When we posed the question about how to manage two different offices in the hybrid workplace, we weren’t sure what type of responses we would receive. Association professionals, however, had a bevy of helpful advice on the topic. Most of the advice fell into two categories: things to help individuals have a smooth hybrid experience and things to help entire teams work smoothly.

We shared advice from the former category in our previous story. Today, we share some of the best tips from those who are taking a more holistic view of hybrid work. Lots of this advice focused on practices that help everyone work efficiently and ensure people don’t feel left out—no matter where their office is that day.

Cambria Happ

Executive Director, McKenna Management, Inc.

Hold all-hands meetings in a virtual format. This keeps everyone on an even playing field and provides equal opportunity for folks to engage in the meeting.

Nikki Kelso

Director of Corporate Engagement, Australian Dental Industry Association

Keep as much virtual as possible: Daily Zoom meetings that everyone attends. Cloud-based file storage. Monday.com or other project-management software so everything is transparent to everyone. Divert the phone system so it rings on everyone’s mobiles. Whoever picks up first owns (and solves) the query.

Liz Fischer

Executive Director, Building Commissioning Association

I have quiet space at both locations with a complete setup, a monitor, keyboard, mouse, comfortable chair, and desk. Then, my laptop and notebook travel between locations. We share our calendars through our Outlook program to know who will be where that day. We also have team meetings set up every Monday morning to discuss project timelines.

Jane O’Dwyer

CEO, Cooperative Research Australia

We have moved to the long dreamed of paperless office, making full use of the Office 365 suite, Teams, and the Jira agile platform. We make all of our meetings available in person or via Teams. This means everyone can work at home or in the office with all we need at our fingertips. We’ve moved to most of us working one or two days at home, and the rest in the office.

Lorrie Ray

Researcher, Employers Council

I consider one office my main office and the other office my alternate office. My main office is in my home. I have the setup and resources there that I like. I also have a backpack with everything I need when I go into the alternate office, which is my workplace. We have hoteling, so there is no dedicated space for me, but there are places where I can work alone or with others. I put my laptop in my backpack, and when I am in the alternate office, I can pull out the items I need quickly and get to work at an available workspace. On our team, we use the office mainly for collaborative purposes, so typically I am there to meet with others to plan future work or to work on a joint project.

Connie Bruce, CAE

Director of Operations and Member Services, Virginia Council of CEOs

Currently, I only go into the office once or twice a week, although I may have outside meetings. When possible, I try to schedule my office days back to back so I can keep my computer at the office. I try to make my office work very purposeful, task-oriented, or team meetings.

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