Remote Working: Trust, collaboration, technology. Just requires more discipline. Let me share with you the work we created in the Tele-Work Volunteer Disruption Group at Yildiz Holding. Thanks to Ege Bakis
I know this is a guide you can utilize to start Tele-Work
1.What must Leaders do? 2.What is the role of HR? 3.Tools and Processes
1. Leaders
All leaders (from the CEO to the frontline manager) are key to succeed for this important transformation. They should start by reviewing and embracing change management practices.
· Must evolve their strategies for managing both people and technology in a distributed workforce.
· Double down on good leadership skills including establishing clear goals, running great meetings, communicating clearly, and leveraging team members’ individual and collective strengths.
· The most successful remote managers are good listeners, communicate trust and respect, inquire about workload and progress without micromanaging, and err on the side of overcommunicating
· Visibility
o CEO/Top Leader of every organization needs to be much more visible right now — through video conferencing or taped recordings — to give people confidence, calm them down, and be healers- or hope-givers-in- chief
o Be creative, learn new ways to communicate and be visible to your entire team- leverage technology
o Virtual town hall meetings (monthly) where top managers give supportive messages and answers questions from employees is very helpful.
o Leaders should be authentic rather than formal during these sessions.
· Clarity
o Without the clear boundaries that office life provides, the go-getters on your team may have workdays that never end, setting themselves up for exhaustion and resentment.
* Share new and measurable metrics of success
* Clarify and re-clarify goals and roles
* Establish a shared vision at the outset by engaging team members in conversation around the following issues:
« What are the overall goals of the business and how can each team member contribute?
« What is the role of each team member and the team as a whole?
« What are their accountabilities to each other and to the organization?
« How (and how often) do they want and need to communicate with each other?
· Communication
Miscommunication will almost certainly be more common among remote colleagues than in a traditional office
« Team launch to jump-start this new way of working.
Figure out together with the team: How often should we communicate? Should it be video, phone, or Workplace/Yammer. If you’re not using one of those social media systems, should you?
What’s the best way for us to work together?
« Help people understand how to do remote work and give them confidence that it will work
« Check in frequently and regularly
« During your remote meetings make sure to ask: What have you done? What are you working on? Where do you need help?
* How to run virtual meetings:
« Have some explicit ground rules-No cell phones, no multitasking
« Don’t go straight to your agenda items, spend the first six to seven minutes of a meeting checking in.. Focus on newcomers, lowest level employees and people who speak less.
« Follow up your meeting points with emails, messages
· Connection
People suddenly working from home are likely to feel disconnected and lonely, which lowers productivity and engagement
« How does working from home affect psychological health? What can employers do to make sure that people are staying focused, committed, and happy?
« Coach, exercise & contact. Managers must actively work on it. Ensure that no members feel like they have less access to you than others.
In a remote environment, frequency of contact cannot go down. If you’re used to having meetings, continue to do so. In fact, contact should probably go up for the whole team and its members.
« Newer employees, those working on critical projects, and people who need more contact will require extra one-on-ones.
« Some employees may prefer email, some texts, some phone calls, and others video calls. If you don’t invest the effort to meet them where they are and speak their language, then we miss out on opportunities to connect with employees on a deeper level
« Make time for personal interaction—it is more important than ever
« Use social media to enable employees to socialize. One simple and popular option is a “Workplace” where employees can trade jokes, gifs, and family photos
« Don’t forget fun- happy hours, team lunch, coffee breaks
« Encourage employees to give you feedback regarding your approach to remote working
2. HR’s Role
HR is responsible for transformational work into the new office landscape together with the leaders
* Internal communications efforts should be revisited and transformed to all online
* Ensure legislative measures are done properly
* Re-deployment of all core HR processes (Performance management, HRP, Manager Effectiveness survey, Engagement survey, coaching etc)– Necessary updates reflecting the remote working should be made
* Assessment tools regarding leadership competencies upgraded
* Training programs converted to all online
* Guidelines should be prepared for leaders and employees to prepare for remote working
* “Remote Working Training” for managers is essential
* Employee assistance support may be required during this time- get prepared for it
3. Tools / Processes
Digital communication enables remote work, but it creates a whole set of new problems, a sense of emotional and psychological detachment that builds up over time
o The greater the virtual distance, the higher the negative impact on the team in terms of innovation effectiveness, trust, work satisfaction, role and goal clarity, and project success.
Develop an open channel for communication in a technology platform
o Give remote team members a “meeting place” where they can go to socialize. Yammer for water-cooler conversations; for big announcements; and to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and promotions.
o It’s also beneficial for remote teams to meet face to face on occasion.
o Employee volunteering is another effective way to boost engagement and morale. They can conduct virtual charity auctions or fundraise among themselves for events in the community,
Establish a sharing platform
Build a community of fully remote employees to share experiences and learn from each other.
o Outcome of this platform can be a resource for a skills training on how to work in distributed/virtual teams across office sites.
o This community partners with different departments, so they work with IT to get access to the tech tools they needed, along with virtual leadership skills training
o Works with HR to help the company adapt its people processes to better align with its remote workforce. This includes partnering with HR around career pathing and ensuring that manager training included how to work with direct reports from afar
o Provides insights to top executive team about the future of work
Update Your Performance Management:
You can’t see what people are doing. But equip them in the right way, give them the tasks, check on them like you’ve always done, and hope they produce in the ways you want them
o Managers of remote employees adhere to the following guidelines when setting a performance process:
« Performance review will have to be outcome-based
« Clearly communicate to team members who will be held accountable for what.
« Agree on a timetable for every project and assignment.
« Avoid blame if a deadline is missed or another issue arises
o Objective setting: When setting and monitoring performance, focus on the results and KPIs, not activity
* Provide appropriate and regular feedback to remote employees
« Monitor progress by scheduling regular check-ins
« Plan appropriate time for one-one sessions with each of your direct reports.
« Be specific about your feedback
« Be proactive about addressing performance issues, set up a regular feedback one-one sessions until performance is improved
There are plenty of ways you could recognize remote employees’ achievements:
« Take the time to acknowledge and thank them, in a public way (e.g. via your Zoom /Slack channel) for peers see that you appreciate them too.
« Award a gift card – this has the advantage that you can send it electronically.
« Send a physical note or card to let a remote employee know how much you appreciate their work beyond the virtual boundaries.
« Give employees a bonus or cash award. If your budget allows for it, this will always be appreciated and can really motivate employees to continue doing a great job.
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