Cross-functional collaboration refers to the process of different departments working together to complete a project or common goal. Project managers and workplace leaders of all kinds are expected to keep multiple teams aligned toward the same goal — but the post-pandemic workplace has drastically evolved to create new challenges.
With many businesses realizing the benefits of remote work, hybrid work schedules are becoming more popular than ever, as they allow employees to choose where and when they work. However, this new model of working has made it harder for project managers to ensure that cross-functional collaboration efforts stay within budget or on schedule. But before we dive into solutions for this problem, let’s take a closer look at what hybrid teams are, and why so many workplaces are choosing this approach.
What is a hybrid workplace?
A hybrid workplace is where employees split their time between working from a central office and working from home. So, in a five-day workweek, an employee can come to work on three days and choose to work remotely for two. Companies initially adopted a hybrid workplace to maintain their workflows during the pandemic, but many are still sticking to this model even after restrictions have loosened.
This is because hybrid working offers key benefits both for companies and their employees. In fact, in a recent FlexJobs survey, 96% of respondents desired some form of remote work, with 31% specifically saying they prefer a hybrid remote work environment. So why are people shifting towards hybrid work?
The benefits of hybrid work include:
- Reduced operational costs: Global Workplace Analytics estimates that, on average, an employer can save about $11,000 per year for every person who works remotely half the time.
- Increased productivity: According to the FlexJobs survey, 95% of respondents say productivity has been higher or the same while working remotely.
- Elevated job satisfaction: CNBC and SurveyMonkey’s 2020 survey revealed that remote workers report 75 out of 100 on the Workforce Happiness Index, while in-office employees scored 71.
Using digital platforms in a hybrid workplace
In a hybrid workplace, choosing the right digital platforms can be vital for cross-functional productivity and efficiency. This is true even more so than in a traditional workplace.
Just think about it. While miscommunications and minor errors can be fixed pretty quickly in a traditional workplace, things could unravel easily if teams aren’t up-to-date on the latest project updates, tasks, or other relevant information. And with team members spread out across different time zones and schedules, good project management software is essential for keeping hybrid workers up to date and focused on current tasks.
Ideally, you should choose a project management tool that seamlessly integrates with your team’s needs and adds a layer of transparency to ongoing projects. Many hybrid teams choose Hive for their project management needs for these exact reasons. Integrating with popular email, chat, and meeting platforms, Hive brings all team communication to one single dashboard — making collaboration easier than ever, regardless of each person’s location.
Apart from project management software, you need to invest in collaboration tools and create a central database where all employees can find information in minutes. And your digital platforms don’t just have to be work-related. You can also encourage employees to better themselves with sites like StuDocu, which provides educational resources in a remote environment.
You should also keep in mind that the digital tools you pick for your hybrid team must work seamlessly on both desktop and mobile platforms. You don’t want to delay cross-functional efforts because certain apps don’t work well on mobile devices or different operating systems.
While internal team communication and collaboration can usually be handled with a Slack channel and good digital tools, cross-team collaboration requires more than software to be successful. Here are 5 tips to help your team improve cross-functional collaboration while working in a hybrid model.
5 tips to boost cross-functional collaboration in hybrid teams
1. Set responsibilities
In the planning stage, delegate tasks to different teams. Give these teams time to discuss their responsibilities with team leads. From there, project managers can negotiate tasks and responsibilities according to the feedback. Remember that every team must be on the same page in a cross-functional project, even if they aren’t in the same place.
2. Educate your teams
Some employees might adjust to a hybrid structure with ease. Others might struggle. Make the transition to hybrid working smoother by educating your employees.For example, you can create an internal blog with different case studies from other companies, or you can even create your own. These can also be helpful for new employees and remote onboarding. If you don’t know what they should look like, here are some case study examples.
3. Clear communication policies
Everyone in a cross-team project will have their own Slack channels, team tasks, and email chains to deal with. To avoid confusion, set clear guidelines on where this cross-team project’s main communication forum is.
