Tackling hybrid working challenges with a hub and spoke model

In early 2022, 80% of remote workers indicated to the Office of National Statistics that they planned to adopt hybrid working once work-from-home guidance ended. Not surprisingly, from February to May 2022 the number of hybrid workers in the UK almost doubled, rising from 13% to 24%.

Reacting to the demand for hybrid working, major companies such as Spotify and Airbnb announced that their staff would be able to work from anywhere. They noted flexibility is essential to attract top-tier talent. Yet, amidst the rush to embrace hybrid working, companies need to be careful not to lose sight of what it is all about, and to trial different approaches to avoid mistakes that could become costly.

The true essence of hybrid working

Two days in the office and three days on-site is not really a hybrid model. Neither is a high-level decision that some lines of business (or functions, or process) can be managed remotely while others need to run on-site. The essence of hybrid is enabling a flexible environment that meets both employees’ lifestyle requirements and business needs.

A fit-for-purpose hybrid approach needs to be reached through experimentation, observation and refinement. One way we’ve been doing this at Firstsource is by implementing a hub and spoke working model.

The hub and spoke model

In this model, the ‘hub’ is a core operation in an easily accessible location. And the ‘spokes’ are satellite office spaces.

Having a hub ensures there is a central space for employees to go if they need to connect as a team, collaborate on projects or just feel part of a working environment. While the ‘spoke’ approach ensures flexible options are available so employees don’t need to change their lives to fit around the main office.

Also, rather than being tied to a set number of days per week in the office, employees can choose what best suits them and their teams. In short, the hub and spoke model gives employees and individual teams more autonomy over what the home and remote balance should look like.

Mitigating the short, medium and long-term challenges

Implementing a hybrid model has its own challenges – the key to tackling these is understanding which are short, medium or long-term.

Short-term challenges are rooted in tech capabilities e.g. running certain systems remotely and managing cyber security. There are two ways hub and spoke models address this. First, having a dedicated team with access to the hub to tackle IT set-up ensures infrastructure consistency across the distributed ecosystem. Second, for industries where stringent

security regulations require set processes to be kept on-site, this model provides the office space for these functions while allowing adjacent processes to run remotely.

Medium-term challenges of hybrid working are rooted in providing adequate support across the workforce. Businesses need to ensure office-based and remote employees receive the right level of training, upskilling and ongoing support – or risk losing talent.

With access to a hub, there is more choice of how to conduct training. Some training, especially for digital processes, is better done online. But certain learning is best facilitated through in-person interaction. Having a local hub ensures there is office space available for such training. Also, in-person sessions might be preferable for new starters looking to get to know their colleagues and understand the culture.

Another benefit of having a common office-space are the water cooler moments. A bit of chit-chat can be crucial to developing lasting personal bonds. These moments or connections can be hard to instigate in a fully remote environment.

The long-term challenges are linked to the company culture and are the hardest to navigate. Hybrid working stands to impact two major aspects of company culture – the sense of support (and willingness to ask for help) and the sense of being heard. Retaining a collaborative culture when going hybrid is essential for tackling these.

A hub-and-spoke model opens more avenues for building collaborative practices across both types of environments. For example, in a remote environment asking for help can seem daunting but if there is an option to pop into the office to ask for assistance people might feel more inclined to ask for support.

Likewise, companies can set up dedicated channels on Teams or Slack for remote workers to share questions and queries. These can create a sense of always-on support that might be lacking in an office space where ‘grabbing a manager’ is a go-to option.

Future-proofing your business with hybrid working

When it comes to future-proofing operations, an added benefit of a hub and spoke model is speed-to-effectiveness. Launching smaller hubs is easier due to lower requirements for space and workforce. And if there is a need to get going very fast, a company has the option to bring a hub to a location with high workforce availability.

Lastly, when finessing the hybrid model, the key is acting on feedback. The feedback is best collected first-hand from employees impacted by any changes—or anecdotal evidence of how certain approaches are being embraced. After feedback, comes refinement. Because, in the long run, a highly functional hybrid working environment needs to be co-created by both the business and its employees.