Three variables to help leaders manage their teams’ wellbeing in a remote-working world

Think back a couple of years. What did your daily working routine look like? Probably something like this. 

You’d get up early, put on your office gear and set off on your commute by car, train or some other mode of transport. Pick up a coffee and a bite of breakfast from a deli near work. Then have a chat with a couple of colleagues before sitting down, logging on and starting a full day’s work.

Fast-forward to today, and the odds are your routine is a little different. Those work clothes have likely been hanging in the wardrobe for months. And your commute probably consists of walking from your bed to the desk, with stop-offs in between the bathroom and kitchen. Your working pattern may also have changed, especially if you have young children you’re trying to home-school.

Put simply, where and how we work has changed beyond recognition. But the impact of the sudden switch to home-working affects goes far further and wider. It also fundamentally alters team dynamics. And to continue to manage teams effectively, leaders must respond to the resulting changes.

What does this involve? In my professional experience and from my previous academic research, there are three variables that have the greatest impact on employees’ morale and engagement. Smart team leaders should be tracking all three – enabling them to act before a nascent issue becomes a significant problem. However, the added complication today is that each variable can be negatively impacted by the move to home-working.

The first variable is role overload. In simple terms, this is when people have too much on their plate: a lot to do but too little time to do it, often resulting in them routinely working long hours. When working remotely with no need to commute home, it’s all too easy to simply keep on working into the evening, perhaps without even realizing it.

Second, role ambiguity. This is where people are not quite sure what they’re supposed to be doing, perhaps because their role or reporting lines have changed. Maybe before the pandemic they were overseeing a team physically collocated in one place. But how does this work in a remote world? How closely can they monitor people digitally without overstepping the line to becoming intrusive?

The third variable is role conflict. This is where different roles and responsibilities in someone’s life start to collide. Such as their roles as a dedicated employee prepared to go the extra mile for their company, and as a parent who wants to get home at a reasonable time to see their children. You might think working from home makes these conflicts easier to resolve. But, as we all know from experience, the real effect can be to blur the previously clear division between work and home life, making role conflicts even harder. 

The pandemic means the times we’re living and working in are stressful by definition. But when these three variables start to head the wrong way, the stress needle moves up several more notches. If this happens, it’s vital to respond. So, if you’re seeing individuals with role overload, can you share out the workload differently or provide more support? If the problem’s role ambiguity, can you give people greater clarity about what’s expected of them? Or if it’s role conflict, can you help people improve their work-life balance?

While leaders are looking to manage these three variables, there’s a fourth factor that can help. The traditional term for it is “perceived organizational support”. But whatever you call it, it comes down to the fact that if someone believes their organization is supportive of them, the positive effect on their wellbeing is the same as if the organization really is supportive.

And the biggest influence on whether someone believes their organization is supportive? Their direct supervisor. So, if you as a team leader are supportive of your people, they’ll develop a view that your organization is supportive – and that will improve your ability to mitigate their stress level. Because they feel that if they need support, it will be there for them. Which actually makes them less likely to need it.

But if you – or your organization – do find one or more of the variables moving in the wrong direction, what should you do? On this question there’s some great guidance in our recent thought leadership on helping employees feel “net better off” in public services. In it we highlight the six key employee needs that employers must meet to build trust with their workers. And guess what: only one of those needs is financial.

For team leaders, the message is clear. Teams that are managed effectively produce the best results. And a key part of effective management is keeping team members’ stress levels low – wherever and whenever they’re working. Lockdowns and home-working haven’t changed these basic facts. But they have made it even more important to watch out for the warning-signs – and ensure the people you lead feel supported in what they do.