Going Hybrid Isn’t Simple, But It Is Necessary: Here’s How to Get Started

Sponsored by Centric Consulting

 

 

In this segment of “Office Optional with Larry English,” Larry discusses the importance of good ergonomic environments for your remote work employees.

After getting a taste for the flexibility offered by remote work, 73 percent of employees don’t want to go back to full-time office life, says the 2021 Microsoft Work Trend Index.

Companies can’t afford to sit on the sidelines any longer: They must figure out how to offer remote work, whether that means full-time work from home or a hybrid model incorporating some time on site. Otherwise, they risk losing top talent, as Microsoft found that more than 40 percent of the workforce is considering making a job switch this year – double from previous year’s data.

Yet going hybrid by default is a recipe for dysfunction and disaster. It’s not enough to announce that employees may continue working from home some of the time. My experience running a hybrid company for more than two decades has taught me that there’s a lot of strategy involved in orchestrating a well-functioning hybrid workplace with a healthy, productive and engaging culture.

Companies may have gotten by going remote without much forethought during the pandemic, but the time is now to think through everything from HR policies and technology to training leaders to effectively manage remote teams and training associates to collaborate virtually and engage fully with the organization. Start by thinking through the following questions:

What is your future of work vision?

Clarity of vision is the first step in going hybrid by design. An organization needs to define what needs to change and why, what are the top challenges and what is the reimagined vision for the hybrid workforce. This vision will align leadership and teams to a common way of operating and provide the starting point of a detailed roadmap forward.

• How will people collaborate as one team if they’re not all in the office at the same time?
• Can each job be performed on-site, remotely or a mix?
• Do employees need to live in proximity to a physical office, or can they be located anywhere?
• Will freelance or gig workers be part of the talent strategy?
• How will culture be maintained with a hybrid workforce?
• How will being a hybrid workplace help or hinder the operating model?
• How will you foster virtual leadership?

Leadership requires having an influence on people and inspiring good work. For those used to consistent face-to-face time, this can be a difficult skill to transition to the virtual world. Leading in a virtual environment requires different tactics, and training may be required.

The key is to be intentional. Ask questions about what your employees are working on, what they’re inspired by, whether they believe they have a purpose and how they’re feeling. Relationship building happens naturally in an office but takes extra effort when you’re remote. Carve out time to engage in non-work conversations with your teams and encourage employees to do the same with one another.

Although leaders may think they’ve been doing this all throughout the pandemic, research suggests they need to step it up: The latest Microsoft Work Trend Index found that leaders report stronger work relationships and better overall well-being than their employees.

What work can effectively be done remotely?

While some employee groups have little need to gather physically, others may need to get together in person regularly. To determine the right mix for each team, conduct a thorough assessment by asking the following questions:

• How critical is face-to-face interaction for the desired customer or stakeholder experience?
• Does the work itself require direct contact, or can it be accomplished virtually?
• Do team members work independently, or do they need frequent collaboration?
• Does the team require a high level of management oversight and guidance?
• Does the team have access to the technology they need to do their jobs virtually?
• What are your real estate needs?

Shifting your workforce to a hybrid model will change your real estate needs. Once you determine what work can effectively be done remotely, the next step is deciding who will be working remotely and how often. What is the technology hardware and software required to support different modes of employee work? How much collaboration space? Will you provide alternate on-demand options, such as a stipend for employees to join a coworking space or to set up a home office?

In the long-term, companies will likely need to increase their “we” space and decrease their “me” space to allow for increased in-person collaboration work and decreased solitary head-down time. It’s also important that companies have an interim strategy – you don’t want workers to simply return to their old desks in the meantime.

What are your technology requirements?

In a hybrid workplace, employees need tools to do their jobs well from anywhere. Companies must invest in productivity, collaboration and core business applications that will not only enable their future of work vision but also help them overcome an office-centric culture by allowing easy digital communication and relationship-building. Employees should be trained in using the tools, too, so they can leverage the technology to collaborate effectively.

How will you enable your organization to work asynchronously?

In a hybrid model, employees won’t always be working simultaneously. To allow for asynchronous work, you must remove manual handcuffs by digitizing every process possible and making sure people can easily access the information they need when they need it. In other words, the time is now to streamline and modernize day-to-day operations.

How will you translate your culture to the virtual world?

Going hybrid means your culture no longer lives at the office. You must figure out how to live your cultural norms in virtual operations and communicate your culture at every stage of the talent lifecycle, starting with onboarding. How can your onboarding process be digitized? How will you ensure new hires feel connected to the company and its mission as well as their fellow teammates? How will you develop your leaders and employees to thrive in a virtual/hybrid way of operating?

The at-home work environment matters, too. If your remote workers are slouching on the bed or couch and staring at a small screen, they’re not going to have a great experience. Productivity and well-being will suffer. Encouraging a more comfortable, productive environment may require employee education on proper ergonomics and investment in stipends for employees to upgrade their at-home workstations.

