Considering the personal needs of remote employees
By Neil Shorney, Director of Navanter Knowledge Bites. Time to read: 2 minutes.
Welcome to part 1 in a little series of posts about remote and hybrid management. Many managers have realised over the last couple of years, that their existing management skills aren't quite up to the job of managing when their staff are remote. Yet remote working is clearly something that's here to stay, even post-Covid (whenever that may be!) so there's never been a better time to think about changes that can be made in order to be more effective from a distance.
One of the key considerations for managing remotely compared to in person, is the needs of the employee. Many employees have, for a long time, been operating in an environment which is contradictory to their personality style – they took jobs which included the ability to work from an office, yet for a long time, they’ve been working in isolation.
It’s not just the isolation from their colleagues which is causing people stress, but isolation from their managers. There are stories of employees working vastly increased hours and suffering from poor work-life balance, not because of pressure from management, but the need to feel that they’re being seen to be working. Without the ability to check in with their manager around the office, they need to be seen to be present.
As leaders, we need to lead these people in a way that is sensitive to their personality styles, and their needs as employees. And as people begin coming back into the office for part of the week, we need to be sensitive to how those still working remotely, perhaps due to health concerns, are managed compared to those who have returned to face-to-face working.
I've created an infographic of 4 key areas to consider for effective remote management. You can grab yourself a copy just here.
Or why not check out Knowledge Bites' courses in the Remote Management Toolkit:
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