COVID-19 has brought with it many problems for a lot of people, of course, there are the health issues, but as well as that there are the financial struggles, new safety measures and a huge impact on many businesses. As the pandemic has forced a lot of people to work from home, it has left employers worrying about their employees and how they are getting on unsupervised at home. In normal circumstances, companies would have established remote-work policies and conduct training in advance; however, this isn’t always possible, but there are some steps that managers can take to make sure they are getting the most out of their remote teams.
Understand the challenges
It’s important that managers understand what makes working from home difficult for everyone and this doesn’t just mean the reduction in communication or the distractions that come with working from home, it means understanding that your usually high-performing employees might experience a decline in their job performance and engagement when they begin working remotely – it doesn’t mean that this will last forever, but it’s important for bosses to expect changes. Then there is the fact that some people find the lack of face-to-face supervision and interaction detrimental; supervisors worry that their employees will not work as hard or as efficiently and many employees struggle with the fact they have less support on hand, and they don’t find the communication as easy as when they are in the office.
Make sure employees have everything they need
While your employees need to have their notes and access to documents, they really need to have a decent internet connection and the right equipment to do their job. If they don’t have this at home, then it is up to you to provide it. It might be worth getting a cheap VPS so that everyone can work through that and have a better performance. Don’t forget about any training your staff might need on systems or software so that they can work as smoothly as possible.
Agree on ways of working
It’s important to establish how you’re going to do this. How often do you want your employees to check-in, let them know how long you will take to get back to them with feedback. Basically, be clear about what you expect from your employees and what they can expect from you.
Talk regularly
If you talk regularly with your employees, then you can keep up to date on the day to day stuff. Continue to review short-term goals regularly and adjust them as you need to. Try to talk throughout the day just as you would in the office and then maintain your regular one to ones and team huddles as well. Also, make sure your team can always see your calendar so they know when they can contact you.
Share information
When you’re in the office, you share information. It might be a chat that has nothing to do with what you’re working on, but you never know where that conversation will lead, and it could end up being beneficial to your company. As you would normally, if you read an interesting article or get sent a funny video, share it with your colleagues just as you would have done in the office and encourage everyone else to do the same.
