[Today’s guest contribution was written by Tim Minahan, EVP Strategy and Chief Marketing Officer at Citrix.]
Given the flexibility and tools to work when, where and how they choose, employees can deliver transformative ideas and results.
The shift to remote work may have been sparked by a public health emergency, but the same technologies that unlocked new ways to ideate and collaborate out of necessity have given rise to some surprising benefits.
Video meetings put every face in the same-sized box, regardless of seniority. Virtual communication tools gave introverts more opportunities to be heard. Neurodiverse and disabled employees, for whom office work might have introduced anxiety or physical challenges, suddenly could participate on their own terms. And all of this has opened the door to greater innovation.
According to “The Era of Hyper-Innovation,” 93 percent of business leaders say that increased digital collaboration has amplified more diverse voices, resulting in richer idea generation. And as hybrid work becomes the norm, the vast majority expect enhanced equity and collaboration to continue and fuel an era of hyper-innovation.
To capitalize on this, leaders will need to abandon some long-held perceptions and think outside the box when it comes to where and how work gets done.
Believing Doesn’t Mean Seeing
Proximity bias, or the tendency to favor those who are seen most often, is one of the greatest obstacles to equity and innovation in the hybrid workplace. It’s nothing new. Research shows that prior to the pandemic, employees sitting closer to leaders may have enjoyed more opportunities for advancement. And according to a study out of Stanford, many managers still see in-person employees as harder workers and higher performers, and grant them more promotions, bonuses, and other opportunities.
But proximity bias doesn’t have to persist. With the right technologies and work policies to support them, it can be overcome. Among the actions leaders can take:
- Ensure in-person and remote employees get equal time with managers. Whether meetings with employees are planned or ad-hoc, keep track of them, and create a system to ensure each group is getting equal attention.
- Develop objective performance metrics rooted in outcomes, not visibility. This will help reduce the power of proximity bias when evaluating employees for assignments, promotions, and bonuses.
- Facilitate bonding experiences that everyone can participate in.Talk with employees to figure out how they want to build stronger relationships with co-workers. Consider creating virtual “break rooms” where employees can drop in for a water cooler chat. Or work with employees to form virtual interest groups or clubs.
Technology Should Liberate, Not Frustrate
To harness the innovative potential of distributed employees, organizations need to adopt solutions that remove the frustration from work and enable them to collaborate with their peers easily and effectively, whether they are working from home, in the office, on the road, or anywhere in between.
- Go digital. Digitize all documentation and workflows to ensure equitable, impactful collaboration. Moving to a cloud-based digital workspace solution that serves as a unified hub for collaboration can help with this process.
- Establish guidelines to support equitable use. If one employee is remote, consider running the entire meeting virtually to create a more level playing field for participation.
- Conduct an IT audit to compare the remote and in-person experience. Using surveys, focus groups, and IT tickets, identify gaps. Then, make an action plan to close them.
- Invest in tools that allow for synchronous and asynchronous collaboration. Synchronous collaboration tools, like Zoom or Teams, are important. But equally important for innovation are tools that enable employees to do solo deep work or contribute to the team on their own time, wherever they may be. Provide for both.
Beware the Digital Divide
Business leaders are optimistic about the potential of hybrid work to send innovation into hyperdrive, and with good reason. But the model is not without risk. If not carefully implemented, it has the potential to create a new digital divide that, left unchecked, could establish two classes of workers and infuse the workplace with inequity and bias.
To narrow the digital divide that hybrid work threatens to open, companies must implement technologies and work policies that provide for an equitable environment, in which both remote and in-office employees can equally engage and collaborate in a transparent and efficient way. A shared digital workspace, for instance, provides a common and transparent environment in which teams have consistent access to applications and information and can efficiently collaborate on projects to get work done, wherever it needs to get done.
Innovation isn’t an inevitable consequence of hybrid work. It stems from giving employees the space they need to do their best work, on their terms. Leaders that understand and adapt to accommodate this can foster such environments and help their employees – and ultimately, their companies – innovate and succeed.
Tim Minahan is the executive vice president, business strategy and chief marketing officer at Citrix, a leading provider of digital workspace solutions.
