Working in a Hybrid World: Strategies for Success

Written by: Jennifer Fracassa, SVP, Talent

Last month, Razorfish Health and Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness hosted “Working in a Hybrid World,” the Medical Advertising Hall of Fame's October Career Accelerator Series event. During the interactive event, panelists from both agencies shared their POVs, personal anecdotes, and best-in-class learnings from their experiences participating in today’s hybrid work environment.

As so many of us are navigating this space, we gathered our panelists’ strategies for success, recapped below, in service of promoting positive “hybrid hygiene.” Read on for our top takeaways!

COMMUNICATING IN A HYBRID ENVIRONMENT:

  • Be intentional. Start by striving for open, clear lines of communication with your boss and team: this will help mitigate any confusion.

  • Be proactive about addressing miscommunications. Don’t let a miscommunication sit. When you might not see or be in-person with colleagues, emotions over misalignment can build and fester into something worse. To prevent this, address confusion or miscommunications directly when you can; the sooner, the better.

  • Think through your format. The medium through which you communicate can be more important than the message itself—and sometimes, the medium is the message. Serious or sensitive conversations necessitate being in-person or on-camera. Conversely, consider having routine conversations around project status or your punch list for the day via a chat platform to drive efficiency.

  • Practice consistent self-awareness. Use your best judgment when approaching your professional needs and communication style, and be mindful in how you carry yourself.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS IN HYBRID ENVIRONMENT:

  • Be visible… If you’re remote, be on camera when you can. We can’t be on-camera all the time, but if you’re not around colleagues and team members in-person and you’re never on-camera, you might find yourself “out of sight, out of mind.”

  • … and be strategic about your visibility. Pay attention to when it’s most valuable to be face-to-face or on-camera and put effort into doing that when you can. On the flip side, don’t just be active about being visible; let your team know when you need to be off-camera or work remotely. Either way, communication is key!

  • Build as many relationships as possible. You never know when you might need a resource, so meeting people outside of your team and, if you’re in a large network, your agency, is crucial for providing yourself with levers to pull (so to speak) when you need them. But first, build and then make sure you are maintaining a wide variety of professional relationships, whether they’re virtual or IRL.

ADVICE FOR THOSE IN THEIR EARLY-CAREERS:

  • Be considerate. It’s terrible when people have an attitude—no one wants to work with that person! Be nice; it’s as simple as that.

  • Make sure your voice is heard. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, as the saying goes. If you can’t advocate for yourself, no one will do so for you. So don’t be afraid to make an informed case for what you need, and make sure it’s heard.

  • Give yourself permission to succeed—because you’re probably the biggest person in your way.

  • Create value. In everything you do, think about creating value for two entities, equally: the organization and yourself.

  • Keep raising your hand. You never know where opportunities will take you!

  • Find the fun in everything. The work will get done, being a nice person will go a long way, and providing value will get you far—but if it’s not fun… what are we doing here?

Thank you to all of our wonderful panelists from Razorfish Health and Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness: Ashley Romanelli, Jonathan Frank, Rue Payne, Kara Bissonnette, Jay Patel, and Ilya Tetelman, along with our fantastic moderator, Robyn Doane! Thanks as well to Nina Rupp and Kara Bissonnette for organizing this meaningful event.

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If you are interested in joining the RFH team, check out our open roles. We know you are not your resume; we understand you are not your work, and we respect that you are so much more than a job description. You are you. So come be you—and do you—with us.

Nina Rupp