What do we mean by a Hybrid Working Strategy?

In simple terms a Hybrid Working Strategy (let’s call it an HWS!) is a business’s response to the changes in the Covid 19 workplace landscape and the transitions in working patterns as restrictions ease. Initially in the March 2020 lockdown we were told to work from home (key workers excepted) and restrictions were imposed. As these restrictions have eased employers have looked at how they can transition to a “new normal” and offer a combination of office and home working – a hybrid! Some more from home, others the opposite, a flexible approach.

So, some stats!

Prior to the first Covid lockdown, according to data from the Office of National Statistics, only around 5% of the workforce worked mainly from home.[1] As we transition to a hybrid working model 18% of employees say they want to work from home all the time and 39% want to work from home some of the time. From an employer’s perspective, the CIPD’s Embedding New Ways of Working Post-Pandemic Report[2] shows that now around 40% of employers expect over half their workforce to work regularly from home after the pandemic has ended.

These figures identify a change in attitudes to working patterns on behalf of both employers and employees and a degree of expectation on behalf of the employee that these changes will be permanent.

It is widely accepted that there are many considerations to be taken into account when developing and implementing a HWS.

Yes, you need to ensure that you have the right tech and communication systems in place, to have policy and Covid 19 safe protocols, and to have considered the legal, health and safety and performance management implications of such a model etc. However, what sits at the centre of this whole process is your peoples’ ability to perform at their best, and this is inextricably linked to their wellbeing; if your people have robust wellbeing, the neuroscience tells us that they are capable of functioning and performing at their best.

The seismic impact of the pandemic upon all of our working lives will be long lasting. Of those returning to the office, we are receiving a lot of anecdotal feedback from our clients that their people are reportedly feeling edgy and bewildered and that they cannot put their finger upon why they feel this way.

By considering these responses in terms of the neuroscience of behaviour we can identify some possible causes:

A Heightened Threat Response

Over the last year we have taught our brains to pay attention to the pandemic threat; this means that our amygdala, an almond shaped mass found in each of our hemisphere of our cerebral cortex, puts our attention upon threat and reward. Before COVID there was evidence that people were feeling stressed, anxious and that this was affecting their mood. Add to that the invisible threat of the pandemic, and an existing sense of threat is significantly amplified.

In addition, for much of the last 18 months we have been advised to stay apart and socially distanced, to work from home, to stay in to avoid contracting and spreading the virus. Now we are being urged to venture out into what we have been encouraged to perceive as a threatening environment in order to return to work.

This isn’t just about being in the working environment, there’s also the small issue of getting there, often using public transport in crowded trains and buses; potentially accelerating the feeling of threat and vulnerability. We may not be a consciously aware of our new responses to the world, but this demonstrates itself in other elements of mental health and performance. Many people are putting on a brave face and pushing on but this way of being is unsustainable.

Change Blindness

Our eyes may be the instrument through which we take in visual stimuli, but it is the brain that interprets the data and creates the ‘picture’ of what we see. Only one third of what makes up the image we “see” in our minds is directly from stimuli that is entering through our eyes, the other two thirds is through recall within the brain, from memory.

When our attention is fixed on the things that cause us to feel under threat, we fail to see things in our environment that are relevant to our work. Another good reason to feel stressed at work, when we seem to keep missing important things – and therefore to prefer to be back in our safe environment at home.

Cognitive Dissonance

When information is presented to your brain that is contradictory and inconsistent to your values, beliefs, and thoughts it can create severe mental disturbances, known as cognitive dissonance. What does this mean in terms of someone returning to the workplace? People returning may have established new values and beliefs about safety at work – with good reason, they have been drummed into our heads over the last 18 months.

Therefore, it is not surprising if people experience some form of cognitive dissonance, which can be bewildering and cause increased anxiety.

So, if you add the pieces together, it helps to shine a light upon why people may be struggling with the hybrid working model.

As far as working from home is concerned, again there are a number of issues.

  1. How do you, your manager, your team leaders really know what is going on with remote workers? A combination of our research at Wellbeing with Cari[3] and Deloittes[4] shows that three out of four employees are hiding behind a “brave face.” To some degree this maybe easier to identify when people are in the working environment, but it is not so easy across a screen. People are able to smile, nod, and contribute to some extent – but what is really happening when the call ends?
  2. Wellbeing with Cari research demonstrates an increase from 52% to 65% in people’s perception of their working environment as being peaceful which can be attributed to a sense of being in a “safer” environment whilst at home. However, we are still seeing increases in levels of stress, anxiety, and depression which in turn inhibits individual performance.

There is some degree of incongruence happening here; both in terms of the messages people of authority (politically or at work) are giving to us, and within the individual themselves; who may be putting on a show to world that is intended to imply ‘all is well’ whilst all the time feeling something quite different on the inside. This is an unsustainable way of existing for anyone.

How is this impacting performance?

We are seeing increasing levels of presenteeism, i.e., showing up for work but just not able to function. This is true both at the workplace and at home but in different ways and to differing degrees. The perceived “threats” may be different, but the responses are often the same: fight, flight, flop, fold, fawn, freeze or a combination of these (please ask if you’d like to know more about these effects of threat).

The net result of this is a reduction of brain capability[5] :

  • Problem Solving has reduced by 19% to 49%
  • Decision Making reduced by 11% to 64%
  • Teamwork/Co-operation reduced 4.1% to 59%
  • Creativity reduced by 11% to 52%

Overall, our research is showing levels of function in these areas at around 50-60%. And these of course are the functions that sit behind peak performance. When these brain functions are inhibited, the ability to perform is inhibited – cause and effect.

