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Technology has enabled many teams to work from anywhere. But hybrid and remote workers need more than videoconferencing and high-speed Wi-Fi to succeed. 

They need empathy. 

That was the message from Dan Schawbel, managing partner of Workplace Intelligence; Paula Rizzo, Emmy-winning TV producer and best-selling author; and Mike Gutman, remote work consultant, during a panel called Building Empathy Across Teams Everywhere at LinkedIn Talent Connect 2022.

Hybrid work is here to stay: According to a Gallup poll, nine in 10 people with remote-capable jobs want remote flexibility in the future, and six in 10 specifically want hybrid arrangements that allow working from both home and the office. Recent research shows about nearly 30% of U.S. workers are currently in hybrid arrangements (another 17% are fully remote). 

Hybrid teams face special challenges, such as difficulties in communicating, the separation from peers, concerns about advancing careers without better visibility, and the pressure of managing time and scheduling against team members’ personal lives. That’s where empathy — the ability to understand someone else’s feelings and experiences — comes into play.

“We have to empathize with workers,” Dan said, “because in hybrid situations we’re not seeing them as much. People are going through their own unique situations and we have to lean into our humanity and connect on a personal level.”

Employers have good reason to show empathy to remote workers. Businessolver’s 2021 Workplace Empathy Study found that 84% of CEOs believe empathy drives better business outcomes, and almost three-quarters of workers think empathy sparks employee motivation. 

But it’s not enough to simply launch well-being programs. Fostering empathy requires a cultural shift, the panelists said. Here are four ways to promote empathy at your organization:

1. Let life be real

In offices, professionals had spaces built specifically for work life and productivity and they often allowed the challenges of everyday living to remain invisible. But the pandemic and the boom in remote work gave workers a chance to see inside their colleagues’ homes — and their lives. “People come from all walks of life with diverse circumstances at home,” Mike said. “Now we’re used to kids running into the screen, offices of all shapes and sizes, dogs barking, the doorbell ringing. There’s empathy baked into that because now we know more about the context of how people live their lives.” 

Managers and other leaders should show remote workers that they understand their challenges and then take steps to accommodate them. The panelists suggested being flexible with scheduling and ensuring everyone has the tools they need whether they’re at home or in the office. They also suggested making sure employees working from home draw clear lines between their professional and personal time by establishing sign-off times, for example, or eschewing an “always on” mentality. (Research shows that leaders who encourage work-life boundaries are almost twice as likely to have happier employees.)

2. Foster safe and honest communication

“For me, it all comes back to communication,” Paula said. She emphasized the need to check in with people regularly, to ask questions and listen to how people are responding. 

One strategy she uses: A “meeting mood wheel” from which her team can identify their feeling of the day. (Here’s a version designed by Anna Dvornikova, the learning design program lead at Miro.)

“Everybody picks where they’re at,” she said. “If you’re angry, if you’re upset, that’s OK. Let’s talk about it for five minutes. We leave it here and we move on. And so really looking at the wholeness of the person communicating and listening to them and then being able to give them what they need.”

For communication to be effective on a hybrid team, it must feel safe. The panelists stressed that team members need to talk with each other — and with management — knowing that they can discuss issues and ideas without fear. Indeed, Google research has found that psychological safety of this kind is a major factor in building effective teams. 

Make sure you gather feedback from both in-office and remote workers to determine what’s working and what isn’t. Paula advocated for postmortem meetings to get feedback quickly on projects and practices. “It’s immediate . . . we’re not waiting a year to do a review with someone,” she said, noting that it lets the team make changes as quickly as possible.

3. Emphasize inclusion

One of the biggest challenges hybrid workers face is visibility. Team members who are in the office may, unfairly and unintentionally, have more of the boss’s attention or greater access to opportunities. Remote employees trying to join in-office meetings virtually may find themselves out of sync with what’s happening in the conference room. 

Set meeting guidelines so that no one gets left out. Make it a point to recap impromptu meetings that take place in the office to ensure that offsite workers are included in all communications. 

Setting communication standards to accommodate different styles can also help. “In a workforce that has multiple generations,” Paula said, “everybody communicates differently. You might want to text-message me about this thing, [someone else] wants to be on Slack or Teams.” Setting guidelines for which tools are most efficient for which tasks — and getting buy-in from everyone — can help people feel included. 

4. Build trust with new success metrics

A Microsoft study found that 85% of leaders are worried about employee productivity in a hybrid environment. “There’s a lot of people,” Paula said, “who are feeling micromanaged in their companies now and that is not the way to go. People need more autonomy. They need more freedom. They need a lot more trust.”

Building that trust means rethinking the metrics you use to gauge success and productivity on your team. For hybrid teams, Mike suggested a culture built around results, not hours or location. “If the team knows the metrics and results required to be successful, then I don’t care where you are or when you’re working,” he said. “I trust that people will hold themselves accountable to the agreed upon results.” 

A results-oriented approach is more equitable, he added: “You’re not having favoritism in terms of perception of value versus actual value to the organization. Some roles are easier to measure than others, but you can break things down into metrics that result in high-achieving performers on your team.”

Final thoughts

As hybrid teams navigate a new world and a new way of working, it’s important to let empathy lead the way. This means understanding and adapting to people’s unique circumstances with humanity and flexibility. 

Open and safe communication, as well as practices that emphasize inclusion, can make sure all members of hybrid teams are engaged, regardless of whether they are in the office or working from home. Building trust and rethinking your productivity and success metrics can help all your team members shine, no matter where they set up shop each day. And companies that prioritize employee well-being at all levels — from the front lines to the C-suite — can build and sustain a culture where empathy is customary and everyone feels supported. 

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