For example, project managers can create a separate Slack channel for this project while also encouraging essential team members to directly reach out to them with any questions. Key takeaways from these individual conversations can then be relayed to the group chat. With Hive, Slack conversations (both direct and group) can be pulled right into your project management dashboard, reducing the need to go back and forth between multiple tabs just to stay connected with teammates.
4. Create a central database
It’s important to remove any issues that cause friction between hybrid collaborators. A great way to do this is to create a central database for the project where all relevant information is stored. Productivity tools like Hive are an excellent option for this, as you can have one main resource for all teams to look at when they need any information.
These tools contain client information, overall project guidelines, project timelines, and much more. With this information easily in reach, each team can then use the shared data to create its own database and workflow. When a marketing team member wants specific information from the HR database, they can access it using permissions. If members from both teams have differing views, they can look to the central database for more information.
5. Strong reporting
Each team will have its own metrics to measure in a cross-functional environment, but you also need a central measure of what a successful project is. To do this, define concrete project milestones and use them to assess project progress. Ideally, you should have reporting software that updates in real-time to measure universal KPIs such as tasks completed, time tracking, budget, etc. This software should also allow team leads to measure separate KPIs for their specific teams.
A new form of management for leadership?
Leaders are crucial in a hybrid cross-functional project. However, dysfunctional leadership or micro-managing can derail any collaborative efforts and cause significant project delays. Of course, a change in the work culture necessitates a change in leadership styles. But, as digital employee experience (DEX) expert James Robertson explains, both leadership and management play a key role in adapting to a hybrid workplace.
Managers can’t employ the same techniques they used in an in-person office with a hybrid team — at least not without a few tweaks. Everything from communication models to team-building activities has changed. As a result, managers must understand their workplace’s changing culture and adapt their management styles accordingly. For example, employee management in a hybrid workspace heavily focuses on implementing different software and techniques to streamline inter-team communication, which may be a completely new skill for some managers.
Here’s how leaders can help hybrid teams with cross-functional collaboration:
- Provide additional training for changing work processes
- Consider the digital employee experience
- Identify technological gaps and address them
- Create a safe space for hybrid workers to share feedback and requests
- Promote frequent video calls for individual projects
- Host regular in-person meetings (at least bi-annually) to promote a positive work culture
The Cybersecurity challenges of hybrid workplaces
Of course, with most crucial operations moving online, there are increased cybersecurity threats for companies to consider. With employees taking work devices home or using personal devices to access company information, a hybrid workplace poses an increased risk of data breaches. Oftentimes, employees aren’t as careful as management might be hoping.
For example, email security firm Tessian released a 2020 report revealing that workers weren’t following many basic data security measures. When it comes to employees sending information to personal emails (which is often against security measures), most IT leaders estimated that companies with more than 1000 employees send only about 720 unauthorized emails every year. As it turns out, this number is actually close to 27,000! This exemplifies just one way security can be threatened with by increased use of online communication.
Since all or most data in a hybrid workplace is handled digitally, companies need to look at solutions like edge computing to provide increased security. Using this technology also helps with lower latency in data transfer times.
Speaking of data, companies must employ centralized data management to boost cross-functional collaboration. When data from different sources are centralized in one place, hybrid teams can easily access what they need in a matter of minutes. And don’t worry, you won’t need a team of data engineers to achieve this. Instead, you can simply use services like Mozart Data to help you get this done in an hour or two.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that cross-functional collaboration is harder in a hybrid workspace. Leaders and managers must equip teams with the right tools and work processes to get past the challenges created by varying work hours and scattered team members. For more information on how you can improve cross-functional collaboration for your hybrid team, check out the other articles on our blog.
This is a guest post written by Vikas Kalwani. Vikas is a product-led growth hacker and B2B Marketing Specialist skilled in SEO, Content Marketing, and Social Media Marketing. He works at uSERP and is a mentor at 500 Startups.
