Manager Guidance
As managers and unit leaders implement hybrid work environments, you will need to make assessments and adjustments to operations as planning meets the real world. Use these guidelines and resources to support your planning and successful implementation of a hybrid work environment.
Guidance
Schools, departments and other units are responsible for developing thoughtful, fair, and equitable processes for establishing a new work environment in the post-pandemic world, subject to the following principles, which apply across the University.
- The health and safety of the Columbia community are the first priority in planning for an ongoing on-campus presence.
- Columbia University must maintain its lively, flourishing culture, with a staff that is engaged in supporting the mission of the University in myriad ways.
- Planning for any new operating model that includes hybrid and flexible options should begin with a careful, consultative review of its particular needs by each school, department or other unit.
- Managers must recognize that the past several years have been a period of substantial transition and stress for employees. The mental health and well-being of the Columbia community is a critical priority for the University. Wherever possible, plans for changing current operating models should be implemented on a phased basis, with at least 30 days notice, to ease the transition.
- Units are given discretion to determine which job functions should be performed on-campus and which can follow a hybrid model. Decisions should be based on a unit’s analysis of the specific functions involved and an assessment of its operational needs.
- Where a unit concludes that particular responsibilities should be carried out at least in part remotely, the employees involved will ordinarily be expected to work in a hybrid model (i.e., spending some time on campus and some time working remotely) and to live within commuting distance of the University. Fully remote work, while not prohibited by these guidelines, will be the exception, to be approved only in special circumstances under guidelines of the applicable unit. As under existing policy, units may consider whether they can functionally support other Flexible Work Arrangements on a case-by-case basis.
- All decisions affecting staff must be made fairly, equitably and without bias.
- Units should reassess their operating plans at regular intervals to ensure that the needs of faculty, staff, and students are all being met to the fullest extent feasible.
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Getting Started with Hybrid Models
Based on more than two decades of experience executing flexible, hybrid work models, Cali Williams Yost, the CEO and Founder of the Flex+Strategy Group (CBS 95) explains how an organization like Columbia University can reimagine the way work is done and execute a more flexible, dynamic way of operating.
What does a high-performance flexible workplace and workforce look like?
A high performance flexible workplace and workforce intentionally matches the work to be done to the places and spaces, the time and pace, and the technology and processes that enable it to be done best. That requires extra planning and coordination across all levels of the organization that can result in greater productivity, engagement and well-being. It also means that one size will not fit all. The optimal work flexibility will depend upon the realities of a particular organization and job; however, the consistency is found in the process for determining based on the work, how, when and where it’s done best.
How does this differ from the traditional work model?
In the traditional work model, the “work” was primarily organized around the workplace, or where you “go to work,” within the standard operating hours of “9-to-5, Monday through Friday.”
In a flexible, hybrid work model, the “work,” or “what” needs to get done drives where, when and how those core tasks and priorities are done optimally. That means for a university, like Columbia, the on-campus workplace will always be an important factor when determining “where” work is done best, but it is no longer the only consideration.
Other factors will include what work can be done remotely? What technology supports the effective, seamless execution of the work regardless of where or when it is done? When is the work done best in a 24/7 operation like Columbia? How can our standard work processes and the pace at which we work adapt to support a more flexible, dynamic way of operating?
Setting up a Flexible, Hybrid Model
By answering a few key questions upfront, school/unit leaders establish the process-based guardrails within which their school/units’ flexible, hybrid model will operate. At the school/unit level, this framework of norms, guidelines, and policies should be broad enough to adapt to the unique realities of a particular department or job, but consistent enough to keep everyone going in the same direction. The consistency and fairness is in the process, not necessarily in the outcomes or the way the work will get done.
The operating guardrails become more specific and refined as each department and team answers the following interrelated questions:
1) Where do we work best, onsite and/or remotely? What work is done best where, based on the type of work and the level of collaboration required to execute it well?
2) How do we optimize workspace, onsite and remote? What types of workspaces, onsite and remote, will enable our work and how do we coordinate across those spaces?
3) How do we leverage technology? What technology do we have access to, and how can it enable our work? Is there a consistent level of proficiency across the organization?
4) When do we work best? What are our core hours? Do we need to establish standard operating hours around these core hours to do our work? How do we manage expectations of accessibility and responsiveness?
5) How do our core processes need to adapt? What are our standard operating processes related to planning meetings, approvals, onboarding, etc.? How do they need to be adapted?
6) How do we need to pace ourselves? What are the rhythms of our operations and how does the way we work need to adapt to support different periods?
Working within a Flexible, Hybrid Model Day-to-Day
Once the guardrails of a school/unit’s flexible, hybrid model are set up, then it’s time to support managers, teams, and individual employees to operate within that framework day-to-day. This requires answering the following questions:
1) How do managers and employees engage? What is the “cadence” of priority-setting and updates required to support planning, coordinating and executing the work?
2) How do managers measure performance? What matters in terms of measuring performance, since “presence” should never determine effectiveness? How are performance issues handled?
3) How do teams coordinate and collaborate? What system will teams use to coordinate how, when and where they are working, and how will they collaborate, onsite and virtually?
4) How do employees need to plan and fit their work, and lives, together? Based on priorities at work and in their personal lives, how do individual employees leverage the guardrails that have been set for their jobs, and fit work and life together?
Reinforcing and Evolving a Flexible, Hybrid Model Going Forward
A flexible, hybrid operating model by its very nature is never “done.” Reinforcing a dynamic, responsive way of operating while it evolves as lessons are learned and the strategic realities of the University and the school/unit change, means answering the following questions:
1) How will we recalibrate the way we work as realities change? How does a school/unit as well as an individual department/team, support that ongoing evolutionary process?
2) How do senior leaders need to support and reinforce the way we work? While much of the day-to-day work within a flexible, hybrid model happens at the department level, senior leadership of a school/unit plays an important role in guiding and reinforcing a new way of working. What are the mindsets and behaviors of senior leaders that make a difference?
3) How does HR, IT and Facilities need to align? While HR, IT and Facilities don’t “own” flexibility in the way work is done, they all play a critical, coordinated role in the effective execution of a flexible, hybrid work model. What does that look like and how can schools/units align and partner with their HR, IT and Facilities functions to optimize the way work is done best?