Hybrid Working: The new normal, and how scrum can help you succeed
Over the last two years COVID has forced many teams into new ways of working and it is no secret that organisations, and people, are trying to find better ways of working. Recent salary surveys have shown that more than 50% of the workforce would rather work from home. However in saying this, we have noticed that remote workers can be easily frustrated with low social interaction and lack of community, with many remote workers feeling they must go into “office mode" when they're at home in order to be productive.
The Benefits of Hybrid Working
With most organisations accepting there is no one size fits all approach, when it comes to this new normal, companies have adopted Hybrid Working which offers their employees a choice. The benefits of this type of working environment includes increased productivity, increased collaboration, and decreased stress levels among employees. However hybrid working is not easy, with many organisations struggling to succeed. One way to be successful with Hybrid is Scrum.
Employees are seeking a workplace that provides them with some remote opportunities and some physical office space, should they want to go into the office and organisations that can provide this balance are seeing the benefits.
6 Tactics to Succeed with Hybrid
Change the attitude of your company and employees
Communicate with your employees
Bring awareness to the benefits of hybrid working
Offer remote working options
Create a hybrid culture
Give your employees training on how to work in a hybrid environment
Scrum for hybrid working success
Scrum is a process of incremental improvement that relies on teamwork and close cooperation. This method was originally created to address the challenges faced by software development teams. However, scrum can be applied to other areas as well, such as hybrid working. The goal of Scrum is to produce a result in "sprints," or short, time-boxed periods of time. With this approach, you can take your project from one sprint to the next while continuously delivering results.
The Sprint begins with setting goals and expectations for the work that needs to be done in that period of time. Next, each team member commits to what they will accomplish in the sprint during a 'daily scrum.' This helps create accountability among team members for their work. Finally, at the end of each sprint, there is a review where all members reflect on how well things went and what improvements could be made for the next sprint.
Communication and collaboration
When considering a hybrid working environment, it is important to keep communication in mind. One of the most important aspects of a successful work environment is the ability for employees to communicate with one another. Scrum can help create and maintain clear lines of communication between all members of a team. The scrum framework includes two types of meetings:
Daily stand-up meeting:
Daily stand-up meetings are generally held every morning and should last no more than 15 minutes. These short meetings are an opportunity for people to share information and provide updates on their various projects.
Time boxed sprints with retrospection:
Time boxed sprints follow a specific time frame set by your company but usually no longer than 4 weeks. At the end of each time boxed sprint, there is an opportunity for reflection called Retrospection where teams go over what was accomplished during the sprint and how they could do better next time.
If you are running a scrum project and your team is working remotely, you need to add meeting time into your sprint. Meetings are important for teams as it gives everyone a chance to collaborate, share information, and make decisions that will impact the project. It also allows more people to get on board with the decisions being made so they don't feel "disconnected" from the team. However meetings are tough if they're not in person. When we have virtual meetings, it can be difficult to understand others' tone of voice or facial expressions which can lead to miscommunication and missed details.
Decision Making
When it comes to decision making, Scrum can offer a number of benefits.
Some have described it as "a GPS for organisations" because it can help you move from one point to another with the least amount of fuss. In scrum, decisions are made by consensus. This means that everyone participating in the decision process has a say in the eventual outcome, which encourages creativity and innovation.
Another benefit is that decisions are made quickly and efficiently through scrum. Teams don't need lengthy meetings to come to an agreement on what needs to be done; instead, they can make decisions by following a predetermined set of steps outlined in their meetings agenda. The beauty of this method is that once you've reached your goal (through consensus), you're done with that topic and can move onto the next one on your agenda - efficiency at its finest!
Conclusion
The traditional 9-5 office job is becoming a thing of the past and more and more people are working remotely, or as part of a team that is not co-located. It’s not easy to make it work, but if you understand the benefits, and how Scrum can help you, then you have the chance to be a success.
Speak to us to find out how we can support your hybrid working success using Scrum, Alternatively, find out more about our Scrum Master Certified training here.