Summary

  • Many organisations are grappling with aligning employee and organisational needs, when it comes to remote and hybrid work. Belbin can help.
  • Find the boundaries and open the consultation – set clear expectations and consult with team members to establish clarity on objectives, roles and responsibilities.
  • Build on role strengths – identify each individual’s Belbin Team Role and adapt tasks and ways of working to leverage their natural strengths.
  • Fill the gaps – spot missing roles in the team and find ways to cover these through people, processes or support mechanisms.
  • Let roles guide leadership – allow leadership to shift according to the phase of work and the Team Roles best suited to lead particular tasks or decisions.
  • Maintain team cohesion – promote communication, collaboration and trust to ensure hybrid teams remain connected and aligned.
  • Encourage flexibility and adaptation – recognise that roles can evolve and support team members in flexing into new responsibilities as circumstances change.

Despite many organisations issuing 'back to the office' mandates, the demand for hybrid working patterns remains high, with Harvard Business School reporting that 81% of workers either don't want to go back to the office or would prefer a hybrid working schedule.

So, how can we make hybrid teams work better for everyone? How do we ensure that employees' needs and expectations are aligned with those of the organisation? How can managers adapt and navigate their teams through the challenges of hybrid working?

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Belbin can help. The language of Team Roles (nine specific behaviours we exhibit in a team) describe how each person contributes to the whole.

Understanding the Team Roles present in a team can help managers facilitate transitions to different ways of working and keep the team pulling together, with each person working to their strengths.

Here are 6 tips for managers seeking to use Belbin Team Roles to help with managing remote or hybrid teams.

1. Find the boundaries and open the consultation

First, establish what the organisation can offer, in order to manage expectations. Are there core hours that need to be covered in a particular location? Is there enough room for everyone to be in the office at the same time?

How To Manage A Hybrid Team With Belbin Find The Boundaries And Open The Consultation

Open up the conversation without assuming about what people want, based on preconceptions or your own preferences. Our 2020 survey on remote working demonstrated that those with high Resource Investigator preferences (people who are gregarious, inquisitive, prolific networkers) struggled more with working from home than did Completer Finishers or Specialists, who tend to undertake more focused, in-depth work that requires less interaction with others.

Once we have a better idea of someone’s strengths and working styles, we have a language with which to begin the discussion. For example: "I wonder if you’re missing the opportunity to make new contacts?" or: "Are you finding that home-working offers fewer distractions than the office?"

How To Manage A Hybrid Team With Belbin 2 Clarify Roles And Responsibilities

2. Clarify roles and responsibilities

The move to hybrid working is a great opportunity to clarify who is doing what in the team, and how that’s working for everyone.

Job descriptions may no longer relate to reality and it’s a good chance to re-evaluate, shake things up and assign work based on strengths rather than continuing with the same old.

Belbin can provide insights into the team’s overall culture and how work might best be allocated. Even if this represents a departure from what has gone before, it can provide a valuable new perspective and discussion starter.

3. Create a communication strategy

When will the team get together to share ideas and progress? Will this be virtual or online? What happens if communication isn’t working properly – who is best placed to change the status quo?

This may not always be the manager. It could be that a Co-ordinator (in Belbin terms, someone who takes a broad view and consults others) is best placed to facilitate meetings and draw out individual contributions.

How To Manage A Hybrid Team With Belbin 3 Create A Communication Strategy
How To Manage A Hybrid Team With Belbin 4 Cultivate Camaraderie

4. Cultivate camaraderie

It’s essential to engagement and performance that the team finds time for social interaction. According to our survey, this sense of togetherness was what was most missed when teams began to work remotely during the pandemic.

Teamworkers (supportive, caring, perceptive) are likely to be good at bringing the team together as a unit and alerting managers when people may be struggling.

5. Focus attention on knowledge sharing

When teams aren’t all co-located (in the same workspace), informal knowledge sharing is proven to decrease.

It can be hard to recreate this for those working remotely, but understanding Team Role attitudes to knowledge sharing can provide intelligence when things aren't working.

How To Manage A Hybrid Team With Belbin 5 Focus Attention On Knowledge Sharing

For example, Specialists and Resource Investigators are apt to share information, whilst Monitor Evaluators – impartial, discerning individuals who tend to remain at a distance from the team – may need an invitation to become involved.

Implementers, who take an efficient, systematic approach to work, might be tempted to push on with existing processes rather than look up and address what needs to be changed.

How To Manage A Hybrid Team With Belbin 6 Check In Regularly

6. Check in regularly

Hybrid teams might experience divisions (the ‘us and them’) and volatility as individual circumstances and private lives have a more direct impact on the professional sphere.

It's important to recognise that the situation is ever-changing and to endeavour – in partnership with your team members – to find the best alignment of individuals’ priorities and concerns, and business needs.

Hybrid working presents challenges and opportunities. If the team was succeeding prior to the transition, these extra efforts will be crucial in maintaining high performance. If the team was struggling beforehand, physical distance and division may exacerbate existing problems.

Whatever challenges your team faces, taking a strengths-based approach to solutions is proven to boost engagement and buy-in, and lower staff turnover. To discover more about how understanding your Belbin Team Roles can help build better teams, please get in touch using the form below.

 

 

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We have decades of experience of working with remote teams. Whatever your challenges, we'd love to hear from you.

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