Shaping the optimal balance in communication & interaction when working on location and at a distance
How do we shape communication and interaction within organizations when many employees work in varying compositions at home and at different locations? How do we ensure that employees still know what to do and what the organization is going for when you meet less physically? How do we ensure that employees stay involved and connected with each other, the work and the organization? In other words: how do we set up internal communication in a hybrid organization?
The 4 functions and organization of internal communication
The Dutch like to go to work. More than 60% of workers went to work every day in 2019. Less than a quarter of workers worked at home incidentally and only about 15% worked structurally from home.
So we like to work with and with each other. Being physically together at work has largely determined the way we shape communication in the work environment. Here we start from the four functions that communication has:
- Directing and guiding: where is the organization heading and what does that mean for you;
- Tasks and instructions: what needs to be done and how it should be carried out;
- Engaging and inspiring: fostering connection with each other, the work, and the organization;
- Collaborating and sharing: improving the quality of our work.
Because we spent so much time close to each other and because face-to-face communication is qualitatively the richest form of communication, the internal communication was also largely geared towards physical proximity. On the one hand, formalized in work meetings, meet-ups, stand-ups, staff outings and town halls and on the other hand informally through a conversation at the coffee machine, quickly ask a question on an ad hoc basis at the desk of a colleague in the department, get a pat on the back for success or walk in to a colleague to check something. Despite all the increasing technological possibilities to work remotely, face-to-face communication remained the most used and most effective form of communication.
Remote communication: popular and challenging
And then Covid-19 came and remote working, largely mandatory, was massively embraced. The number of home workers increased to 56%, of whom 70% worked almost entirely at home. This also meant that all communication functions that first took place face-to-face suddenly had to be completed ‘remotely’. Work meetings went digital via MS Teams, the Friday afternoon drinks became Zoom drinks and there were Weekly updates from the management about the corona crisis in newsletters and possibly digital town halls.
As it turned out: if the urgency is only high enough, the various communication functions can also be filled remotely. With varying success. Because while this worked well for communication about tasks and remote instruction, organizations and employees struggled to maintain commitment and involvement. The informal conversations, contact and visibility turned out to be many times more complicated at a distance. It is therefore not for nothing that the preservation of motivation and morale among the homeworkers are seen as the greatest challenges.
That does not change the fact that (more often) working from home generally pleased. Especially because of an improved work-life balance, faster decision-making and better internal communication. Of the homeworkers, 40% to 60% expect to work from home more often. I’d rather not be full-time anymore. People prefer to work from home for 1 to 3 days and spend the rest of the time on location. Even organizations themselves think that we are no longer going back to the old situation. Almost 85% indicate that more than half of their employees will continue to work partially at home in the future.
Principles for communication in a hybrid situation
After the latest government tightening at the end of september, working from home is again the norm. Nevertheless, there is a very good chance that, even if we are all allowed to go to work again, we will no longer do this at the same time in the future. The question then is: how can communication and interaction be shaped as optimally as possible in such a hybrid situation?
First of all, of course, it depends on the starting point of the organization. There are three variants in it:
- As much as possible at the office: returning to “the old normal.” Colleagues are then present at the office for the majority of their time and work together there.
- As much as possible remotely: employees only come to the office in very exceptional cases. Think, for example, of companies like Twitter and Facebook, which have already indicated they will continue with fully remote work.
- Mix of home and remote: exactly where the boundary lies depends on the organization. The organization chooses to allow colleagues to work from home whenever possible, but at specific moments requires in-person meetings. Based on the nature of the work, the location (home or office) is then determined.
Principles for forms of communication
This means that there are two components that you take into account when looking at the design of communication and intervention forms: the function of communication and the choice that the organization makes for whether or not to work remotely. In addition, we recognize two more principles to look at how communication is organized:
- The more complex the content is (for the recipient to understand), the higher the quality of the communication format needs to be;
- As the urgency of the content increases, the need for physical presence as a communication format also increases (depending on the communication function).
Simply put: if the content of the communication is urgent, complicated, impactful, exciting or complex, it is desirable to make the form of communication as rich as possible. Where face to face, in each other’s proximity and in dialogue is the richest form of communication.
This starting point also immediately exposes why the communication function ‘tasks and instruction’ is generally easy to achieve remotely, while that is much more difficult for ‘binding and captivating’. Bonding and engagement is many times more complex than instructing someone to perform a task.
The same applies to collaboration and knowledge sharing. Research shows that home workers rate online collaboration positively. What they seem to mean is that meeting and making appointments online is relatively good. Brainstorming, sparring, co-creation and all kinds of other forms of collaboration in which something has to be created is more complicated online. Not impossible, but it is better in close proximity to each other, releasing energy and creativity.
What does this mean for you now?
If large groups of employees work remotely, this does not mean that certain functions of internal communication can no longer take place. However, it does mean that careful consideration must be given to how these functions are filled.
This starts with mapping out per communication function how desirable it is to do this remotely. This can vary per group of employees, depending on the urgency and complexity of the communication. The digital skills of this group also play a role in this.
It should then be examined whether the current internal channels are sufficiently capable of supporting the various communication functions at a distance:
- Are the right channels in place, or are there too many?
- Can richer content be offered to properly support complex messages?
- Are all employees being reached, and do they have sufficient opportunities for dialogue?
- Is it clear to employees where they can find which information?
These are typically questions that are solved with a structured internal communication and content strategy.
But it is an illusion to think that we can solve the lack of physical closeness, of contact, of humanity, so to speak, with only other means. We also need to work on new forms of contact and interaction. Apart from training employees in the functional use of tools such as MS Teams, Zoom, internal communities and the intranet, employees, team leaders, managers, supervisors and directors must also be trained in the best possible use of these tools – based on the different functions. Managing online meetings, supervising creative workshops and holding inspiration sessions requires other skills.
Skills that have hardly been needed until now, but are proving crucial now that we are working more and more remotely. The challenge for many organizations is therefore not so much to realize the technical capacities to work remotely, but to raise the human capacity to a level that can be worked well, connected and happy remotely.
Want to know more?
Do you have questions and would you like to know more about shaping communication and interaction in a hybrid organization? Read More Here or contact Peter directly on peter@evolve.eu or call +31 6 13 98 14 27.
sources:
https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/nieuws/2020/15/bijna-4-op-de-10-werkenden-werkten-vorig-jaar-thuis
Managing the COVID-19 Crisis – 3rd survey findings – Eden McCallum
Managing the COVID-19 Crisis – 4th survey findings – Eden McCallum
CPB / PBL: the future of offices. A scenario study of space requirements 2017
