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Will you be in the office during the Olympic Games? Many companies were slow to announce their plans, fearing that their employees would mix up vacations and teleworking. Now, many have announced measures such as extended teleworking, enforced vacations, office closures and staggered working hours.

Teleworking or hybrid working: no lasting revenge in sight

Although we're seeing a return to telecommuting due to the predicted saturation of the transport network, I don't believe in the revenge of telecommuting. And above all, I'm convinced that we're on the wrong subject.

The myth of hybrid work

Hybrid" working implies that if we create the "right" processes to allow these two modalities to coexist, then we've settled the matter: "I'm entitled to 2 days of TT a week, but not on Mondays and not on Fridays, and from 9am to 7pm, each time subject to my manager's validation". Transport will be even more saturated than usual in Paris...I authorize 3 days of TT per week during the Olympics, and the die is cast. 

The limits of hybrid work

Hybrid working is merely a state of affairs, illustrating the cohabitation of two work modes. Yet complaints persist:

• Unnecessary time spent in meetings
• Time wasted on reporting
• Lack of flexibility in working hours
• Unsuitable offices
• Information gap between online and face-to-face workers
• Information retention
• Boomerang effect of Slack/Teams when teams spend too much time on it
• Slow decision-making processes and weak consensus

The hybrid doesn't answer the fundamental questions: why do we work the way we do, and what's the goal?

The real questions to ask

It's not a question of whether your team "knows" more or less when it's on site, but whether it has the right means to :

1. Be as productive as possible
2. Creating the social ties needed for effective collaboration

The 2 questions are linked and go far beyond the subject of the state in which we work, hybrid or otherwise (and the number of teleworking days during the Olympics), and the time we spend there (the famous debate on the four-day week). They touch on the very essence of our relationship with work. 

Redefining well-being at work

What if, in order to feel "good" at work, you already had to :

• Prioritize tasks for yourself and your team, clearly defining expectations. 
• Ensure that everyone feels useful and understands why they are doing things, in line with the company's major challenges. 
• Enable everyone to take control of their agenda, so that every project, every meeting, every conversation counts.

Our practices at NUMA

At NUMA, we have three simple practices for better day-to-day organization:

• Avoiding meetings by default: We favor a strong culture of writing and asynchronous working, with monthly collective times for quality time together.
• Total transparency: every Monday morning, team managers send an e-mail to the whole company with the week's priorities, successes and failures. Similarly, each employee shares his or her "goals of the week" with the whole company. 
• Focus: we set 3 to 4 annual objectives, broken down into quarterly key results, with a clear manager and time dedicated to achieving them. And above all, we stick to them!

The Olympics: an opportunity for evolution

The Olympics are a unique opportunity to rethink our working methods, to develop the focus reflex, and to think well beyond telecommuting or hybrid working. It's time to adapt and move towards truly efficient and engaging working practices! 

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By Anselme Jalon, CEO at NUMA.