Getting hybrid right: Mac Park prepares for the post-lockdown workplace

As COVID-19 restrictions ease, Macquarie Park employers are being encouraged to prepare for what their workplace will look like in a post-lockdown world.

According to McCrindle research 78% of Australians believe working from home for one or more days a week will become common. Our recent survey of Mac Park employees found the same, with the majority stating that they wished to work away from the office at least some of the time.

More people working remotely will mean our offices could serve a different purpose.

Connect Macquarie Park Innovation District’s General Manager, Mark Ames, believes leading workplaces in Macquarie Park were already ahead of the curve when it came to flexible and remote working, which meant they were more resilient during the initial shock of the global pandemic.

”The challenge now is how to build a successful hybrid working culture. Even if only a few of your employees are out of the office each day, they still need to feel as connected and included as the people who are in Macquarie Park. It will require sustained effort and engagement. An office full of people participating in Zoom calls is not a measure of success!

Hybrid is harder than either everyone in the office or everyone at home, but it is worth getting right.

Connect MPID's members have access to excellent professional tools to guide this process, which cover the things you need to get right to define the new role of your office and to build a successful hybrid working culture."

Those tools include an exclusive member-only toolkit from the experienced team at Juggle Strategies. It’s filled with practical checklists, coaching videos and exercises to help employers work through how hybrid working fits within their workplace.

It includes a 5-step program, covering:

• Executive alignment

• Team ways of working

• Individual conversations

• The role of the office; and

• Tools to go further.

Maja Paleka, Director at Juggle Strategies understands the need for leaders to shift their thinking, and to provide direction, trust and support:

“Getting hybrid ways of working right not only requires a different organisational approach (away from rules and policy, and more towards principles and guidelines) but is also going to require a different approach to leadership than some managers have been used to.”

“It is about building the two-way relationship of trust and accountability - extending trust and expecting accountability back.”

Connect MPID’s hybrid working toolkit is just one of several practical tools and benefits our members have exclusive access to.