Hybrid Agency: Remote Working & Managing a Global Workforce

The world of work has shifted in recent years, giving rise to remote work and increased employee flexibility. This has been accelerated by the pandemic. It’s no longer unusual to encounter organisations with a distributed global workforce. Inbound FinTech is a hybrid agency and our agile approach enables us to offer our clients greater expertise, more flexibility and innovative solutions. Learn more about how this modern approach works and get insights into our agency culture in this blog.

What is a hybrid agency?

Put simply, a hybrid agency is an agency that has adopted the hybrid working model, which allows employees to work either from the office or from home, or both. This allows for a global workforce that utilises digital communication and collaboration tools, whilst also having a physical office environment. 

Opting for a hybrid approach isn’t something to consider lightly. An agency’s culture, strategic objectives and goals need to be defined and analysed to ensure hybrid working is a suitable option. The COVID-19 pandemic led to many businesses converting to remote work practices to ensure business continuity. However, before the pandemic, many companies had already started to adopt and perfect remote working, especially those with an existing global workforce.

With the growing popularity of remote work, hybrid agencies have economised on the opportunity to have the best experts and specialists on their teams, no matter where these professionals are located. This translates into diverse teams and agency environments geared for growth. Teams can be built to achieve expertise across the full marketing, communications and sales spectrum, as well as offering cultural insights that allow for more informed approaches to audience engagement.

Inbound FinTech: a hybrid digital agency for FinTech and Financial Services

In niche industries like Financial Services where the sales cycle is more intricate and takes longer to close, effective marketing can be challenging. Due to a veneer of complexity associated with the industry, FinTech and Financial Services marketing and lead generation strategies need to incorporate educational content and tactics for simplifying complex concepts and showcasing key benefits of services and products aligned with persona pain points.

Hybrid agencies like Inbound FinTech offer businesses in the sector an opportunity to tap into a wealth of industry insights provided by expert marketing professionals with an array of specialisms from across a global workforce, who can provide big-picture marketing solutions to maximise the impact of your campaigns.

Benefits of partnering with a hybrid agency

Partnering with a hybrid agency, especially one with specific sector knowledge (where a thorough understanding of the industry’s challenges and needs underpins successful marketing), is a huge advantage for businesses.

Making remote working work for you

While remote working has its challenges, as many businesses will have experienced during the pandemic, the opportunities offered by overcoming geographical boundaries outweigh its limitations. People have discovered new ways to drive efficiency, through innovative tech,  collaboration and communication. At Inbound FinTech, we have the digital tools to make remote work not only possible but beneficial and successful. When you foster the right culture, remote working can work for you.

Transforming traditional processes

The flexibility that comes with the hybrid work model means employees have the freedom to work in a way that suits them, ultimately leading to increased productivity. We have a global team that embraces the agile process, the diverse and inclusive culture and digital collaboration, whilst our physical presence in London, in the heart of the financial district, means that we retain our roots where many of our clients reside and offer a place for the team to come together when required.

Bureaucracy and old-school processes can stifle creativity and motivation in traditional office environments. Staff in hybrid organisations can reduce distractions, enjoy more flexibility and avoid the constraints of rigid structures, plus the daily grind of commuting! Hybrid workforces are better placed to avoid employee burnout and frustrations and staff can focus on achieving meaningful objectives, delivering tangible results.

Agile approach

Agility is one of the key strengths of a hybrid agency, as the team prioritises close communication and collaboration, both internally and with clients, treating each step of the big-picture strategy with frequent feedback and fast iterations. This ensures strategy adaptation has the required flexibility and responds effectively to changing industry and client needs. 

Hybrid digital agencies are typically very tech-savvy and provide businesses with ongoing technical and strategic support. Inbound FinTech leverages the best digital growth tools and platforms, including HubSpot, which is constantly developing intuitive features to make clients’ marketing, sales, operations and customer relations initiatives as seamless as possible.

Challenges of managing a global workforce

Although a global workforce has access to the tools and practices needed to achieve seamless collaboration and delivery, working with an internationally dispersed team can be challenging at times. It’s important for agencies and organisations alike to be aware of these challenges and proactively address them.

Ensuring effective communication

A global workforce is nothing without effective communication. Beyond equipping teams with the tools needed to enable real-time communication across geographies, such as Slack and Zoom, it’s important to encourage ongoing communication. Staff need to communicate any challenges or dependencies that impact overall delivery, as well as their availability, so that everyone is aware of each team member’s capacity. 

Effective communication is key in a global workforce, especially considering time zone differences. The best way to navigate this is to ensure the prioritisation of deliveries so that any lapses in communication, due to time differences or team member unavailability, don’t impact delivery. Implementing a strong agency culture and utilising modern communication tools and processes will enhance efficiency and productivity.

Nailing your hybrid agency culture

Regularly sharing a physical space with your colleagues helps to forge good working relationships and friendships. From Monday morning catch-ups about the weekend’s events to sharing hobbies and interests, being in the office meant sharing openly and easily. In a remote world, this type of conversation isn’t as natural or easy, so providing channels for non-work-related engagement can help teammates get to know each other and foster a greater sense of culture and community in your agency.

At Inbound FinTech, we have dedicated Slack channels for book, movie and music recommendations, as well as other avenues and opportunities for non-work conversations and interactions. We also have regular knowledge shares to learn from each other, both from a work and non-work perspective. We’ve developed a hybrid agency culture that embraces team camaraderie to build rapport, amongst team members located across the UK and in different countries, such as Romania, Italy, Spain and even South Africa!

Summary

The hybrid work model is an example of the “new normal” we must learn to navigate, but companies that adopt the model may find it beneficial in the long term. Experiencing the inner workings of the hybrid agency approach is a good start for getting a sense of how you can embrace some of the key aspects and benefits within your own teams. 

If you’re looking for agency support, partnering with a hybrid agency like Inbound FinTech can provide you with the benefits mentioned, including getting access to top talent and tools to help you meet your marketing needs and reach your growth goals. Learn more about the range of digital services we offer or get in touch with our team to discuss a potential partnership.

Inbound FinTech is an award-winning digital growth agency and Elite HubSpot Solutions Partner. Based in the UK but with a global team, our hybrid agency offers a wide range of digital services, from inbound marketing, SEO and lead generation to sales enablement, website development and integrations. We’d love to hear from you to learn about your business challenges and how we can support you.