Three Essential Steps To Promote Inclusion In Hybrid Workplaces

The people have spoken, and the verdict is in—more than 90% of employees in India want companies to offer hybrid work arrangements. Freedom from long commutes, flexible hours, and a chance of a better work-life balance are the driving forces behind this dramatic shift.

And with surveys indicating that nearly three-fourths of employees would consider looking for a new job if their employer does not provide hybrid work arrangements, the die seems to be well and truly cast. If you want to retain your top talent, you need to find ways to adapt to a hybrid workplace. A hybrid workplace model mixes in-office and remote work to offer flexibility and support to employees.

One of the key challenges during this transition is workplace culture. How do you make your employees feel part of the team? And why should you even bother about creating a sense of belonging in the workplace anyway? These are some of the questions you can find answers for in this post. 

The importance of belonging

Human beings are among the most social creatures on the planet. We thrive when we work as a team. An inclusive workplace is one where all individuals, regardless of their gender, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality, feel acknowledged, respected, and valued as equals.

According to the Harvard Business Review, companies with a high sense of belonging enjoy a 56% increase in on-job performance from its workforce, a massive 50% reduction in risk of employee turnover, and a jaw-dropping 75% reduction in sick days.

It does not stop there. Employees who feel like they belong are 18 times more likely to get promoted, twice as likely to get raises, and are 1.5 times more likely to recommend your company to other jobseekers.

Inclusion challenges in a Hybrid Workplace

Traditionally, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs focus on improving the workplace culture at the office and ensuring that all employees, regardless of their differences, feel valued and welcomed. Inclusion is crucial—you cannot create a strong workplace culture without it.

A hybrid workplace adds another layer of complexity to this already formidable task for HR departments. A strong and inclusive organisational culture can only be created by providing identical workplace experiences to all your employees.

This is not easy when everyone is not present at the workplace. Fully remote/hybrid workers are at risk of feeling disconnected from your office-based teams. This can result in a sense of isolation/not belonging among your employees, resulting in the same productivity and turnover challenges.

Further, when employees feel disconnected from their workplace, they are more likely to indulge in moonlighting, a rising problem in the Indian IT sector already. Along with low remuneration, a lack of loyalty and engagement has been cited as a reason for this behaviour.

3 Ways to improve employee engagement in a Hybrid Workplace

Regardless of your feeling towards hybrid work as an employer, it is essential to understand that the arrangement is here to stay for the foreseeable future. To improve employee loyalty and engagement, you need to take proactive steps to foster a strong hybrid workplace culture:

1. Start with the onboarding process

New hires are at highest risk of feeling an acute disconnect in a remote/hybrid work arrangement. According to the SHRM Foundation, the turnover risk among this cohort is quite high, at 50% in the first 18 months. Poor onboarding experience is a common contributing factor.

Creating a comprehensive onboarding program with special focus on remote/hybrid employees can help to improve new-hire engagement levels and help them feel part of your organisation. In this Harvard Business Review article, you can find the essential elements of such a program:

• Give them detailed instructions, guidelines, and insights into your workplace processes and expectations
• Conduct frequent engagement sessions between managers/team leaders and new hires in the first 12 months
• Connect new hires with key stakeholders for informal conversations to boost social engagement
• To boost new hire confidence levels, give them short-term goals that are not too challenging

2. Make the most of face-to-face communications

According to the media reports, three days of remote work seems to be the popular choice among both workers and employers. This will probably work best in a rotation system, where certain employees take specific days off for remote work.

Your team leaders and line managers should make the most of the other two days (or more) that a hybrid worker spends in the office. Schedule meetings and 1 v 1 talks on these days with such employees to ensure that they are still in the loop.

It would also make sense to hold more frequent social/casual get-togethers between teams in a hybrid arrangement. Given the additional risk of some employees feeling left out due to fewer days in the office, this kind of preventive measures are essential in hybrid work for team-building.

3. Pay more attention to employee health and welfare

The situation is already pretty bleak from an employee health perspective in India. Burnout and depression rates among Indian employees are close to 40% – easily the highest reported in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the McKinsey Health Institute.

Even in remote work, there is a risk of this happening. Work-from-home burnout was reported among 69% of employees in the United States in 2020-21. It is up to your management to ensure that this is averted at all costs.

Have HR conduct frequent wellness surveys among remote/hybrid workers and ensure that they have a means of providing feedback on work arrangements. Managers should be mindful of any early signs of stress or depression among their subordinates.

An inclusive Hybrid Workplace culture is possible

Businesses don’t like the idea of hybrid work because it represents a radical departure from the familiar, the tried and tested. But as things stand, it is hard to visualise a return to the pre-pandemic ‘normal’ of 100% office work. You have no option but to adapt to the changing demands and aspirations of your workforce. 

A pivot to more flexible, democratic or laissez-faire leadership styles may be essential, since rigid autocratic or bureaucratic styles can be detrimental to the creation of inclusive hybrid workplaces. But the initiative for that has to come from the very top, the C-Suite itself.