One outcome of the COVID-19 virus is that more and more companies are asking people to work from home. We don’t know the exact number, but approximately 26 million people were working remotely before the COVID-19 crisis. That number has only increased … by a lot.
Your new remote workforce is used to being in the office and many of their supervisors and managers don’t know exactly how to lead in this environment.
Here are six ideas to help your team be more effective as they work from home in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
- Keep them and encourage them to keep themselves safe. If you do nothing else, stressing that you want your team and their loved ones to stay safe is crucial … not just for your business but for the world.
There are people who will fill the stress of not having enough money. There are others who feel the need to put themselves at risk for the job. Do everything you can to alleviate that obligation or fear. It is the right thing to do, and it will earn the trust you need from your team.
- Be more flexible and patient. There are going to be some glitches as everyone adapts to the new reality.
Some of the challenges will be very practical.
Having high speed internet capability in your home doesn’t mean that the connections will be consistent. Workspaces are probably being carved out on kitchen tables, sofas, or in spare corners.
You are possibly hearing children in the background, and your team members might be juggling their work with ensuring that their children are completing their school work.
This doesn’t mean that you can’t and shouldn’t expect the work to get done, but you should expect that some things might take longer than they would if the individual was in the office.
One way to manage that is to ask the individual to confirm that they can meet any deadlines you have set and establish open communication to address times when those can’t be met.
- Set ground rules and expectations up front.
The routines and patterns for what, how, and when things happen are different today. If it’s important that people be available at specific hours, make sure that everyone understands those times.
Make sure to build in ground rules for involving others in communication, when it is and isn’t okay to call, letting you and team members know if there is an emergency, and basically anything else that you think might come up.
If your organization has policies and guidelines for working from home, consult those. But remember, a few of the standard things like space and equipment requirements might need adjustment in a crisis.
- Manage results not activities.
This crisis could be just what you need if you have the tendency to micromanage. There will be some activities that you identify and agree on in your ground rules, but much of your focus will be on the results. You won’t necessarily know how the person is spending every minute of every day. You can, however, determine if they are producing the result you want.
- Set aside even more time for feedback, and make it video if at all possible.
There are lots of options for creating digital face-to-face connection. Find one that works, and use it. The best managers spend 25 to 30 minutes per day coaching and providing feedback to each of their team members, and being remote is not an excuse to cut back. If anything, you should have even more connection.
Feedback and coaching sessions should cover priorities, progress toward results, challenges the employee might be facing, and an update on what’s happening in the organization. Working remotely can create feelings of isolation even it done on a regular basis. The transition from being aware of everything that’s happening to being on digital island is a challenge that you should help your team overcome.
- Create social connections.
Research by Dr. Matthew Lieberman, Director of the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at UCLA Department of Psychology shows that humans have a biological need to connect. Being more social makes us smarter, more productive, and happier.
People will miss the casual conversations in the break room or checking in on how the weekend went with co-workers. Working from home in a crisis just amplifies that need.
Create fun, social interactions. Schedule a watch party on You Tube. Have a virtual happy hour or group lunch. Start a book club or binge watch club. Have meals delivered to everyone at their home and then hold your regular recognition luncheon.
The chances are good that many of your team had already hoped that they could work remotely more often. This crisis is showing how you can and what you need to learn to be even more effective. Don’t waste the opportunity by being ineffective as you lead your new remote team.
Randy Pennington is an award-winning author, speaker, and leading authority on helping organizations achieve positive results in a world of accelerating change. To bring Randy to your organization or event, visit www.penningtongroup.com , email info@penningtongroup.com, or call 972.980.9857.
