Working From Home (Page 2)

Working From Home requires different type of leadership and lots of different routines and practices

In: Change, Culture, Teams, Working From Home

Article from Gallup by Jim Harter, published 1st May 2020 This article focuses on three key areas In three weeks, the percentage of US remote workers jumped from 31% to 62% Returning employees will be influenced by many factors Your remote work policies and decisions will affect employee engagement A key Gallup Research finding has been that more than half those surveyed would prefer to continue working remotely as much as possible once restrictions are lifted. There is a complex relationship between ‘remote work’ and ’employee engagement’. Employers with remote work options have the highest employee engagement. “This does not mean that high or low engagement is guaranteed in any situation. The right approach to performance development is key to optimising the employee experience, performance and wellbeing, in all situations.” https://www.gallup.com/workplace/309620/coronavirus-change-next-normal-workplace.aspxContinue Reading

In: Culture, Effective Communication, Resilience, Working From Home

Article from Inc. By Suzanne Lucas. Published 12th May 2020 “Working from home can cause a different kind of burnout. One where you don’t know when work begins and ends, and where you never really have any time off. You’re always at the office, so therefore you are always working.” This article provides some practical advice for managers on how to be supportive. It’s almost never an emergency, so don’t play that card unless it really is. Maintain an office like schedule – make it clear what expectations are and that employees are not expected to respond to messages at all hours day and night. Communicate frequently to keep everyone up to date – its much less stressful to know what is going on than to sit and wonder what is coming next. Read the whole article here: https://www.inc.com/suzanne-lucas/your-work-from-home-employees-are-burning-out-you-can-help.htmlContinue Reading

In: Change, Collaboration Technology, Effective Communication, Virtual Teams, Working From Home

Article from HBR by Mark Mortensen & Constance Noonan Hadley, Published May 22, 2020 Before CoVID-19 there was no playbook on how to transition a team to 100% virtual (in a matter of days), no one has ever done anything like this before. Yet this year its been done by companies all over the world and some found their Business Continuity Planning (BCP) had some gaps, some teams and individuals have found the transition easy and successful other found it extremely hard. This article points out that Teamwork has Gotten Harder – having a sense of the connectedness across teams is crucial. “Teams that have unclear missions, inconsistent social norms, low common identity, unclear roles and unstable membership – are recipe for team disasters.” The result a lack of productivity, low levels of engagement and frustration. Mark & Constance offer some guidance. Start with Triage – identify the critical teamContinue Reading

In: Change, Culture, Human Capital, Working From Home

Increasing organisational resilience in the face of CoVID-19. A perspectives piece from Deloitte providing insights for organisations to explore new ways of working. The Deloitte team describe a series of actions that organisations can take to enable resilience and maintain virtual business operations. Firstly respond to the virus. This requires two approaches, a Human Centred Response and a Organisational Preparedness response.Human Centred is to engage with stakeholders creating tailored solutions that meet specific needs of each impacted group. Promote virtual work, use tools that support collaboration productivity and culture continuity. Own the narrative through strong and consistent communication. Increase support for help desks, that help those with different levels of digital fluency. Drive customer communications, create or enhance customer support channels to manage and overcome potential temporary disruptions. Organisational Preparedness (or Crisis Management) should Institute a Central Response Team, Monitor Regulatory and Health Updates, Assess Market and Financial Impacts andContinue Reading

fear to return to the office

In: Leadership, Teams, Working From Home

No matter what governments might think, you cannot just open the economy by press release and policy. Citizens need to feel safe in going about their usual day to day activities and its possible that many people including your employees are not there yet. In this article from Inc.com Magazine Managing Editor, Lindsay Blake talks to Peter Newell (CEO of Innovation and Problem Solving company BMNT) about how leaders might tackle this challenge. You can’t manage people’s fears but you can support them. Everyone’s situation and individual concerns and fears are different. Go deep on what returning to work looks like and all of its ramifications. Understand how people get to work including the implications of public transport. How will your company handle face to face meetings? What about employees with children that need to be monitored for home schooling? Directly address the stress your employees are going through. HaveContinue Reading

return to the office

In: Change, Leadership, Teams, Working From Home

There are lots of people starting to talk about the new normal, how they are planning to return to the workplace and reach the new normal safely. They talk about the planning, the series of steps required to reach the stable operating model. Many of these people are also looking to return to some relatable version of the past working environment. Others are seeking to balance the clear gains achieved with a remote workforce, many have seen a productivity shift that they don’t want to lose. Given all this the next step for business is not a phase at all, it will be open ended rather than a fixed plan. A better mental model is to think about developing a new “muscle”: an enterprise wide ability to absorb uncertainty and incorporate lessons into the operating model quickly. Read more of this excellent article from McKinsey and written by Mihir Mysore, BobContinue Reading

Personal Space

In: Teams, Working From Home

Vy Luu explores how different personal space is when we are all working from home. It requires a kind of boundary setting, learning the skills to respect boundaries across remote teams and a different kind of collaboration. She outlines four concepts1. Personal Space Zones2. Protecting our Space Virtually3. How to ask for Online Personal Space4. How to show respect for Virtual Space of Others at work You can (and you should) read the whole article here on Medium in the ‘Better Humans’ blog. https://medium.com/better-humans/navigating-personal-space-in-todays-virtual-environment-9dcd62028456Continue Reading