in other words, how do you get more out of your story digitally? Or, how do you prevent people from feeling left out during a hybrid meeting? In addition, we also discuss mental well-being: people often work at home more than they have ever done. This is not directly better for mental health. We teach our participants to get control and to break patterns by working as optimally as possible hybridly. We link everything to the possibilities of Microsoft 365 and can be applied directly in practice.
What does that look like in practice?
What we believe in is that everything must be immediately applicable and easily accessible for every participant. That is why we have developed the Heroes App where you decide when you follow the lessons. That means no more long training days, but only 10 minutes pere-learning 4 times a week, when it suits you. We reinforce learnings with personal coaching.
All learnings can be found in the Microsoft Teams environment of your own organization and you get access to a site where you get to know other participants. That’s how we really create that community feeling.
We not only make learning fun and practical, but also save more time per day. For example, an averagee-learning yields 10 minutes of profit per day. That saves you a lot of time per day!
A tip to apply immediately
When you work with Microsoft Teams, you can easily get more control over your agenda. For example, reduce your meeting time: who says that a meeting lasts an hour by default? In 45 minutes you can often discuss everything that is needed. For example, I indicate in advance how long I have the time for telephone appointments. This way, the person I speak to knows exactly what to expect. Nobody thinks that’s crazy.
We believe in the power of learning by doing. You mainly do this in practice and at your workplace. The most important thing is that you get more out of yourself with the help of IT.
Een tip om direct toe te passen
Wanneer je met Microsoft Teams werkt kun je op een simpele manier meer regie krijgen op je agenda. Verkort bijvoorbeeld je vergadertijd: wie zegt dat een vergadering standaard een uur duurt? In 45 minuten kan je vaak alles bespreken wat nodig is. Ik geef bijvoorbeeld zelf bij telefonische afspraken vooraf al aan hoe lang ik de tijd heb. Zo weet degene met wie ik spreek precies wat ze kunnen verwachten. Niemand die dat gek vindt.
Wij geloven in de kracht van leren door te doen. Dat doe je vooral in de praktijk en op je werkplek. Het belangrijkste dat het erom gaat dat jij meer uit jezelf haalt met behulp van IT.
