We will all have our own challenges when remote working.
Managing individual team members performance well, while they work remotely at home or elsewhere is a challenge better addressed once you understand your and their working preferences. Even before Covid-19 impacted on our working practices, the Office for National Statistics projected that 50% of the workforce was at some point going to work remotely in 2020. In the coming months and years, how you lead and manage in a remote working environment is going to be an important factor in the success of teams and organisations.
Good remote performance management is a requirement of senior leaders, not only to help your people achieve their best work, but also to ensure they don’t feel isolated. That’s why it’s critical to make sure existing business processes and support are tailored to the individual. It’s no secret that the number of remote workers is on the rise due to better technology, globalisation, and changing workplace culture.
We at Berrison have found that with the right tools and coaching you can tailor your approach to meet existing business needs and support the individual.
Our coaching and programmes focus on:
While there are clear advantages to working from home, remote working also needs careful management to ensure your employees don’t become disengaged or demotivated. Don’t assume that every employee has the same potential to excel in a remote working environment. Although our programme was initially designed for people whose role expects them to work remotely, we recognise that many people are forced to work from home during the Covid-19 lock down.
So, we must acknowledge that for many people during this difficult time working at home could be impossible or unbearable, and the need to develop resilience practices is more important than ever. The recent BBC radio ‘In Business’ programme entitled ‘Working From Home’ concluded that we will see an explosion in loneliness and depression as a result of this enforced isolation, and in an early study by Prof Stephen Bevan into lock down home working, found evidence that, just 2 weeks into isolation, there was an elevated risk of mild to moderate mental health problems.
A key way to support your workforce to be flexible, healthy, effective, and productive while remote working is by using tools and coaching resources like psychometric profiles. The coaching approach the Berrison team use helps you to better understand both your own and your team’s working preferences while developing a coaching culture within your leadership style, as well as working with individuals and teams to develop resilience practices.
Ongoing Support:The process of regular ongoing support is easily forgotten or overlooked. However, in a recent study by, Stephen Bevan he discovered that those remote workers who had regular contact with their direct boss were less likely to report mental health problems. Balancing and developing the best methods to do this for your people is a discipline we can help you with.
Working Preferences:Leaders and managers need to recognise their peoples different working preferences, i.e. how they deal with failure, how they are motivated, prefer to be managed, communicate with others and judge success. We use psychometric assessment tools that provide manager reports on how to communicate with, motivate and manage each employee, as well as employee reports with helpful insights into how they help themselves.
Resilience Practices:Our ability to adapt and bounce back when things don’t go as planned is more important when we are isolated from colleagues and managers. The Berrison team are here to help you build awareness and then the ability to develop mindsets and skills to tackle challenges, commitments and personal events with improved mental fitness. Although resilience is a very personal thing that may not be a widely shared between all team members it’s vital leaders not only acknowledge its importance for their team’s mental health, but also for long term career progression and organisational wellbeing.
Performance Management:We know it’s a real challenge to set clear expectations and encourage accountability when so much of our workload is inter-dependant. Nicholas Bloom, Prof of Economics at Standford University, suggests that the lack of ability to group think and interact the way we do face to face will have a long-term impact on companies’ growth, because there’s no ‘Investment in Intangible Capital’, (Innovation, Skills, Training etc). It is important to revisit how we agree what success looks like even for those who are used to working remotely, perhaps even attempting to predict and address ways to invest in intangible capital with new methods.
By Stuart Mander – Senior consultant at Berrison Ltd
If you would like to know more about how Berrison can help, please contact us: connect@berrison.com
