Prior to the emergence of COVID-19, many organizational leaders were resistant to the concept of employees working from home exclusively or even partially. These leaders held firm as many within their organizations loathed going into the office to give “face-time” five days a week when they could work more productively remotely. But, what happens when remote work is suddenly thrust upon workplace leaders and employees without the luxury of having the appropriate tools, resources, and relationships to effectively manage working remotely? On the one hand, workplace leaders are challenged to keep their teams engaged, encouraged, and productive on an ongoing, long-term basis. On the other hand, employees may, in fact, struggle with the limited face-to-face communication, colleague interface and feedback, and guidance and support from leadership on a long-term and continuing basis. Here are six easy steps that your workplace leaders can take to effectively manage remote teams and keep employees engaged.
The quality of your remote work experience with your teams will be impacted by the type of virtual work collaboration platform that you use. While teleconferencing may be simpler, it is less than optimal for an interactive and collaborative work experience with your team. Emailing back and forth is also suboptimal, as it is time-consuming, and information tends to get lost in translation. Consider opting for a work platform that enables to video-conference, share and store documents, direct and instantly message team members, and host presentations. The platform that you select should be secure, functional, and reliable. Once you have made a final decision about your selected platform, stick to it. Constantly changing the work collaboration platform can cause confusion and delays.
In addition to having an updated company telework policy, leaders may want to develop a few additional ground rules that are tailored to their specific teams. A few suggestions are:
Back to business does not necessarily mean business as usual. It is important to adjust your expectations as a leader to fit the circumstances presented by sudden and imperfect work at home requirements. This does not mean that you should expect poor work quality or performance, but it does mean that expecting employees to maintain the same level of productivity and results that they produced in-office may be unrealistic. This is especially true if employees have limited technological and administrative capabilities at home. For example, as opposed to working with desktop computers, access to large copiers with printing, scanning, and faxing capabilities, and a closet full of office supplies, employees working remotely may be using small laptops, printing from small printers with limited capabilities, and trying to get by with a pack of pens and a highlighter. It is important to keep these factors in mind when assigning work and evaluating the work that you receive. This may also be a good time to assign those solo projects that needed completion, but were hard to get to in-office due to competing priorities and regular interruptions.
Open, fluid, and regular communication is key for managing a remote workforce.
One-on-One video-conference meetings at the beginning of the workweek are a great way to connect with each of your team members individually on their assignments, productivity, and general work well-being. If you are managing several employees with different work assignments, create a notebook for each employee and label it accordingly. Have it with you during each one-on-one conference, write down each assignment or project that the employee is working on, and the date that the assignment was made and when it is due. Make sure you recap your list to the employee at the end of the conference. During the next one-on-one, you should have your employee-specific notebook and use it as your guide through the meeting. You should note updates, when items are completed, or when items are overdue. A consistently maintained notebook can also serve as a guide and refresher when you are putting together performance appraisals for your remote team. Also, consider taking the opportunity during your one-on-one meetings to occasionally solicit feedback about work assignments and your leadership in the remote setting. This may help you identify ways to make adjustments that enable a more positive, collaborative, and productive remote work experience.
Fridays symbolize completion and usually brings a sense of accomplishment to the week – TGIF! We Made it! Thus, Fridays are usually more spirited in the office. Some offices even have casual dress or provide bagels or pastries to employees on Fridays. Consider scheduling time on Fridays to hold a virtual team coffee chat or brown-bag lunch to reflect on the week’s challenges or accomplishments, show employee appreciation, and encourage team building. Some employers are having lunch delivered to their team members as a show of appreciation. For after-work hours fun, consider hosting a virtual social hour or game night with your team.
