Check out our Operational Excellence top tips to thrive in remote working

How many of us thought we’d end up in the position that we would be digitally transforming our businesses to have the majority of our work forces set up for remote working…not many, but here we are. And, with the anticipation of the government looking to extend isolation by another 3 weeks, working from home looks set to continue being the norm for many of us. We thought now was an ideal time to dig into our Operational Excellence Toolkit and share some simple Top Tips to help you thrive rather than survive.

1.      Be more visible

Poor communication is one of the key reasons remote working can sometimes be unproductive, so getting this right could help you to achieve great business results, as well as helping with your team’s mental well-being. Being visible, particularly for certain communication activities is a really important step to making virtual working a success. For team talks and planning meetings a video conference works best, as they not only allow you to pick up on body language, but are also great for improving team morale – seeing someone happy is infectious. 

Get in touch if you’d like some activities to do with your team over video conference to improve communication.

2.      Nail your questioning

At first, it often seems much harder than normal to have engagement over phone or video conference, but so often you can be the architect of your own downfall. Preparing your questions can be a great way to ensure you maximise the engagement, with open questions working best to extract more detailed answers. It can also help to role model the type of response you’re looking for, so volunteering to go first can often be a great way to show your team.

Get in touch for some guidance on leading conversations and question styles

3.      Reach for the action plan

When switching to a new way of working, it’s easy to forget simple things that have made office life a success. Performance meetings often turn to catch up chats and daily actions are often forgot about by the next time you talk. A simple tool to ensure you continue to progress with your goals is to create an easy to use digital action plan or performance board that is accessible to all. It’s the perfect way to track progress and as long as the actions are well written, enables those not in attendance to quickly understand what is being worked on and by who.

Get in touch for some examples of virtual performance boards or meeting structures.

4.      Refine targets, don’t just scrap them

Another common mistake when managing from afar is to make existing targets redundant and ‘go with the flow’ when considering what performance can be expected. It’s really important to remember why those targets exist, as there will often be links to key Customer or Business objectives and not focusing on them will usually just result in moving the problem to another day. A quick and easy way to set some new targets is to see how your team are performing and allow top performers to share their best practice approach with lower performers. If you’re planning on remote working more permanently, best practices should be documented to align ways of working.

Get in touch for some support on setting targets.

5.      Feedback, Feedback, Feedback

Businesses that learn the quickest tend to be the most successful in the long run, so make sure you’re regularly reaching out to the team to understand what’s working and what could be improved. Not only does this show you’re open to doing things differently, it’ll also maximise engagement and move the pressure to improve from you to your team.

Get in touch for some guidance on feedback techniques.

Just remember, this situation is new to us all, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself and just try and keep an open mind to giving things a go. We have a library full of activities and templates to help bring this to life.

If you’d like any support with making remote working a success, please get in touch at [email protected].

Rebekah