A new report has found that organisations are sidelining line managers in hybrid working decisions, making it harder to implement return-to-office policies effectively.
The report from Esade’s Jordi Trullen, together with Tatiana Andreeva (Trinity College Dublin) and James (Jim) Copeland (Maynooth University) notes how line managers are on the front line of hybrid working policies. They are expected to explain return-to-office requirements to employees, resolve tensions and ensure company policies are put into practice. Yet in most organisations they have had little involvement in designing those policies and often lack the authority to adapt them to the needs of their teams.
The report, based on in-depth interviews with 36 team leaders from 32 organisations across various sectors, reveals that two out of every three middle managers were not consulted before their company implemented the current hybrid working policy. Furthermore, half say that all decisions regarding remote work are taken by senior management or Human Resources, whilst only 14 per cent have the autonomy to decide which model works best for their team.
This lack of room for action puts team leaders in an awkward position. They are required to defend decisions which, in many cases, they do not agree with. In fact, many participants question the arguments used by their organisations to justify a return to the office, such as improving collaboration or strengthening corporate culture. Many believe that on-site policies are driven by factors such as management preferences, the desire for greater control, or the need to maximise the return on office space.
Even with such limited scope for decision-making, middle managers are the ones who adhere most closely to the policies on working from the office. 78 per cent say they go into the office as often as required, or even more often than required, mainly to set an example to their teams and to facilitate coordination with other areas of the organisation. However, many acknowledge that they apply the policies more flexibily when they consider that being in the office does not bring any real benefit to their staff´s work.
“Line managers are the bridge between organisational strategy and employees’ day-to-day experience. If companies expect them to successfully implement hybrid work policies, they need to involve them in designing those policies from the outset,” says Jordi Trullen, Associate Professor in Esade’s Department of People Management and Organisation and co-author of the study. “One-size-fits-all approaches rarely work. Hybrid work is far more effective when managers have the flexibility, support and training to adapt policies to the specific needs of their teams.”
The study also highlights that managing hybrid teams requires skills for which most team leaders have not received training. Among the main challenges cited are the difficulty of integrating new recruits, building relationships of trust when part of the team is working remotely, avoiding bias towards those who come into the office more often, and organising truly effective hybrid meetings. All of this increases the workload and pressure on roles that were already playing a key part before the pandemic.
According to the authors, many organisations continue to apply one-size-fits-all models that do not reflect the reality of teams with very different roles, dynamics and needs.
The study concludes that involving middle managers in the design of hybrid policies and giving them greater decision-making powers, as well as facilitating their implementation, would help to improve employee engagement and organisational performance.
