If you or team members are interested in working at home, this quick read with tips and suggestions may help you.
What’s Up with the Current “Return to the Office” Trend?
Over the past eighteen years, I was fortunate to be in jobs where I was able to work from a home office. The companies with whom I worked, and the managers I reported to, fully supported Working at Home (WAH) as an acceptable work option for me and my teams. While most of my team members and colleagues took advantage of flexible work arrangements, there were a few that did not. Those that did not work remotely had valid reasons. Some employees simply preferred to go into an office. Whole for others, it was apparent that working at home was not a good match for them personally or because their specific job roles and responsibilities needed to be performed at a set location.
Now that we are past the pandemic, which forced many companies into using remote work operations, I must admit I am surprised to see the growing number of calls by corporate leaders for everyone in their company or organization to get back into the office. I guess some are choosing to ignore the data that suggests, in general, that companies who support alternative work arrangements find that employees work longer hours, see an overall increase in productivity, realize reduced real estate expenses, and benefit from increased employee satisfaction levels. Perhaps for these companies, the listed benefits are outweighed by the fear of losing control, or there is an overriding lack of trust between management and employees. For others, maybe it is the belief that teamwork and collaboration can only be done in person and when team members are physically near each other.
What I would say to these executives and decision makers, and to any manager (or employee) who has questions and concerns about working remotely, is that yes, WAH is not appropriate for every job, nor is it appropriate for every person. In my experience, I have had team members who were viable candidates to work from home, but they were in a job where that was not possible. Similarly, I have had jobs on my teams that could be done anywhere but had employees in those jobs that were not capable yet of working independently, or where we could not properly get their physical space or home arrangement to the point where they could be productive. So, given the realities of today’s corporate challenges in terms of profitability, expense management, employee engagement, and staffing and retention to name a few, what can we do to help managers and employees navigate through this alternative work arrangement challenge?
Making Working-at-Home Work
If you do find yourself in a situation where alternative work arrangements will even be considered, it is important to have a plan that addresses the needs of the business, the concerns and expectations of management, the roles and responsibilities of the position involved, and the individual performing the work. The purpose of the plan is to ensure that all involved are clear on expectations and with the understanding that any WAH arrangement will be reviewed periodically and can be modified as conditions and results change.
For those companies and organizations willing to implement and support alternative work arrangements, here is a brief list of Do’s and Don’ts to keep in mind for managers and employees. Of course, this is not a complete list, but some that I think are most important, or favorites that have worked for me.
For Managers:
If everyone is online and signed-in, it actually might be easier and quicker for you to reach your employees, and for them to reach you, than if you were all in an office.
Establish WAH standards for everyone. Choose and use a common platform for virtual meetings, email, instant messenger, etc. Familiarity breeds comfortability; comfortability breeds confidence; confidence breeds competence.
Do continue to hold regular 1-on-1 and team meetings. When teams are not co-located, it’s better to over communicate. Don’t let a WAH operation be an excuse for anyone being unreachable.
When using Zoom, MS Teams, etc., for 1-on-1s with direct reports and small team meetings, encourage everyone to have their cameras on – yourself included!
Be patient with WAH employee arrangements. Not everyone gets it right the first time and not everyone has the home space and technology for a perfect home office.
You may need to rethink your approach to assessing and determining team member productivity. Hopefully, you have 21st Century practices for tracking, monitoring, and reporting performance and productivity.
Be prompt in responding to emails, IMs, calls, etc. Model the behavior you expect and want from your team members.
Whether you work remotely or not, remember to encourage all employees – both home based, and office based – to participate in meetings and other team activities. Try to avoid anyone feeling invisible based on their work location.
Don’t allow long email chains to become the tool for solving problems and disagreements amongst the team. After 3 passes of an email, I encourage everyone involved to stop and get on the phone.
Remember as a manager, even though you are remote from your team, what you do and don’t do as their manager has the biggest impact and influence on how they feel about work.
For Employees:
Take the initiative and create a personal WAH Agreement (hopefully using a standard company approved format and template) and review it with your manager for their input and approval.
Set up your home office with dedicated and/or designated space and in a way to reduce distractions.
Take breaks and pace yourself. Manage and stick to start/end times.
Know when to shut down. When there’s no train or bus to catch, or rush hour to avoid, it is easy to get caught up in work and spend a few extra hours on a task that is important to you. Remember, data suggest that employees who work from home typically work longer hours. Work-life balance is important too.
Don’t use WAH as a substitute for childcare. While cute initially, babies and children in meetings and conference calls are disruptive.
Keep some kind of “Go to work” regime…a habit or method that helps you mentally be at work or be at home.
Don’t disappear (virtually). When you are working, always be available, and responsive to your manager, teammates, and colleagues.
Have a family meeting to discuss your WAH needs and expectations and what is OK/Not OK to do when you are working.
For Everyone:
Do know your company policy and adhere to it regarding expense reimbursements, equipment, home office supplies, being online, etc.
Do understand that long term WAH can be detrimental to career plans. Out of sight/out of mind can be a realistic concern and can have an impact on how others see you.
Don’t waste time on employee efforts to get tax credits or financial credits for working at home. The savings employees receive in terms of commute time, clothes and gas money will more than make up for the hassles of achieving any potential tax benefits.
Include in your meetings a discussion on how things are going. Be attentive to anyone who might be having challenges with any aspect of the WAH operation. When these issues are raised openly, use them for problem solving by the group!
Consider training that supports WAH operations. Courses are available on how to manage and work remotely as well as how to effectively give virtual presentations. For many companies and organizations, WAH is still new and represents a change. Why not train everyone involved to help make it successful?
A Few Words About WAH Supporting Technology
In addition to having supporting managers and responsible team members, one of the biggest enablers that I felt contributed to our successful WAH operation had to do with our office technology. Today, companies are adamant about using tools (yours or theirs), that ensure data privacy and network security. Supporting and adhering to these requirements are essential if you want the much-needed support from leadership and anyone with IT responsibilities. Fortunately, and over time, our teams were able to stay connected constantly when working outside the traditional office and communicate securely via phone, email, instant messenger, and video and with access to files stored on the company network.
Next Steps
To move your idea forward about implementing a WAH operation, or even to counter the come-back-to-the-office trend, you could start by suggesting the topic as an agenda item for a future meeting. If it sounds like your leadership or team would support a discussion, do some research, and be prepared to share or facilitate what you see as the benefits, drawbacks, and other considerations for the team to support a work at home operation.
In a future article, I’ll post a template for a Work at Home Agreement that anyone could use as a format to get the process started.
Ken Radziwanowski
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