Team Partners Telecommunications

Management in a Work From Home Age

Posted on May 21, 2021  | Tags: WFH

We’ve mentioned Working From Home (WFH) quite a few times over the last months, mostly in connection with telecoms and the problems associated with being Broadband dependent in an essentially domestic environment. This month we’re looking at WFH from a very different angle: the demands it makes on our management skills, not least because it’s not going to go away. There will undoubtedly be a return to the office at some level, but there’s no real doubt that WFH is with us to stay, and this inevitably creates fresh challenges and demands on the way we view and implement employee management, so what does the future hold?

Let’s consider this question from two sides. How do we best look after and get the best from our existing workforce and how does WFH effect the qualities we look for in any person we look to recruit to the business?

Probably the best piece of advice we can offer is also the most simple. Accept that WFH is with us to stay and that it can offer many benefits. When that idea is comfortably accepted it then becomes easier to also accept that it’s time to sweep out many of our accepted norms about what work looks like. Remember leaving your jacket over the back of your seat at work to give the impression you’re still there? Or keeping your head down when the boss was looking? Working long hours into the evening? Fighting for a roomier office? Or one with a window? Forget it. That’s the way it was…

So, where do we start? Well, perhaps with the recognition that giving employment is doing us as much of a favour as it is our employee, which may sound harsh if you’re already someone who truly values those who work for you, but experience shows that such recognition is by no means universal. Recognising that your employees are assets makes caring for them an easier call, and there’s potentially an important mind shift here, from doing what minimum you need to, in terms of care, to get the most productivity out of them, to assuming they’ll be productive if you concentrate on caring.

What does this look like? For a start it’s understanding that whilst WFH has received almost universal approval, it brings its own problems. What is our employees home life like? Do they have enough room to work effectively? Does their spouse also work from home? What’s their childcare situation? And, forgive us for mentioning it again, is their Broadband up to the task? There may be very little you can do to influence the answers to these questions, but at least asking them and knowing what your employees home life is like opens a new line of dialogue with them. A friend recently received a £5k raise, specifically to enable him to get the childcare provision he needed to be able to work properly, his employer obviously recognising my friend’s contribution to the company.

Letting an employee know you care will always reap its own rewards, but there’s more one can do and that is to encourage your employees’ confidence and work esteem. A recent survey showed that those WFH workers who lacked a clear vision of what was expected from them experienced anxiety levels twice those of employees who did. When you think about it, working in an office and rubbing up against co-workers and the boss on a daily basis gives you a pretty good idea of how things are going for you. Working from home gives you no idea at all. Meeting, either virtually or physically, with employees to discuss performance and work goals will make all the difference.

So far, so good, and you might tell us that you already discuss these things with your employees. We wonder if you are equally hot on what is known as Supportive Supervisory Behaviour. In a nutshell it’s a concept that involves management recognising the benefit of demonstrating care and empathy towards their employees in both their work and general lives. The key word here is “empathy”. One can sympathise across a table, but you really need to be sitting next to someone to empathise with them. Sympathy is being sorry for, empathy is feeling their pain, and it’s key for employers to understand how WFH removes the delineation between home and work and the affect this can have. Home problems become employer problems, and the old adages about “work staying in the office” and “family stays at home” have to go out of the window, employers have to be far more involved, empathetic, in their employees’ lives, supporting them in their day to day.

How do you do this? Our suggestions are:

To be open and vulnerable. Employers have their problems too and being able to share personal challenges will encourage your employees to be open about theirs.

Being prepared and able to provide emotional support will result in a loyalty that guarantees an employee’s best efforts.

Work with your employees to find solutions to common problems, especially in the area of work / home conflict.

It’s a new world, and a better one if you can make it work for you!