The Manager's Guide to Working From Home
Gabrielle Bosché
The Purpose Factor? Discovery System, Taught to the U.S. Military is Helping Corporate Leaders & Entrepreneurs Step Into Their Exact Purpose | 2x TEDx Speaker | Bestselling Author
With more people working from home than ever, you need to know how to get the most from your remote workforce.
That means equipping them with the skills, strategies, and schedules to keep things moving.
1. Understand their situation.
Many of your employees will be taking care of their kids and loved ones while working from home. That means more responsibility, more distraction, and more frustration for your employees. (Not to mention the added challenges it puts on managers!).
So what do you do? First, find out what their current situation is. Are they watching their kids? Do they need to set up a "quiet space" in their home to get work done? How is their mental state?
Consider setting up a support system amongst employees. Many companies are helping employees get access to essentials (like toilet paper and formula) so they can focus on their work.
Show your employees that you see them and empathize with them. It is essential to getting the most out of them today and keep them tomorrow.
2. Set clear expectations.
Not everyone is cut out for working from home. Some employees are more easily distracted than others and need distance between their personal and professional lives to be productive. Others thrive working from their home office. Check-in with your employees weekly to make sure they have the resources at home to get their work done.
Be clear with your expectations at the outset of every workday. This should include what projects you expect to be done at the end of each day (and be realistic, especially at the beginning) as well as your feedback on how they are working, communicating, and delivering on the previous day's expectations.
Help your employees set expectations for themselves as well. This will help them take responsibility for their work product.
3. Have dedicated work hours.
Parents or employees with caretaking responsibilities may not be able to work the same work shifts as other employees. Consider a core set of"essential hours" that all employees must be online and working together. This is when you do your conference calls, send out essential emails, and focus group projects.
If your employees have other responsibilities during their regular work hours, they are trusted to get the work done at other times throughout the day. By adopting a more flexible work schedule, you show your employees that you respect their priorities are trust them to get the work done with excellence how they see fit.
The BIG takeaway? Employees working from home takes intentional leadership. Your employees can be just as effective when working from home when they are set up for success.
Psychologist ~ Working closely with digital marketing founders so they can thrive in every aspect of business and life.
1 年Thanks for sharing these helpful tips, Gabrielle! As a clinical psychologist for founders and CEOs, I often see the importance of setting clear expectations and having dedicated work hours to maintain productivity when working from home. Something that I'd like to add is that working from home can lead to long hours of work without interruptions, so I always encourage managers and entrepreneurs to highlight the importance of taking breaks, even going for a quick 10-minute walk. This is a great way to improve cognitive function and creativity, leading to better decision-making and problem-solving skills. So to all the managers out there: don't forget to encourage your remote workforce to take breaks and get moving throughout the day! And don't forget to set the example by doing the same :D