Hybrid Work: The Best of Both Worlds & Potential Culture Killer

Employers these days can’t seem to make up their minds. They want everybody back in the office, and then they don’t. Or they want them to work from home two days of their choosing per week (but probably not Fridays, because that’s like giving away a three-day weekend). Then they want them to come back daily – but only if they want to – and as long as remote employees won’t be subject to any feelings of FOMO.

The so-called hybrid work strategy sounds like the perfect solution for a workforce that has one foot in the office and one foot out, but in their attempt to implement a plan that pleases every employee, employers that are not careful could instead be brewing confusion, chaos and a sense of disconnection.

Shedding light recently on this evolving workplace strategy was the Madison, Wis.-based think tank Filene Research Institute, which hosted a webinar, “The Credit Union Workplace of the Future,” featuring Momentum President Mark Alguard. Alguard, whose Seattle-based design-build firm works with credit union and community bank clients, recently led research with credit union leaders for a soon-to-be-released Filene report on the topic.

To preface Alguard’s insights, Filene Senior Director of Research Taylor Nelms emphasized the importance of designing a work environment that’s attractive to employees and potential employees by presenting some alarming stats on how drastically the labor market has changed:

• Gallup reported two-thirds of white collar workers worked remotely at some point as of September 2021; out of those, nine out of 10 would prefer to do so going forward and three out of 10 were extremely likely to seek a new job if their company eliminated remote work.
• Also in September 2021, McKinsey & Company reported 40% of all U.S. employees were considering leaving their jobs in the next three to six months, and 39 million people resigned in the first 10 months of 2021.
• A December 2021 Cornerstone Advisors survey of mid-sized U.S. financial institutions found the industry’s top concern for 2022 is attracting and retaining talent.
• In 2021, Gallup found employee engagement dropped for the first time in a decade, with only one-third of employees reporting being actively engaged.

Remote work has its perks – cost savings, the lack of a commute and better work/life balance, just to name a few – but it can also lead to an erosion in employee loyalty, tenure and culture, Alguard warned, noting that credit unions are known to have strong cultures and therefore any deterioration of culture could pose a risk.

At Momentum, employees are in the office three to four days per week, which Alguard said helps them develop deeper relationships with one another, build trust, solve problems more easily and make better decisions – all of which supports the firm’s overall success. But what works for Momentum won’t work for every organization.

When defining a hybrid work strategy, credit unions must find one that plays to employees’ strengths, enables their best work and ultimately helps the credit union reach its individual goals. There is no one-size-fits-all hybrid work strategy, and there are many facets to consider – all of which will result in unique answers and solutions, depending on the credit union.

One thing to keep in mind when asking for internal feedback on a proposed hybrid strategy, according to Alguard, is the bias employees may exhibit. An employee being asked if remote work is working will likely offer a self-centered response about how their own productivity has improved but they miss the fun they had with others in the office (in other words, their feedback may not help much). Instead, leadership should guide the decision-making based on the credit union’s goals, which may include less turnover or faster onboarding. “With your goals in mind, consider the work, interaction and employee experiences that will need to take place, and from there, you can consider the characteristics of your space,” he said.

Other questions to ask when considering who should work from where – and when – include:

• How will hybrid work affect innovation and cross-pollination? Will employees become siloed, or will they be exposed to what others are doing so they can consider how their work impacts the entire organization?
• If some roles are going fully remote, would it be more effective to outsource those roles?
• Can interpersonal relationships and trust be built virtually, or must it be built in person?
• How can your strategy balance collaborative work with focused, solo tasks?
• Will hiring remote workers outside of your market support the credit union’s growth, or will growth only take place if workers collaborate in person regularly?
• If you’re including remote work in your strategy, what’s the reason? Is it simply an employee perk? (If it is, that’s totally OK.)

Another thing to consider when designing a hybrid work strategy, Alguard pointed out, is whether it supports the idea of staff democratization. So if allowing remote work sometimes is on the table, all employees should be given that option if possible. Having knowledge-based (and likely higher-paid) employees work remotely but requiring tellers to be onsite because you’re concerned they may not present the most professional environment to members on video from home, for example, creates an equity issue. And to equalize participation in meetings, leaders can ask everyone to join on video from their individual device, whether they’re in the office or at home.

Speaking of equality, how can you ensure every employee’s workspace – whether it’s onsite or offsite – is ergonomic and conductive to productivity? Could you, as Alguard suggested, send a designer to remote employees’ homes to reconfigure furniture and help them choose new pieces to create a more comfortable environment? Sounds like a great employee perk to me.

When it comes to designing a communal office space as part of a hybrid work strategy, the approach could be similar to how a credit union offers its members multiple channel options, letting them decide how they want to access service: Provide a variety of workspace types so employees can choose one based on their individual work style and needs on any given day. A hybrid office could include a mixture of shared desks, dedicated workspaces, private offices and café-style workspaces that foster collaboration, Alguard noted.

If you’re confused about where and how people should be working right now, what the office should look like – and whether there should even be an office at all – you’re not alone. We’re in the early days of a major shift in how people work, and hybrid work strategy roadmaps, like the one being offered by Filene, are in their beginning stages as well. We may not know where the path to the workplace of the future will take us, but for now, remaining as flexible as possible, as well as striving to create an environment that employees will want to work in, can lead us in the right direction.

Natasha Chilingerian is executive editor for CU Times. She can be reached at nchilingerian@cutimes.com.