Bias, conscious or unconscious, can impact businesses. Mukta Arya, Managing Director, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), APAC, Societe Generale, recommends some steps to deal with it in hybrid workforce.

Arya, who has over 24 years of experience in multiple industries and locations in APAC, joined Societe Generale in Mumbai as Head of HR for India in 2006 and has been with them since then. She worked in Hong Kong as Regional Head of Talent Development and Inclusion since 2010 and as Head of HR for SEA for Societe Generale in Singapore for 4 years, before being appointed as the CHRO for Societe Generale, APAC, now based in Hong Kong.

A Certified Coach (ACC) accredited by International Coaching Federation, she is also a Global Fellow in Talent Management by Wharton University and a Global Talent Management Leader with certification in Diversity and Inclusion, MBTI, FIRO B, Experiential Learning, HR Audit, Competency Mapping and Leadership Development. She is a published author with 4 books till now.

In an interaction with People Matters, Arya highlights some of the biases that managers and executives must be mindful of while managing a hybrid workforce, how it impacts business productivity and how leaders can overcome them.

What biases can be present in a hybrid work model and how can leaders deal with them?

We must first remind ourselves: hybrid work models are not merely an employee benefit but also enhance business and workplace productivity by providing flexibility to employees and harmonising the balance between work and life.

For instance, it has helped companies survive through the COVID crisis, when our business continuity was severely challenged and face-to-face interactions were brought to minimum or nil in some countries. Finally, employees could save a lot of time and more importantly energy from their commute to the office and all these would help them stay focused and productive during working hours.

One common assumption among managers could be “employees tend to slack when they are out of their managers’ sight” . If a manager is measuring productivity via deliverables and impact, then this assumption is clearly out of place.

How real is 'proximity bias in the new normal? How does it impact business productivity?

Like any other bias, it is our natural instinct to take “shortcuts” in our minds and have preference on things/ person “closer” to ourselves, which could impact us in multi-fold areas at the workplace, including but not limited to impressions on others and evaluation of one’s performance.

We should first recognise it and then tackle it by building small but good habits. For example, managers should encourage all meeting participants to switch on their camera so that everyone could be seen, proactively invite people on the line to speak, and when you are joining a virtual meeting from a room with someone, please make sure the conversation is also open to all on the line and not to have any side chat only with people in the room.

Do you have any systems in place to overcome such biases?

A mindset of “Let’s talk/ do it NOW”. With all the technology at the workplace, I believe messaging and making a video call with your colleague is more convenient or at least as simple as walking over to their desks.

We should not defer any conversation and think “it’s better to wait until when both of us are in office” because such postponement and waiting, time after time, will unconsciously build our misconception that this person is distant, not approachable, inconvenient, and time-consuming to interact with.

That’s exactly how 'proximity bias' is generated without any party being difficult to reach.

What would you recommend for overcoming biases in a hybrid work model? 

It might sound cliche but I truly believe leading by example is more impactful that we thought. As a leader, we are the ones to illustrate “it is ok to work from home” and we could be the first one to break the “proximity bias” by simply not being here at the office (i.e. equally far to everyone).

When you are working from home, there is no way for your team to have any physical proximity to you and facetime doesn’t even exist. That’s how they could start realising the trust is there and where they choose to connect to work doesn’t matter, and you really mean it.