The coronavirus pandemic has forced everyone to make a hurried and drastic transition to the way they work. Everyone has taken work from home differently. Some have seen it as a respite; for others, it has created even greater demands, whilst many continue to adjust gradually. Having said that, leaders are the people who can make this transition of organisation smoother and keep the productivity of employees in check. Here are five tips that leaders can use to manage remote teams better.
1. Support from the CXOs
Team leaders and project managers need the help of executives. A culture encouraging flexible work should start with the CEO even as this outbreak ends. In the presence of support from business owners and CEOs, leaders will lead remote working teams with more effect.
Let’s take some examples of companies without executive support before this pandemic — Yahoo and Best Buy. Both of these organisations have publicised the improvement in productivity and morale gains they experienced when they first rolled out work-from-home policies. Several other small to large businesses have found work from home to be cost-effective with an increase in job satisfaction.
2. Agility and adaptability
Some research studies have stated that every great leader has these six competencies: relationship building, communication, feedback delivery, team motivation, and measurement by performance. Furthermore, the studies also say that leaders who can quickly adapt to new transitions are better armed to have a productive team. Some studies that were done between the remote manager and employee to see their relationship deemed that new leadership skills and attitude and better communication methods are critical to employee health and well-being along with their workplace productivity. Managers who are not yet competent in these new remote working team management skills may miss the expected gains from this new transition.
3. Investment in HR
Investment in human resources and people and culture teams can give businesses unimaginable returns, some even beyond the monetary gains. The human resource department is important to the success of remote work practices. From all companies, regardless of type and size, partaking in work from home, a commitment to cultural change is expected. HR managers and compliance officers are required not only to be part of implementing work from home policies and monitoring outcomes with but they are also responsible for giving proper training to the employees regarding the best work from policies, clearly stating the policies and the changes in them. This will ensure smooth day-to-day operations and help a leader to manage remote teams better.
4. Performance management
Companies are most likely to have not offered leaders adequate training as to how to gauge the performance of remote teams and how to manage remote workers. A good training module is necessary to allow leaders to measure and as well as monitor performance. Training will target areas that lessen the impact of leadership and rectify them. Workplace compliance online courses can be a great tool for this matter. We have created a publicly available free library of courses that can help businesses manage remote teams better.
5. Shift in focus
Another important thing that leaders need to understand and adapt to is the fact that things will not be in the exact manner that they were while everyone is in one physical space. And this is not necessarily a bad thing. Leaders now have to shift their focus from the journey to the outcome. They should emphasise if the work is done and the quality of it rather than how it is done. Leaders need to be lenient and also respect the personal space of the employees working from home.
Sentrient is a workplace compliance management system, and to help businesses in hard times, we have created online compliance courses that take only 10 – 15 minutes to finish.
Find all the freely available courses here.
For more information, call 1300 040 589 or mail us at info@sentrient.com.au.
