Suddenly Hybrid

PART FIVESetting Expectations

People are resistant to change, and hybrid meetings demand a lot of it. They require new tools, new approaches, a new mindset. It's not realistic to expect everyone to get on board – expect some pushback and even noncompliance. However, there is a method that many organizations are leaning heavily into right now that can drive user adoption: training.

In a 2021 survey of human resource leaders conducted by Gartner, 68% say they are prioritizing building critical skills and competencies. This is for good reason, because that same survey indicated that nearly three-quarters of respondents reported that more than 40% of their workforce has had to use new skills as a result of COVID-19 (Gartner 2021). For employees fresh off adapting to the new workflows developed while fully remote, the idea of having to learn a whole new way of working when hybrid may sound exhausting. Organizations that both recognize the need for change and also offer sufficient training and support to help their employees adjust and adopt will find success. We find one such illustration of a business embracing the hybrid environment in what some might consider an unlikely place: the financial services sector.

“I don't know that there's much of an older business than banking. The interaction where you go in and you see a teller – that really hasn't changed much in the last 100 years,” says Rick Sems, executive vice president at First Bank, one of the largest privately held, family-owned ...