Can Employee Retention Practices Be Impacted By Hybrid Work Model?

Hybrid work models are interesting, as they seem to offer the best of both worlds as well the ambiguity. The health and safety of employees and value chain partners has enabled the evolution of work from home and hybrid models. Hybrid models are best applicable where employees work with information as opposed to manufacturing setups. 

Experts claim that the new work requirements will require a hybrid reward model in the new-normal setup. Employers are working on setting pay levels by primarily determining the market value of an employee’s skills and then applying a geographic differential based on where the employee is located. However it is being believed that, 6 in 10 employers will continue to pay remote employees the same as in-office employees no matter where they work. On the other hand, 29 per cent are providing additional benefits to promote workplace flexibility, including backup day care, subsidies for day care or virtual learning, and subsidies or reimbursement of costs of working from home.

But, it is said that hybrid jobs are being a bane more by presenting a challenge to employers, from a hiring perspective and a job pricing perspective. And its mandatory to understand how this trend of job hybridization affects the very professionals responsible for job pricing and hiring.

Who’s To Be Held Accountable?

Emmanuel David, Dir. HR, TATA Management Training Centre, is of the view that, “supervisors and leaders have to clearly communicate to their team, the outcomes they are accountable for. This is possible when leaders are envision work in its basic constituents. More often than not team members are into activities which may not add to work. The accountability for outcomes is key to enable employees to make decisions to complete their work, than merely follow an SOP. This clarity also enables strategic alignment with organisation’s goals. 

Tagore has echoed in his immortal poem “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high”. Ensuring a culture of psychological safety is key to enable to employees giving their best. If employees sense insecurity they would be likely to connect for common causes in a virtual context than when in physical office settings. Setting the right culture is the lubrication for performance in the current contexts. Especially Managers have an unprecedented access to an employee’s time which could lead to stress, burnout, health issues leading to likely employee turnover. 

Every organisation and, particularly, the human resources team must adopt several new measures in this hybrid work model in order to keep employees engaged and motivated to continue along this difficult transformation path. Also, staying inside home for long periods of time can also take a toll on one’s mental wellness. Hence it is extremely important for organisations to create a digitally engaging company culture,” believes Kaushik Chakraborty, Head HR, Savills. 

Who Connects Better?

Connectivity is a hygiene factor. For instance if any company employee migrates to another city, the company is bound to provide wifi dongle to the uninterrupted fibre optic broad band at a personal investment.  Now, as a manager its his/her job to have ensured the same for the team as well so that as a leader the manager isn’t found wanting by not providing the resources to the team.

In addition to what David has already said, he further believes that in a hybrid workspace some employees who report about their work and who are more visible are likely to get recognised. In a physical work space managers could observe the efforts and results of their team members and drew inferences about their performance. It is likely to be a challenge for employees who by nature are shy and introverted as their contribution may not come on the radar of organisational performance. Having an effective performance management system is key to ensure that compensation is commensurate with rewards.

A hybrid work space offers some intangible benefits if only Managers can take advantage off. Social recognition is a powerful tool to engage, motivate and retain employees. Having initiatives to recognise the employee in the presence of his family can rich dividends. When the family observes how a manager respects an employees who can be a Father, Mother, wife, son, daughter can have a magical long term positive impact. Perhaps we have an opportunity to harness these intangibles to build a strong employer brand.

Retaining For The Betterment And Successful Future

“Actually, retention was earlier dependent on multiple factors like workplace, employer brand, and emotional connection to the organization. Now, the Hybrid model is an essential part of the compensation and benefits policy of any progressive organization. Hence, Variable pay can be efficiently linked to the hybrid model as it allows to track individual efforts,” explains Minakshi Arora Prasad, Head Strategic HR & Global Talent Acquisition, Trident Group India

Retention of employees takes greater effort in the hybrid model. Organisations have to make extra efforts to maintain an emotional connection with their members.

Arora further elucidates,’ a hybrid work model engages, trusts, and empowers members, pioneers, and teams to negotiate and design flexibility for themselves. Progressive organizations have, for quite a while, empowered leaders to think innovatively and negotiate straightforwardly with their teams for a flexible work plan that works for everybody. 

It is critical that organizations get their employee experience and corporate culture right during these unprecedented times to bring stability in the workforce which in turn strengthens organizational resilience via better morale, constant access, lower costs associated with recruitment and training, and putting less strain on members. 

In essence, the organizations which recognize the need for flexible working, and turn this to their advantage, will not just have a better retention rate, but they will also find it easier to attract world-class talent.

Thus, a hybrid work model brings greater satisfaction for members which translates into a sense of belonging and organizational loyalty, which is the key to retain members.