Staying Visible When You are WFM, But your team is in the Office !!!

Prior to 2020, the work from home was handled differently in different IT organizations. Some were flexible and provided options to their employees, while others had a punching mechanism to track time spent in office including breaks. The year 2020 changed all that and now IT organizations and their clients are comfortable with professionals working from home. As we get ready to enter a new normal, we are hearing the strategy & approach of multiple organizations in terms of allowing work from home. It is also evident from the numerous surveys that there is no one single consensus. And while organizations would have an initial approach, most of these may change over a period of time – driven by cost factors, employees motivation, attrition & acquisition, Vaccination status (self & family), client requirements including data security & confidentiality aspects, Impact to productivity, innovation & team work, technology availability & maturity of the organization, delivery model & phase of the project, experience of the employee and ?finally leadership & employee preferences; one thing is clear that we are going to have a Hybrid Workplace i.e. some professionals working from home, others from office and many others partially at home / office.

From an employee’s perspective, it will be challenging to manage your personal brand when some of your colleagues are in office? So how can you stay visible from home?

One is to Maximise your physical visibility. Where ever possible, it is good to visit the office occasionally to meet with colleagues and particularly with new joinees where a new relationship is building. A face to a name is very important to build relationships. Ensure you know your team’s vacation plan so you do not end up in office on a day when the most important stakeholder is not available. If there are Team building activities, it is a good day to be in office. Phases of the project or any specific activity which requires physical presence is also a good day to drop in. Plan your day in office in advance – lighter on meetings so you can have your share of water-cooler conversations, one on ones with your seniors and friendly conversations with peers.

In the meetings, keep your camera on. Obviously that also means, your background must be professional & well lit up and you need to dress up. It is also important to be attentive – both in intention & in perception. Don’t multi-task. Be participative, one of my mentors use to suggest that if you are not speaking at least 2 times in a 45 min meeting then you should not have been on that call. If you are remote in a Hybrid workplace set up, I would assume that number should be higher. In fact, the face time in meetings is one’s best opportunity to mitigate the loss of it, if one was in office.

Second, of course is to focus on you Communication. You may need to communicate more frequently with your seniors, peers as well as juniors on both project work and otherwise. If these communications are on phone or in writing, pay special attention as you can not witness the body language either during the communication or afterwards. Remember, communication is as measured at the listener’s ear and not at the speaker’s mouth, i.e. perceived intent is what matters than the intended intent.

Convert your transactional communications to opportunities to build relationships. At office, one gets an advantage of connecting during elevator rides, cafetaria or coffee breaks, and talk socially. For remote employees, this needs to happen at the start of a phone call or towards the end of it. One must also volunteer fun meetings / virtual hang-outs / informal chat groups etc to get more social and avoid interactions being just transactional.

Finally communication with your boss need to be strong. Goals & Objectives, Tasks planned, Tasks completed, and availability times / vacation times need to be known to both you & your boss. Regular communication on your accomplishments, specifically where your boss is not directly involved (in a matrix organization, for example) is important. You can also reinforce your commitments to remind him / her during delivery of the outcomes.

Thirdly, ensure you are easy to approach. Colleagues in office have the advantage of walking to your desk, so you need to be easy to connect too. Your peers must automatically reach out to you for specific areas of your expertise – be it on phone, messaging platform or email. Your responsiveness and willingness to partner will motivate them to continually work with you collaboratively. Ensure the technology is an enabler and you are well equipped to use the collaborative tools, platforms to your advantage.

Finally, using the recognition levers to appreciate your colleagues is important. Recognition is not always from senior to junior. More and more organizations are moving to the next level of recognition allowing peer & manager appreciation as well and can include public acknowledgement, token appreciations, development opportunities, social eminence opportunities & low cost perks.

Please do add further suggestions on what you think will help employees who work from home in a Hybrid workplace.