The future of work is here! But are your managers trained to manage hybrid teams?

Let’s face it – managing an onsite team ain’t the same as managing a geographically dispersed, cultural rainbow with shifting employee expectations. Even if your workplace settles on 3/2 hybrid models with *some* office time – managing different personalities across multiple sites is a tough nut to crack without support.

Building new managerial muscle to navigate hybrid workplaces requires new training and tools. While there’s things like showing up authentically and communicating transparently that need hands on care, technology can help you ‘hack’ a few strategies to make a fast impact.

Here are three async* strategies managers can leverage to improve hybrid team engagement wherever they log in from. 

1. Snappy daily syncs (stand-ups) and goal tracking

Quite possibly, the humble daily stand-up (virtual edition) is the leading cause of Zoom-fatigue worldwide. But it’s critical to team success that managers can keep hybrid team members updated and set and manage expectations and accountability, just as it’s critical for everyone in the team to understand when people are working and what they’re working on.

(Just don’t get into the habit of having meetings for meeting’s sake which end up feeling like groundhog day for no measurable purpose 😴)

Cadrelo’s daily syncs help you focus on the right stuff – like, who’s blocked and who needs help? Intuitive goal-tracking makes it easier for the whole team to work together through challenges and blocks to get stuff done.

2. Build and nurture employee relationships

Are the days of having a work boo (work husband/work wife) gone for good? Sad thought.

In these golden days of remote working, people have reported feeling isolated and fatigued working from home. It’s also worth considering that some employees can sail through tenure as ships in the night, never actually crossing paths without a navigator. 

It’s essential hybrid managers find common ground and activities to help team members bond online. You’ll spark collaboration and foster positive wellbeing. But take it a step further than a virtual meetup – you want to encourage personal connections and communication that doesn’t revolve around work.

Cadrelo makes it easy breezy to boost engagement and humanise hybrid teams through our team directories. You can:

• create employee social profiles where they list hobbies and interests
• establish and compare preferred working styles via our fun quiz
• create a team manifesto to get newcomers up to speed
• enable Slack integration to effortlessly generate social buzz (drop Dre in to drum things up with his classic conversation starters)!

3. Provide continuous feedback

Hybrid working can reduce access to constructive feedback and updates. Afterall, the most valuable feedback and learning isn’t in the annual review, it happens organically during project work or, say, after team meetings when employees huddle at a café to debrief without the boss *wink*

When virtual workers aren’t physically present, they can miss opportunities and feel out of the loop. This ties into the susceptibility for differential treatment – if workers are less visible than in-office peers, managers must be able to measure performance objectively.

Cadrelo sharpens team and individual performance by inviting continuous asynchronous feedback using pulses, notes, and intelligent insights that push employees to work their strengths and explore growth areas. It also creates a safe space where everyone is encouraged to use their voice. 

Managers and team members can share updates, thoughts, and feedback in real-time at any time, and assign and track actions to make sure stuff gets done.

Want to know the secret to engaging hybrid teams?

Cadrelo is currently free to use for early adopters who want to try something different that gets the whole team engaged and on the same page. Try it out here.

*Async: process in which two (or more) people interact and communicate without being present at the same time or space and responding in real-time. E.g. Instant messaging via mobile phones. How Cadrelo does this? Dre can ping conversation starters to each team member to start a Slack chat, or automatically send a daily goal check to team members. Then when they log in – they can respond. Voila!