Agriculture Victoria Hybrid working handbook development and training
Develop a handbook to help set the ‘tone’ for the hybrid culture across Agriculture Victoria, including designing and delivering a series of information sessions to share the handbook with the organisation’s many teams.
Agriculture Victoria engaged Bastion Reputation to develop a hybrid working approach for the organisation and to communicate the approach to all employees and leaders.
Organisations around the world continue to grapple with this issue, as they try to find the right ways to run their business, support their clients and keep their teams safe and connected when some employees are primarily home-based and others are back in the office.
The team at Agriculture Victoria is spread across the state, with workplaces ranging from farms to labs and to regional and metropolitan offices.
The distributed nature of the workforce means Agriculture Victoria has always used a form of hybrid working, but COVID-19 accelerated the take up and also prompted a re-think of the best approach.
Bastion Reputation was asked to develop a handbook, including guidelines and tips, to help set the ‘tone’ for the hybrid culture across Agriculture Victoria. We were also asked to design and deliver a series of information sessions, to share the handbook with the organisation’s many teams.
What we did
Before jumping to solutions, we wanted to get a clear picture of what was working well and what wasn’t. To do that, the team held a series of discovery workshops to fully understand the key issues, concerns, challenges and opportunities from different perspectives. Workshops were held with Culture Committee employee representatives and with leaders from across the organisation.
What quickly became clear was that a one size fits all set of hybrid working guidelines wouldn’t work for a workforce ranging from biosecurity specialists to scientists in labs to the professional services teams based at head office.
Instead, the Reputation team created a set of practical and simple guidelines and tips which set out the core principles and expectations, and which each branch team can easily customise based on their culture and operating rhythm.
Results
There was broad agreement that the handbook offers consistency and helpful guidance about some of the essential aspects of “how to do” hybrid work. This includes practical tips for running effective hybrid meetings, communicating and connecting well within teams and remote onboarding of new employees.
Finding the right hybrid approach for any business can feel like a challenging and messy process, especially when the external environment is constantly changing. As the Bastion team found through the Agriculture Victoria work though, it’s possible (and important!) to share clear guidance with employees, to give them clarity about the new norms and expectations in a very changed working landscape.
