Hybrid Work Reimagined: Scaling SaaS Teams Need More Than Flexibility
During COVID, many companies frantically figured out how to allow people to work remotely. The pervasive wisdom was that you needed to find the technology to make off-site employees as productive as they would be on-site, from meetings to collaborating, all the way down to file sharing. And it seemed to work for the first few months of the pandemic. So much so that some “experts” rushed to pronounce the traditional office work dead. As we now know, this news was enormously exaggerated, and we’re seeing it take shape in a flurry of return to office (RTO) policies.
The whiplash originated from the senior management of large tech companies but very quickly spread to smaller companies and got echoed by middle management. Driven in part by objective metrics showing some productivity loss and subjective feelings of losing control over their teams, many are experiencing a change of heart. On the other hand, many companies stuck to the remote and hybrid work approach, became very successful at it, vastly improved their hiring, and significantly increased the number of their qualified job applicants.
Why Flexible Work Isn’t a One-Size-Fits-All Solution
So what do workers have to say? A recent Slack survey discovered that 72% of workers prefer a hybrid work model. Only 12% of respondents said they're more partial to an office setting, while 13% desire to work from home all the time if given the option. To summarize, both businesses and employees prefer remote or in-office work, and both have benefits and drawbacks.
While work models have been a massive topic of conversation as we return to the new normal, it’s important that we don’t look at it in a preferential silo. And it’s obvious now that having a successful remote or hybrid team is not just a matter of tooling up.
To build and scale successful teams, it’s time to stop looking at flexible work as just a job perk and instead focus on what makes people successful in different environments. After all, nurturing and growing your team depends on it.
Understand the “Why”
As individuals, we all have competencies that factor into our job performance. Some are innate, and some are learned with experience, but regardless of how the skills are obtained, people will perform better in environments where these strengths are used.
New Cangrade research explored competencies in different types of teams—on-site, hybrid, and remote— and understanding them is crucial to business success.
Unsurprisingly, for on-site teams, the key competency is teamwork. While teamwork is still essential to remote and hybrid teams, other strengths can be honed by management and HR teams to ensure success without the need for one central location to get work done. And these skills should be the basis of building remote and hybrid teams—not just jumping on the perk bandwagon.
Key Competencies for Hybrid SaaS Teams
Here are some of the competencies that drive successful remote and hybrid teams:
- Planning – Working off-site gives workers autonomy over their schedules. Individuals who struggle to plan forward are likely to be less productive than they would in an office setting under the guise of their manager. Ensure your teams have the ability and tools to lay out their week and meet responsibilities.
- Initiative and Self-Direction – Initiative is the ability to make decisions, big and small. Not having a co-worker or supervisor physically by your side puts you in charge of constant choices you should be comfortable with. Not to say you can’t “phone a friend” or brainstorm in a virtual meeting, but much of the day-to-day is based on the comfortability of working alone.
- Follow-through – This is about maintaining continuity and commitment. It’s not enough to make plans and decide what to do; you must execute consistently and see things through without needing someone to oversee your efforts.
- Managing Relationships – What might seem like the most natural interaction in the office— a “water cooler” chat or having lunch together—requires a conscious effort when working remotely. The spontaneity of in-office interactions is no longer available M-F, so it’s essential to get to know team members and find other ways to connect.
Additionally, two competencies show a consistent correlation with successful remote work—innovation and business acumen. While these attributes don’t have quite as simple of a rationalizing explanation, one could deduce that this, paired with the competencies above, points to a trend that those entrepreneurial in spirit may thrive the most in remote and hybrid environments.
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Trust the Process
Giving employees the opportunity and choice to work from anywhere is hard. The loss of control can lead management to seek ways to manage what’s happening outside company walls. This diminishes the point of remote and flexible work and can leave teams feeling micromanaged and frustrated.
One example is employee surveillance tools used to monitor keyboard and screen activity, break times, etc. Any coercive methods create resentment and erode trust, repelling the best-performing employees and leaving you with a bunch of quiet quitters who figured out how to game the system.
Building Success Beyond Flexible Schedules
Flexible work is one of the most sought-after work perks of recent years. Many companies are on board, too, as it can cut the cost of physical office space and greatly widen the talent pool. But to build, retain, and scale truly successful teams, we must dig deeper into why workers gravitate to this and which individuals will be fulfilled and productive in this environment.
Despite RTO initiatives, flexible work is here to stay, at least in some capacity. And if talent isn’t being nurtured, there’s no reason not to jump ship to another flexible company.
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