The challenges of implementing a hybrid workforce

During the coronavirus pandemic, one of the first metrics employers looked at in relation to working from home was productivity, says Netta Efron, VP people and culture, group culture officer, at Koala.

“There were lots of people talking about how productivity levels remained or even increased during COVID while people were working from home,” she said.

However, as time went on, classic narratives returned, including questions over what employees are really spending their time on while working from home, Efron added. And this saw some employers question whether they should require employees to return to the office.

“People were wondering, ‘If people are working from home, what really are they doing? And when are they doing it?’” she said.

But as more employers embrace a hybrid workforce, questions remain around maintaining flexibility and productivity.

The challenges of hybrid working

Efron will be one of the panel members at this year’s HR Tech Summit in Sydney, where she will be discussing the topic “Improving hybrid workplace conditions to maximise flexibility and productivity.”

She highlighted some of the challenges that can stem from having a remote workforce, particularly when it comes to younger workers.

“[Some] of the research that came out started indicating the impact was mainly on young people entering the workforce and their ability to onboard and really learn the ropes and tasks,” Efron said.

“Maybe in the past they would have just sat next to a buddy or a mentor or their manager and had the ability to really quickly figure things out, learn on the job and ask questions. Has that been impacted by people working remotely and [being] disconnected from each other?”

However, Efron also highlighted the questions that can arise from employers asking their employees to return to the office.

“There's been lots of discussions about the impact for disadvantaged groups, mainly women caring for younger children or for the elderly,” she said. “Are those groups better off working more remote than in the office because they were able to have a better work-life balance, they were able to be more productive, to be more engaged with all of their responsibilities? And are we disadvantaging them again now by forcing them to come back?”  

An approach to hybrid working

When it comes to hybrid working, Efron believes it’s important for employers to define what it is and be clear about the expectations around it.

“It needs to work for the organisation and the culture in the organisation, and what you want to achieve and what type of work you're actually doing,” she said, adding it’s also about “recognising where the different parts of the business are at in their journey because they may require different approaches.” 

Koala’s approach to workplace flexibility is “always evolving”, Efron said.

“We're still quite a small business in a sense that we're under 200 people and it really allows us to be able to try to meet, as much as possible, each person's needs,” she said. “And just recognise that different people have different needs and requirements because of their personal circumstances and because of the work that they do.

“If our engineers’ team, for example – website engineers, front-end devs, all those – if for them, what works is one day a month, then we’re like ‘Great, but whichever one day a month that you choose, let's just make sure as much as possible that you're all there. And the content and the work that you're doing while you're all there in the office makes sense’.”

That could include having team meetings or a town hall in the office.   

But one thing that has worked well for the Koala has been communicating with its team about the progress of their hybrid work systems.

“What we need is to keep communication lines open to hear from the business and for them to tell us ‘This actually worked’ or ‘Here's an idea for maybe [how] it could be better’,” Efron said. “And that's been really, really helpful — especially with hybrid work.”