Martin Hartley, CCO at emagine
Martin Hartley, CCO of emagine, shares insights on successful hybrid working through balancing in-person collaboration, creating team synergy through the use of virtual tools, and supporting individual productivity patterns.
The hybrid working era presents unique challenges and opportunities for maintaining team productivity. Many businesses are mandating employees to return to the office full time, but emagine firmly believes in its Nordic working style, which is based on employee flexibility and trust and a flat hierarchy.
The shift towards remote and hybrid working models has had a significant impact on working practices and employee-employer relationships across the globe. For example, in the UK, as of April 2024, 91% of companies embraced a hybrid working model.
While hybrid work to some degree is now the norm, the commute to the office can be a significant drain on employee productivity, especially as many have moved from cities following the pandemic.
Despite this, in person collaboration is still essential, even if it comes at the expense of some short-term productivity and shorter hours due to commuting time. There is immense value in employee camaraderie when teams are in the office and these relationships lead to higher performance in teams.
We want to continue to give people the work-life balance that they need in their everyday lives, to enable them to look after family and to reduce the risk of stress and burnout. We strive for balance, so across our offices our people have set days that they spend with their respective teams and with the wider business.
For example, on a Tuesday, the sales team might agree to come in to work together, or it could be all the finance team. Then on a different allocated day, all teams will work in the office together to enhance group collaboration.
For remote working days, maintaining team synergy is crucial. Even though the team isn’t together, you can still prioritise communication throughout the day. emagine favours cameras being switched on during all calls across the group to humanise virtual calls as it brings a personal element to an otherwise alien concept.
Additionally, some teams at emagine use Teams calls to simulate a shared workspace. Even when working on independent tasks like database or email work, being in a virtual room together can recreate the energy of in-person collaboration. If members of the team need to talk something through or ask a question, they can do so with ease.
Introducing a bit of fun competition can motivate team members, too.
There is immense value in employee camaraderie when teams are in the office and these relationships lead to higher performance in teams.
Sprint working is a proven strategy to maximise productivity and one we often use to meet deadlines. For us, sprints involve bursts of focus, typically lasting a few hours to get a solid amount of work done outside of meetings and socialising.
In the tech sector, sprints can last a few weeks and are generally driven by project deadlines. It’s also about momentum, focus, and confidence. It has been found that companies who use sprints see consistent results from the process.
A two hour sprint can be useful for employees from all kinds of businesses as it ensures 100% effort and concentration on achieving key tasks. Teams can work together in small groups to tackle specific deliverables, turning emails and phones off to eliminate all distractions. After the key tasks are completed in the sprint, employees can return to emails and meetings knowing they don’t need to worry about finding time to complete outstanding work.
A well-designed workspace is essential for working productively. Whether it’s a standing desk or an office chair, employees need an environment that they can comfortably work in. Employees can get into the habit of sitting at their kitchen table on an uncomfortable chair, but that will be detrimental. Reliable Wi-Fi is non-negotiable, so employees must have the means to be present on calls.
Flexibility is another key driver of productivity at home. All individuals have varying peak performance times, so we allow employees to structure their work hours around their productivity patterns. For example, some are early risers and like to start early and finish early, but others prefer to work later in the day, so it has been beneficial to offer this level of freedom. Employees can fit personal tasks around their working day this way too, so they can attend exercise classes or drop their children to school, for example.
In the hybrid era, productivity isn’t just about output-it’s about creating a balanced, flexible, and collaborative work environment where teams can thrive both individually and collectively.
As an international business emagine works with thousands of top-tier consultants across the Nordics, Germany, France, the UK, Ireland, Portugal, Poland, and India. This experience makes us experts at managing hybrid working arrangements, because getting these team synergies right is vital for our nearshore, bestshore and remote team services to function effectively and facilitate our ongoing growth strategy.