The most successful hybrid workplaces give employees flexibility to work from anywhere, engage leaders who are capable of virtually building relationships and inspiring great work, invest in the proper business tools and digitize as many processes and procedures as possible. Above all, a great hybrid workplace offers a great culture for employees, whether they log in from home, from the office or a mix.

This article was originally featured on Forbes.com.

About the Authors

 

Larry English is president and co-founder of Centric Consulting, a management consulting firm that guides you in the search for answers to complex digital, business, and technology problems. Before Centric Consulting, Larry worked for a large international consulting firm out of college until he got burned out at 25. He and his newlywed wife backpacked around the world as he tried to find his path in life—and he did. Shortly after returning home, he and his like-minded pals founded Centric with a focus on changing how consulting was done by building a remote company with a mission to create a culture of employee and client happiness.

Today, Centric is a 1,000-plus person company with offices in 12 US cities and India. In his new book, Office Optional: How to Build a Connected Culture with Virtual Teams, Larry unpacks everything he’s discovered about creating and sustaining a culture of collaborative teams in a virtual environment. Connect with Larry on Twitter.

 

 

Steve Jenkins is responsible for leading our National People and Change practice, including strategy, business development, practice management, delivery excellence and team leadership.

He has more than 20 years of experience with Fortune 100 companies in multiple industries including insurance, financial services, healthcare and retail. Steve has held diverse roles enabling strategic business initiatives, business unit transformation, organization redesign, talent management, leadership development and workforce integration and transition.

 

 

 

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from Going Hybrid Isn’t Simple, But It Is Necessary: Here’s How to Get Started.

Article reprinted with permission.  

 

Enjoying this topic? Register for the OHIMA23 ‘Office Optional’ Workshop by Centric Consulting. Learn more online: www.ohima.org/ohima23

The Office Needs To Become Hybrid-Friendly: 4 Tips For Getting Started

Sponsored by Centric Consulting

 

 

In this segment of “Office Optional with Larry English,” Larry has four tips for how to structure your organization to be a hybrid-friendly environment.

 

After compensation, the No. 1 thing employees care about in 2021 is flexibility. This comes from a global study of workers by The Future Forum, a Slack consortium, which found that overwhelmingly, knowledge workers want flexibility in their schedule (93 percent) and where they work (76 percent).

For most companies, the office will be key to achieving that balance. But not the office of yesteryear. As companies hammer out their hybrid workplace strategy, they’re rethinking the role of the office, envisioning a new model for how it energizes workers and reinforces culture.

“No one wants the office to go back to how it was pre-COVID,” says Ira Sharfin, CEO of Continental Office, a commercial design and workplace solutions firm. “People want choices in where and how they work. They want to use the office for collaboration, socialization, mentorship and inspiration.”

This insight comes not only from Sharfin’s work with clients but also from a recent Continental Office survey, which found that while 85 percent of employees want the choice of remote work, 76 percent also want the office to remain a part of their work experience.

Sharfin offers the following tips for reinventing the office for 2021 and beyond.

Dig into what your employees actually want.

Before making any decisions about how the office will be used, Sharfin suggests that companies gather data from employees. What’s important to them? How do they work best? How do they see themselves using the office? Likely, you’ll have some employees who want to come in full-time, others who want to be remote full-time and a large chunk who want a mix.

Quartz, for example, recently decided to let employees work from anywhere. But the company still had a year left on its New York City office, so before reopening, it surveyed employees to see how they’d want to use the space. Not surprisingly, 0 percent wanted to come in full-time, but some did still want the option, with most saying a few days each week would be ideal. Quartz used that data to create a new framework for how the office is used.

Expand your concept of flexibility.

Flexibility isn’t just about the choice of working from the office or home. It’s about having choice within those settings, as well.

Sharfin suggests companies think about redesigning the office to give employees different work environments – think a mix of shared workstations, couches or lounge seating and private phone booths. Making these changes will likely mean reducing cubicle and private office spaces. This shouldn’t be a problem, as most employees will not be using the office for 100 percent of their future work modes.

Upon reopening, Quartz did away with assigned seating, opting for hot desks so employees could have options for where they sit, who they sit by and even whether they use a desk at all.

“The people who say they don’t want to ever come back to the office, it’s because the office is uninspiring,” Sharfin says. “Instead, think of the new office like an adult student union. There’s a vibe, there’s people working with their headphones in while others are meeting. Those are the types of spaces that people gravitate toward, because they feel good and they’re inspiring.”

Give people space to be human.

When people work from home, they can step away from their computer, take a break to meditate, re-center or take care of their mental health. Working from home allows employees to be human, rather than automatons.

The office needs to allow space for employees to be human, too. Sharfin says many companies are installing a wellness or respite room, which can be as simple as outfitting a small office with some inviting furniture and soothing lighting. “These rooms are important to show people you care, and it doesn’t take a lot,” Sharfin says, noting that leaders may have to model using the room to help employees feel comfortable taking breaks in the office.

