Hybrid workplaces and finding the right balance

Making sure people leaders are close to their teams and setting clear objectives and expectations helps keep a focus on performance in a less physically connected working environment, writes Steve Vamos.

The pandemic changed the nature of workplaces. Almost overnight, we were forced to operate remotely from our people and customers. Fortunately, Xero had the culture and technology to adapt quickly to these new conditions.

Trent Innes, managing director of Xero Australia at the time, was invited on industry panels to discuss the transition to fully remote work in the face of the pandemic. Trent had one significant observation that he shared with me after several of these events: “Steve, many of these organisations just don’t trust their employees.” At Xero, we benefited from the high trust between the company and our people, so the transition to remote work went smoothly.

Remote work was not new to me. In my five years as Xero CEO, I had no office. I worked from any available meeting room and, like anyone in the business, was asked to vacate the room if I hadn’t booked adequate time and it was needed by others. More than half of my time, I travelled to other Xero offices around the world and worked from those offices, or in hotels or airplanes.

The initial approach at the height of the pandemic was clear. The health and safety of our people came first. Supporting our customers and partners facing difficulty followed quickly after. The message I gave our people was to “just do your best”. None of us knew exactly what that was, or what lay ahead; however, I received a lot of positive feedback that people appreciated the message and the show of trust. We stepped up communication with weekly all-hands meetings, stayed close to our people managers and updated our people on the state of play as best we could.

We supported our customers and partners by providing help in navigating the various government subsidies and support mechanisms available and building tools to streamline the administration of those subsidies under national digital initiatives, such as “Single Touch Payroll” in Australia. We replaced our in-person events, such as our company kick-off meetings and Xerocon, with virtual video events like “Xero Online”.

It was pretty remarkable how we and others adapted, testimony that necessity is truly the mother of invention. As we moved past the worst of the pandemic to more normal operating conditions, the big issue that arose and remains is to define the best approach to this new “hybrid” work environment. For companies such as X (formerly Twitter), it was back to the office. For others, like Atlassian, it was to fully embrace remote work. There’s no single approach that fits all companies. Ultimately, it is for leadership to determine what best suits each organisation and team.

I have reservations about switching to fully remote work and believe that a solid base of in-office contact is important. The importance of in-person contact was reinforced when I bumped into a group of our fully remote employees in London, who said they most looked forward to their quarterly in-person visits to the Xero office. Fully remote work is here to stay and provides access to additional talent. The question is how prevalent it becomes in your hybrid work environment. In-person contact is key to connection, not just with work colleagues but also with the bigger-picture purpose and culture of the organisation.

Hangout, Teams, and Zoom meetings are great tools and have their place, but they do not allow for the less-structured interactions that can lead to “accidental collisions” of ideas between people that inspire innovation. At the time I retired as CEO of Xero, I had not come to a clear view of the way forward. However, a number of principles have emerged that can shape effective hybrid work environments. These principles include the following:

• Hold regular all-hands meetings, hosted by senior leaders, where the broader company (and functional) purpose and strategy are communicated and reinforced.
• Expect people leaders to establish and account for a minimum amount of time that their teams and those they work closely with meet in person in the office. The nature of the work and geographic distribution should guide what is most appropriate. Also, consider the person’s role and the time they spend meeting and communicating with co-workers.
• At least twice a year, hold a meeting of all people leaders with the organisation leader to strengthen the direct connection between top management and those who lead the people in the business. Given the distractions and the distance between people in the post-pandemic world, this direct connection is more important than ever.

Making sure people leaders are close to their teams and setting clear objectives and expectations helps keep a focus on performance in a less physically connected working environment. The many distractions and increased physical distance between people will require management discipline to ensure organisations operate efficiently.

This is an edited extract from “Through Shifts and Shocks: Lessons from the Front Line of Technology and Change” by Steve Vamos. A former CEO of Xero, Steve has been an executive leader with Microsoft, Apple, ninemsn and IBM with over 40 years of experience in the tech industry in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Japan.