Imagine if your businesses IT systems were operating at these levels, there would be outcry!

What can we do?

We all know that poor wellbeing is on the increase, that employee mental health has taken a massive hit over the last two years. It would therefore be fair to assume that implementing Hybrid Working Strategies is possibly adding another layer of stress, anxiety etc to the employee/employer experience – when we have not properly overcome the issue of stigma, and how this is preventing people from honestly saying how they feel about ‘new working practices’ when the old working practices were causing ill health.

To provide a solution we have to avoid shying away from asking the right questions in the right way. What is happening in terms of wellbeing levels, where, to whom and to what extent? Until we understand this we cannot effectively and successfully deliver on our HWS strategic goal.

The implementation of a HWS needs to be an employee focussed process with your people at the heart of this. If the HWS is based on cost cutting and profit improvements without consideration of individual needs it will clearly fail.

And in any event it is vital to know who is being impacted the most (work based, home or both), which of your teams are struggling the most in terms of wellbeing, where are the pockets of presenteeism, how are people doing in terms of brain capability, can they function, can they perform – before we can identify what needs to be done to ensure that everyone is feeling at their best and performing to their best.

In 2017, Deloittes in their supporting document[6] to the Thriving at Work[7] report recommended an end-to-end solution to achieve the greatest return on investment, of between 10x and 11x.

The core ingredient of an effective HWS is the manner and means by which you measure and monitor the wellbeing of your people (baseline), that you implement your interventions and support in a focused and targeted manner, and then measure again as a part of a continuous process. This is both proactive and preventative.

With HWS it is ever more important to have a structured risk assessment for mental health – it needs to be mandatory, like any other risk assessment; but why now? Because we can’t see how people are feeling when the screen is switched off. Therefore, the mental risk is a clear and present danger to our people. Now more than ever we need to be monitoring wellbeing on a regular basis. And responding, confidentiality to needs before they become urgencies. Yes, you can use this model around the HWS but in reality, this should be an ongoing process.

Culture Shift

So, as we move towards a less restricted working environment should we go back to business as usual in terms of how we deal with things? Over the last few years this thing called employee wellbeing has popped up and we’re not quite sure of what to do with it.

Is it an HR issue, is it D&I plus Wellbeing, is it Employee Benefits, Health and Safety? Where does the budget come from?

Perhaps rather than getting tied in knots, businesses should stand back for a moment and look at this in terms of the organisation being the sum of its people.

If every decision comes from an employee centric perspective, then maintaining and enhancing the wellbeing of these people becomes the obvious thing to do.

I would say it’s a “no brainer” but the neuroscience proves otherwise! If we are all at high levels of wellbeing, our brains are functioning effectively, and we can operate at peak performance. With this view and understanding as the key consideration from leadership, department heads, managers and throughout all employees, a thriving and successful wellbeing culture can flourish.

Summary

I would recommend that if you are implementing a Hybrid Working Strategy, you:

  • Start by identifying the wellbeing levels of your people and in particular, what is happening where, to whom and to what level
  • Find out what the brain performance is like for groups and individuals both in work and at home
  • Ensure confidential support is proactively targeted at the people who may be in need before it all goes wrong
  • Review your wellbeing data in terms of the neuroscience of the threat response and its implications
  • Share this knowledge with your people; psychoeducation in knowing why we respond as we do, is half the battle
  • Equip your people with some techniques and that they can implement to mitigate the impact of these changes. For example, at Wellbeing with Cari we provide simple, 2-minute activities which can instantly change an individual’s brain and body chemistry, emotional state and therefore actions. Small tweaks can create big changes; so, help your people get in the driving seat of their brain!
  • Monitor wellbeing, brain performance and target needs on an ongoing basis – wellbeing changes all the time, and prevention is better than cure; this is not a static situation, as the Covid 19 landscape evolves the wellbeing of your people will change for better or worse – which way depends upon the action you take now.

End note

As I write this paper (Late November 2021), Covid 19 appears to be on the rise once more across Europe, particularly in Austria, Germany, and Holland. In response to the restrictions imposed there has been civil unrest, rioting, vehicles burned and clashes with the authorities. In the UK, the NHS is saying that they are already under unsustainable pressure even before winter begins.

These have been and remain challenging times, in response we are seeing more and more threat and reacting accordingly.

Therefore, if our organisations are to survive and thrive, then so too must our people – their wellbeing has to be central to not only the implementation of our HWS – but everything we do.

Stuart Paviour
Business Psychologist

 

[1] https://yougov.co.uk/topics/economy/articles-reports/2020/09/22/most-workers-want-work-home-after-covid-19

[2] https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/flexible-working/planning-hybrid-working#gref

[3] https://www.cariwellbeing.co.uk/research-proves-covid-19-has-negatively-impacted-workplace-wellbeing-and-performance/

[4] https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/consulting/articles/mental-health-and-employers-refreshing-the-case-for-investment.html

[5] https://www.cariwellbeing.co.uk/research-proves-covid-19-has-negatively-impacted-workplace-wellbeing-and-performance/

[6] https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/consulting/articles/mental-health-and-employers-refreshing-the-case-for-investment.html

[7] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/thriving-at-work-a-review-of-mental-health-and-employers