While the telecommuting trend is still going strong for many companies, a lot of large firms have modified or eliminated flexible work arrangements for employees. Most recently, IBM did away with its remote work policy, and in recent years HP, Yahoo!, Best Buy, Bank of America and Aetna have stopped or severely curtailed their remote job opportunities.
There are a variety of reasons why companies have decided to change their remote culture: it’s an easy way to reduce the size of a workforce, managers don’t trust employees are working while at home and it disrupts collaboration and company culture. However, telework reduces overhead costs and studies have shown workers tend to be more productive and often work more hours while working from home. Blame seems to fall to the unsuccessful employees, but we need to look at where the employers are falling short in making telework arrangements viable.
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Assess the employees. Telework does not suit everyone — some people are not self-directed or tech-savvy enough to work remotely. It also requires a great amount of trust between the employer and employee. Before allowing a person to work from home, perform an assessment. Review past performance appraisals. Create a structured behavioral interview with your human resources team to determine if this person is likely to be successful working on their own. Give your employee a one-month trial period to test the new arrangement and schedule an in-person meeting at the end of that time to discuss what worked and what didn’t and make adjustments.
Schedule weekly check-ins or meetings. While a formal meeting may not be necessary, make sure your remote employees are checking in weekly (or even once a day) with a status update or report. Design this yourself to make sure you are obtaining the information that you need so you know what they’ve accomplished and what work is in progress. Maintain your regular schedule of performance appraisals and keep them on the calendar.
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Measurable goals. In every organization, we are accustomed to giving performance goals to our staff. However, we do not always align them with a clear measurement system. So unless the goals are straightforward, no one is going to be able to reach them, whether working remotely or in the office. There are other benefits to having staff work in a remote setting, so you should think more broadly about how their location or additional work time without a commute helps your team and company. Here are some examples:
— Enhance your staff’s business development skills to grow existing work and attract new clients: Write three proposals in the next six months to increase knowledge of the business development process.
— Establish learning goals that the person can translate into strategy for the company: Enroll in a course to learn about social media engagement strategies in the next year.
— Expand outreach to new markets: Are there clients or partners that you’d like to reach out to in the geographic area where the person works? Create performance goals that include relationship-building in their community.
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Amplify your culture. The collaborative atmosphere and company culture are not necessarily lost when you have remote employees; it’s up to you as the leader to maintain them. Ask yourself these critical questions: Are you available to all of your staff? Do you take the time to listen to their concerns and meet with them one-on-one regularly? Do you schedule lunches or other events with your office-based employees to increase the feeling of being a part of a team? If you’re not already doing these things, start. If you think you have no time for it, think about all the time and emotional energy you expend when you lose staff. Fostering leadership and culture is important for all team members, whether in or out of the office.
The dynamics of a job have changed. Young workers expect telework options as part of a job offer and older workers need time in the day to bring kids to school or provide care to older parents. Companies need to create remote options that work. If you rescind these arrangements as an easy way to reduce the workforce, over time you are likely increasing your costs. If you chalk it up to poor performance, maybe the people performing remote work are simply not being given structured guidelines and measurable performance goals. These are not difficult things to fix. Yes, it takes time — some thought, planning and implementation to make it work. But in the end you will have loyal employees who will stay with you for the long term, reducing headaches and costs and maximizing productivity for you and your company.
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How to Bolster Your Remote Work Culture originally appeared on usnews.com
