How To Ensure Collaboration In The Hybrid Workplace

Over the past year and a half, we’ve seen enterprise organizations shift to remote work, requiring leadership to pivot and digitize workflows so that managers and employees could remain productive. A hybrid workplace provides collaboration to all employees – no matter where they work.

Every leader wants to do what’s best for their employees. And in this post-COVID era, leaders want to know what employees want. How do employees want to work? Do they want to be able to “work-from-anywhere?” Do they want to be in the office? Are they happy to keep working at home? Would they entertain the idea of a hybrid workplace experience? For example, go into the office 2 days a week and work from home 3 days a week.

Be transparent about what your organization is doing to make sure employees are safe and feel comfortable being in the office. Ask them what they need to have peace of mind and be engaged while they work.

For a true hybrid workplace, employees should have the tools and systems to get their work done – whether they’re in the office or working from home. The hybrid workplace sets up all employees to collaborate and share on equal footing.

Here are 7 ways your enterprise organization can provide effective collaboration in the new hybrid workplace:

Run meetings efficiently

Meetings are an essential part of collaboration. Yet, executives consider 67% of meetings to be failures – costing your business time and money. For instance, someone might set a meeting to discuss the agenda of an upcoming meeting. Or, a meeting could have been avoided with a well-written email outlining everyone’s action items. Have in-person meetings only when they’re absolutely necessary. Make sure meetings have an agenda and outline clear goals for each participant.

Provide more innovation

Improving teamwork and collaboration in the hybrid workplace requires consistently looking for new solutions to your organization’s problems. If you everyone is communicating via different channels, it creates an inefficient workflow. For example, what if the project manager is communicating in Slack, and the client is using Microsoft Teams? An enterprise mobile platform allows leadership, managers, employees, and clients to have access to everything they need all in one central location.

Create stronger teams

How do the best workplaces in the world collaborate and connect with their teams? They put in the effort to empower their employees and develop stronger teams and social networks. Whether employees are in the office, working at home, or on the go, the hybrid workplace must include all employees in the workflow. Working toward a common goal instills team members with a strong sense of purpose and increases engagement and collaboration.

Simplify file sharing

If you’ve ever sent email attachments back and forth for editing, then you know how frustrating and time consuming it is. And, after a document has been passed around multiple times, it becomes confusing to know which document is the most up-to-date version. An enterprise mobile platform can save files in the cloud and only one document gets shared – eliminating the old file version problem. Employees are able to access the documents the need, no matter where they are working.

Refocus on employee culture

The hybrid workplace is going to have its bumps and missteps in the beginning. It’s up to enterprise leadership to engage with employees and assess the organization’s overall morale. Surveys are a great way to capture the employee experience and collect real-time feedback. Focusing on employee engagement will be important to encouraging productivity, collaboration, and company culture.

Go digital for learning and training

Before COVID-19, most learning and training was still completed in a classroom. The training courses were designed to match the average pace of the learners in the room. By going digital and using an enterprise mobile platform, employees can learn on the go. Microlearning lets fast learners go through content more quickly, while slower learners can take their time and go through the material at their own pace. Learners can be quizzed to make sure they are absorbing and retaining the information they need to do their jobs.

Consider a no code enterprise mobile app

At CatalystXL, we want to help you quickly and easily share information and foster collaboration across your entire organization. We can deliver a no code, custom branded enterprise mobile platform that unlocks answers and provides insights via our Cardware™ platform — sharing categorized content in a powerful flashcard format. Our mobile platform fosters a community of collaboration, engagement, and connectedness for your employees – both in and out of the office.

Book a demo today.