No matter where you stand on the issue, remote work isn’t going anywhere. In fact, this installment in our series might just easily be called a “Factor that Has Already Reshaped Your Workforce.”
However, that was only round one. Remote work was thrust onto many organizations who were not prepared for it during the pandemic.
The reshaping that happens next is in how we respond to both the challenges and opportunities of remote work. Make no mistake, both are present, and both offer the chance to reshape your workforce into something stronger and more agile than it has ever been before.
In short, it isn’t worth trying to wrestle things back to the way they used to be, back to that “simpler time” when we all assumed commuting to work was the only option. Businesses and nonprofits who remain competitive and effective in the years to come will find a way to reckon with this paradigm shift and leverage it for growth.
The first reckoning we need to have is with why remote work unsettles us. The reason is simple but seismic. We lost the connectivity we felt being face-to-face in a workspace. Whether that unsettles you because of communication, community, or a sense of control you felt varies from person-to-person.
The keys to success in remote work lie in restoring human connections in a virtual environment. In a remote environment, we have to be more intentional than ever about nurturing and strengthening them.
In the following, we will share what we have observed by supporting human resources teams across the nation and pass on the best practices we have discovered along the way.
Challenge of Remote Work #1: Engagement
When you have a remote workforce, engagement becomes a huge challenge. You simply can’t communicate in the same way or gauge how well people are engaged in your work.
Zoom calls only aggravate the pain. People don’t engage with a camera the same way they do with people in a conference room, and it is easy to assume someone is bored or unengaged when they may be deep in thought about the conversation at hand. You’ve surely had moments where you wanted to reach into someone’s little box on a conference call, tap them on the shoulder, and tell them to fix their “Zoom Face.”
In fact, assumptions are at the heart of the challenges with engagement in a remote workforce. Because you don’t have the old cues you relied on to read employees, it is easy to assume that people are less productive than before or less engaged in your work.
And then, to make things even worse, teammates love to turn off the camera, leaving you with nothing but a disembodied voice to go on.
The way you meet this challenge is by reaching out. You need to be more intentional about tending to more than the work at hand. We sometimes forget how much team building happened at the water cooler or in the break room in our old paradigm. How do you create space for people to feel seen, heard, and respected as individuals?
Here are some action steps you can take to restore engagement with your remote team members.
- Create Space for Connection in Your Meetings. We all want to have effective meetings, but are you jumping right into the work or leaving a bit of time to connect and catch up? Can you schedule some meetings that are just for connection and fun?
- Play Some Games. This doesn’t have to be cheesy. We have had great results from using things like Jackbox games online or other high-quality experiences that allow for team building and fun.
- Protect and Preserve Your One-on-Ones. This is where you will win your biggest victories and where you will be reminded just how engaged and caring your team members truly are.
Informal moments of personal connection are hard to come by when working remotely, so build in the opportunity you need to ask things like, “How are you doing? What’s on your plate? How can I support you? What do you need to be successful?” Those types of conversations demonstrate authentic care and nurture bonds of openness and trust.
Challenge of Remote Work #2 – Assessing Productivity
Losing your in-person connection to team members brings up all kinds of concerns for management, most notably,
Is this person really working?
Without direct visibility, it is easy to wonder if an employee is using their time wisely, and let’s be honest, some of us have control issues more than others.
Doubts about productivity are a slippery slope that leads to all kinds of misunderstandings. So, here are some things you can do . . .
- Establish Clear Outcomes. It has never been more important for you to have clear, agreed-upon outcomes for work than when you are in a remote environment.
- Utilize Productivity Software. Task management tools do more than help you track productivity. They keep everyone on the same page. Deadlines are clear. Pathways are open to ask questions and reach out for help.
- Protect and Preserve Your One-on-Ones! You might be sensing a theme here, but one-on-one time is the only way to gain true clarity into an employee’s progress. Software only provides metrics. Let’s say a team member is behind on the dates in the management platform. What is the story behind that? You won’t know until you talk to someone, and it is too easy to forget how much they care and how much you trust them until you do.
One note of caution. It is critical to monitor the need to either upskill or reskill your workforce to adapt to new software and technology. Either because of age, skill sets, or other factors, many employees have trouble adapting to new platforms like Monday, Asana, or ClickUp, and training is essential both from an equity standpoint and for the effectiveness of your implementation.
Challenge of Remote Work #3 – Preventing Burnout
On the opposite end of the productivity issues lies burnout. Someone might be really productive, hitting or even exceeding their numbers, but they’re working all the time and they’re struggling with work-life balance.
At home, the guardrails that protect us from overworking and burning out in a normal workplace don’t exist. For people who love their work or care about it a great deal, it can be very hard to set healthy boundaries.
For those who reach burnout or are at risk, it is more important than ever to establish Employee Assistance Programs, but in terms of prevention, maybe you can guess what we suggest . . .
Protect and Preserve Your One-on-Ones!
This is your best venue for assessing the risk of burnout in staff members. Here, you are able to ask things like “How are you doing? How’s your workload?”
Then, you’ll be able to pick up on signals like, “I am a little stressed. I worked until nine o’clock last night.” You will gain information that empowers managers to say, “All right, let’s look at what’s on your plate. Can we delegate some of this for you? Can we push a few deadlines?”
Consistency is always the key with one-on-ones, consistency of both your schedule and a kind, compassionate approach. It is how you build and maintain the level of trust needed to really care for your team members’ well-being.
Embracing the Opportunities of Remote Work
So far, we have covered the critical challenges that require a response when managing a remote workforce, but there are incredible opportunities reshaping workforces nationwide as well.
- Access to a Wider Talent Pool. Remote work eliminates geographic barriers, allowing organizations to tap into talent pools from anywhere in the United States – or even the world. By broadening recruitment efforts beyond your local region, it becomes much easier to find the critical talent you need to grow.
- Increasing Productivity. For all of the concerns we noted above about productivity, studies have shown that remote workers tend to be more productive than their office-based counterparts. The flexibility offered by remote work allows individuals to optimize their working hours based on personal preferences and peak productivity times.
- Improved Work-Life Balance and Retention. Remote work also eliminates time spent commuting, offering employees the opportunity to achieve better work-life balance and resulting in increased job satisfaction.
- Catalyzing Innovation and Collaboration. Virtual communication tools enable seamless knowledge sharing and collaboration among team members, regardless of physical location. Virtual meetings, cloud storage, and collaborative platforms actually make it easier to foster a culture of cross-functional teamwork, idea exchange, and creative problem-solving.
Find the Roadmap for Reshaping Your Remote Workforce
At Xenium, we put more than 20 years of experience and the collective expertise of more than 80 HR professionals behind our clients’ workplace transformations, and one of the most urgent needs we address every day is the adaptation to remote work.
The pandemic caused organizations to scramble and find immediate solutions for their teams to work together. Now, businesses and nonprofits are still catching up to the aftermath. They are dealing with the need to streamline systems and reshape their workforce into a more optimized, efficient form.
Xenium creates custom HR, payroll, and benefits solutions for your business. We guide you every step of the way in creating a positive, productive workplace culture that takes great care of your people while attracting the best industry talent to your organization. Learn more about our custom HR support services at XeniumHR.com.