How an Adtech Company May Succeed in a Hybrid Workplace?

With the many advantageous aspects of a hybrid workplace and work culture, the biggest challenge that remains is keeping effective communication going between people working in the office and those who are working remotely.

Key challenge of a hybrid workplace

Taking a workshop meeting as an example. If the team is present partly physically and partly remotely, the facilitators have a natural tendency to focus on those who are sitting in front of them. The logistics of working with materials is also difficult – a board or a flipchart may be perfectly perceived by people who are physically present, whereas for people working remotely they will be practically invisible.

A big loss can be someone’s absence during breaks, when participants comment on and discuss the ongoing meeting in the lobby; for the virtual side this can mean they have been effectively cut out of the discussion for a time. A similar situation occurs during the semi-spontaneous group elements of a meeting – for example, when brainstorming or when meeting to discuss an item. We all know how hard it is to “join” a live conversation while being online – “Hello, can you hear me?”, “Repeat, please…”, “Dave, you are frozen again.”

How to address hybrid culture challenges?

The challenge of hybrid workplace is, therefore, to maintain patience and understanding for some of the shortcomings of this work culture. It is also important to remember that hybrid interactions are also human interactions, and so making that extra effort will always be required. Remember to engage in small talk, whether it’s about pets, new restaurants or the latest football match. These small informal interactions create the atmosphere that bind a group of specialists into a team. Therefore, in our organization, we encourage employees not to be afraid of these throw-away conversations and to treat them as an important element of work, and not a waste of time.