The rise of remote work has left many companies stuck in a debate on how to best balance remote versus on-site teams. Research points to mixed results with no clear winner, further fueling debate on whether it is better to bring employees back or let them stay remote.
Kilo Heath’s CEO, Tadas Burgaila, whose company has more than six hundred professionals in five cities across Europe, spoke to me recently on the phone: “We knew we had to find the optimal technique to win the war against skill and stay true to our motto ‘it’s all about the people’.
Burgaila openly admits that getting Kilo’s hybrid work culture right was not an easy path. In fact, it started off with a big mistake: a blanket ‘back-to-the-office’ policy. “We made the mistake of a blanket, back-to-the-office policy like many companies and immediately felt the pushback from employees.”
So what to do?
For Burgaila and other Kilo Health leaders, the answer was to redouble their efforts on what they knew was most productive: their collaborative culture. “Kilo Health’s collaborative culture has been an integral component of our good fortune since our inception. So when we found ourselves in a dilemma about how to proceed, we learned that each piece of equipment is unique and that there is no one-size-fits-all solution. So, we now aim to empower teams, where team leaders and team members make a decision that the hybrid style is more productive for their team.
Kilo Health was introduced in 2013 with a single product in a small workplace with just seven people. Since 2021, it has been indexed in the Financial Times FT 1,000 as the second fastest-growing company in Europe and is on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 list as the fastest-growing company in Central Europe.
Kilo Health leaders emphasize that addressing the question of remote versus on-site working begins with acknowledging that employees have a say in their work preferences. Burgaila shares, “Society has changed, and people no longer wish to come to the office simply because they are pushed to. The Kilo Health management team wanted people back in the office, believing that working closely in one room could bring many benefits. However, after launching the ‘back-to-the-office’ policy, we realized people don’t want to be told what they should and shouldn’t do.”
The solution?
Engage the workforce and ask artists what they’ve learned about how to optimize collaboration in a hybrid work model. “Instead of controlling the response, we turned to business unit and team leaders to help us with the approach,” says Burgaila.
“Our challenge with designing a hybrid solution was simple: We aimed to create a welcoming space to articulate our belief in on-site work and outline the desired team results. Our goal was to shift the perspective from ‘I have to go to the office’ to ‘I want to go to the office.”
A study by Science Direct found that a remote work style can specifically affect business functionality and work-life balance. Employees like Vitalijus Majorovas, co-discoverer of Kilo Health, were firm believers in remote work and how it helped productivity. “I never had a problem working remotely with our team. We save time, money, and entire responsibilities more successfully while team members enjoy the balance between paint and life. “
Toms Zalmanis, co-founder of Kilo Health’s Co-Found program, prefers to paint in situ to generate collaboration. “On-site collaboration is a unique magic for me. When we are together, face-to-face, we dig deep and break down barriers that exist online.
Zalmanis recalls a strategy meeting where the team hit a roadblock. “Online, it may have been the end, but we took a very special break, regrouped and asked, ‘What do we really need to accomplish?’Candid, transformative conversations are harder in person.
With their pleasure of working on a completely on-site and fully remote model, more and more team members began to step in. What ultimately evolved was an exchange of tips and resources that helped Kilo Health evolve into a balanced hybrid paint. environments focused on optimal collaboration, adding how to utilize equipment and resources that would enable collaboration more productively.
“Our good luck with our hybrid style is not just due to the combination of people’s workplaces,” says Burgaila. “It comes from most of the productive practices in the way we work. “
Team members began researching and recommending how their groups could collaborate, no matter where they work. Here are some of the team’s favorite tips.
Mantas Kondratavicius, co-founder of a children’s wellness product at Kilo Health, swears by using digital collaboration tools: “There are so many great tools out there that go far beyond just using video conferencing like Teams or Zoom. Tapping into how to best use various tools significantly enhances our collaboration efforts.”
A little tip?
“We’ve spent a lot more time now setting up clear expectations and goals, so even if you don’t see each other often, everyone knows what needs to be done and is working together toward a common objective,” says Majorovas.
Gytis Labasauskas, another co-founder at Kilo Health, adds a third tip: encourage collaboration through brainstorming sessions. “Brainstorming sessions have proven to be a highly effective tool when my team members appear to be struggling with collaboration and working too independently.”
A concept that emerged to create an experienced Mmanager who helps team members integrate, regardless of where they work. Burgaila comments, “The role of an Experience Manager is to make the career environment positive by understanding what the team needs. It’s like creating a welcoming social area or a wonderful workplace: finding a balance between other opinions.
Whatever technique he adopts, Zalmanis offers strong recommendations for leaders who lead by example. “Demonstrate the benefits of your painting style by adopting it yourself. For example, set a transparent schedule and show your team how to balance remote and in-office work.
Kilo Health’s hybrid style is undeniable yet effective. By engaging painters and focusing on what worked and what didn’t, rather than an overarching policy, Kilo Health has created a hybrid painting technique that supports its highly collaborative culture.
The goal is to touch and connect between team members while still allowing the flexibility to retreat and paint from home or in their designated “safe place. “This means that team members combine charts, in-office charts, and charts remotely at the location of their choice.
The back line?
If you’re caught up in the debate about on-site paintings and remote paintings, let team members design a program that encompasses the most productive of both worlds and helps everyone stay compliant, regardless of when and where they work.