When managing a team of remote workers, it’s essential to know how to eliminate the challenges of being disconnected from your colleagues. This can be incredibly challenging in an office environment where many people are not nearby, and individuals tend to favor those who are easily accessible or nearby. The solution? Learn how to manage proximity bias—the tendency for people who work closely together to favor one another.
Here are some tips on how to manage proximity bias in your hybrid work environment:
The Impact of Proximity Bias and How it Affects Remote Workers.
This proximity bias phenomenon occurs when people associate with people who are physically close by. This can lead to some negative consequences for remote workers and their teams, including:
- They’re less likely to be included in informal conversations.
- They’re less likely to be included in team bonding activities.
- They may feel isolated from the rest of their colleagues because they don’t see each other daily, which means they might not feel like they belong or fit into the group dynamic as well as their co-workers do.
These three negative consequences can lead to an unfavorable working environment and high employee turnover.
Check-In with Remote Employees Frequently
To minimize proximity bias, check in with your remote employees through a video chat tool like Zoom or Google Hangouts. This will help you maintain eye contact and nonverbal cues necessary for establishing trust and rapport. You can build relationships with hybrid employees you may not see through frequent check-ins. This helps you stay connected, and the employees feel inclusivity within the company.
Be a Flexible Work Environment
To rid an organization of proximity bias, there is a need to address any personal distrust of work-from-home employees. There can be a mentality that employees are slacking or not getting enough work done as in-house employees. Factually this is not usually the case. Employees who are given opportunities to work remotely are happier and more productive, leading to higher employee satisfaction.
Work with HR to Create a Culture Not Built on Proximity Bias
HR can also be a great ally in creating a culture not built on proximity bias. HR can help with training and communication, onboarding and offboarding, performance management, and more.
HR can also help you track the performance and productivity of employees. This is especially important since it is easier in a hybrid or in-office culture to assign tasks or visibly see how much an employee is working. A remote worker may have a much larger workload or be forgotten for projects without the help of HR or a task management system.
HR can also create more opportunities for hybrid or remote workers to participate in team-building activities to create a more connected work environment.
Work On Adding Tech to Keep Communicating Frequently.
- Video conferencing is a great way to stay in touch with your team members. It’s easy to use and doesn’t require always being in the same location.
- Consider using online project management tools like Trello or Asana for managing your workflow and tasks rather than relying on email alone. These tools allow teams across different locations or time zones to collaborate easily while still staying organized and communicating efficiently via chat channels within these platforms.
- Online collaboration tools like Google Drive and Dropbox give people access anywhere they have internet access. So if one person has updated their part of the project, everyone else will see it immediately when they log into their accounts!
Adding tech options to your processes makes bridging the gap between in-office and remote employees easier. It produces an environment where everyone feels they are working towards the same goal.
There are many benefits to allowing a hybrid work environment, but it takes a lot of planning and creativity to make it work for everyone.
Remote and hybrid workers often feel isolated and excluded from their colleagues in person, which can negatively affect productivity, morale, and retention rates. But if you create a culture of inclusion by making sure everyone feels welcome at all times, creating a culture of transparency, and adding more tech initiatives to keep communication flowing, you are sure to have a workplace not affected by proximity bias!
The key is to create a culture where everyone feels included and supported, regardless of where they are or how they get their work done.