Invest in tech to make the office hybrid-friendly.

Technology is more important than ever in a hybrid workplace. For one, technology allows distributed workers to seamlessly collaborate, whether that means through a platform like Microsoft Teams or software that facilitates meetings with a mix of on-site and off-premise workers.

Technology can also make the office a more inviting place to work. “It’s important to allow people to easily plug in, no matter where they’re working in the office,” Sharfin says. “The less friction you have for using the office, printers, etc., the better.”

Luckily, Sharfin says there are many inexpensive ways to make the office hybrid-friendly. If companies get rid of dedicated desks, for example, a simple app can let employees reserve a workstation or a conference room for the day. Sharfin says some companies are also letting people see who has booked space so they can more easily plan to come in when their teammates or work friends will be on site.

Can you afford not to redesign your office?

Companies may be hesitant to dive in to redesigning their space. After all, if there’s anything we learned in 2020, it’s that the future is unknowable.

Although it does require an investment to start evolving the office, Sharfin says getting started doesn’t have to mean overhauling the entire space or making permanent changes. “You can test changes out in a small area and use prefab interior products to create conference rooms and offices, which would be easily convertible,” he notes.

Plus, there’s a very real cost to getting it wrong – namely that many employees are already looking for greener pastures, and it costs a lot to recruit and train someone new.

“Companies need to invest more in workplace strategy,” Sharfin says. “They need to step back and think more broadly about the purpose of the office. What do you really need and what do your people need? Is your space inspiring people and helping them do great work and share ideas?”

This article was originally featured on Forbes.com.

About the Author

Larry English is president and co-founder of Centric Consulting, a management consulting firm that guides you in the search for answers to complex digital, business, and technology problems. Before Centric Consulting, Larry worked for a large international consulting firm out of college until he got burned out at 25. He and his newlywed wife backpacked around the world as he tried to find his path in life—and he did. Shortly after returning home, he and his like-minded pals founded Centric with a focus on changing how consulting was done by building a remote company with a mission to create a culture of employee and client happiness.

Today, Centric is a 1,000-plus person company with offices in 12 US cities and India. In his new book, Office Optional: How to Build a Connected Culture with Virtual Teams, Larry unpacks everything he’s discovered about creating and sustaining a culture of collaborative teams in a virtual environment. Connect with Larry on Twitter.

 

Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from The Office Needs To Become Hybrid-Friendly: 4 Tips For Getting Started.

Article reprinted with permission.  

 

Enjoying this topic? Register for the OHIMA23 ‘Office Optional’ Workshop by Centric Consulting. Learn more online: www.ohima.org/ohima23

Coding for Organ and Disease-Oriented Panels

The “Spotlight on CPT” is shining on the Pathology and Laboratory section of CPT this month.  In particular, we are going to be looking at organ or disease-oriented panels.  These panels, in the code range 80047-80076, were developed for coding purposes.  As one can see by examining the panels, one code is covering multiple tests, which allows for a simpler, faster reporting of the group of tests.  It is important to note that the panels were not designed to be viewed as clinical parameters. 

When a panel of tests is ordered, for example an electrolyte panel (CPT code 80051), all the components of the panel must be performed.  This will include carbon dioxide, chloride, potassium, and sodium tests.  Additional tests, as ordered, may be separately reported.  So, if the electrolyte panel and a glucose test were ordered, then codes 80051 (electrolyte panel) and 82947 (glucose) should both be reported.

It is inappropriate to report two or more panel codes which have overlapping constituent tests.  For example, the tests that incorporate a basic metabolic panel (BMP) 80048 are found in the comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP) 80053.  It would be appropriate to only assign 80053 for the CMP if both are ordered. This applies when the tests ordered are from the same patient draw.

Similarly, if the group of tests that are ordered overlap panels, report the panel that houses the greater number of tests.  In the previous example we see that all of the tests in 80048 are the same as in 80053.  However, 80047 which is a BMP with a different type of calcium (ionized rather that total) still should not be coded with 80053, but in addition to the CMP code, code 82330 for the ionized calcium could be added.  This is because that is the only test in the BMP calcium, ionized panel that is different from the CMP.

Remember, when individual tests are ordered, if they meet the defined components for a panel, only the panel code should be assigned.

Now, light has been shed on organ and disease-oriented panels.

 

 

About the Author 

Dianna Foley, RHIA, CCS, CHPS, CDIP, is OHIMA's Education Coordinator. Dianna has been an HIM professional for over 20 years. She progressed through the ranks of coder, department supervisor, and department director, to her current role as a coding consultant. 

She previously served as the program director for Medical Coding and HIT at Eastern Gateway Community College. Dianna earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Cincinnati and holds RHIA, CHPS, CDIP and CCS certifications. She is an AHIMA Approved ICD-10-CM/PCS Trainer and is a presenter on coding topics at the national, state, and regional levels. Dianna mentors new AHIMA members and also provides monthly educational lectures to coders and clinical documentation specialists.