Unlike what most people think, working from home is no easy task. It isn’t an overnight transition, and it involves more than getting the infrastructure right. To excel at this new way of working is a complex process that requires practice, persistence, self-management skills, and a laser focus.
As it becomes clear more and more employees who aren’t accustomed to remote working will need to shift the way they work in the foreseeable future to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Managers worldwide are forced to adjust to this new way of working and learn to effectively operate remote working teams almost from one day to the next.
Understanding the different stages of remote working and how you can help your team stay focused, committed, and happy through this time of crisis will become an important priority for a remote manager.
A 5-step framework for remote working success
1. Preparing for remote working
The first stage is about getting the infrastructure right. As a new remote manager, you need to ensure your remote workers have both the tools and knowledge to do their job from home. What are the software and hardware tools they’ll need to complete their tasks and communicate with the team? Do they know how to use these tools, or do they need training first? And in case of troubleshooting, who can they ask for help?
In this phase, you, as a team leader, must establish the basic requirements, set goals, and clarify expectations so your employees can be confident they’ll perform well.
Usually, a remote worker will need up to one or two weeks to prepare for and adjust to this process before remote working can become the new normal. During this time, the worker is likely to feel both excited and anxious about the change. Checking in on a regular basis to see if the new remote worker has their basic professional needs filled will be essential for this stage.
2. Fine-tuning the remote work schedule
The second stage is about getting the work-life balance right by establishing work-hours. Having a specific time assigned to working — the closest alternative to office hours — will help the remote worker to set boundaries between their personal and professional life. This second phase is about learning how to organize and manage time.
The remote worker will fine-tune their work style until it stands the test of everyday personal distractions. It’s vital for you to help your employees define the scope of remote work and help them to focus on how to organize their daily schedules to increase home-working productivity. Having a sense of control of their daily tasks will help your new remote workers prioritize and design an “out of the office” workday.
For the new remote manager, this will be an essential phase to monitor if a worker is able to self-control and healthily manage their daily tasks and output.
3. Creating a healthy mindset
So far, everything is straightforward, and after a couple of weeks, your new remote workers should have understood the infrastructure and established work-hours, and they should be performing well.
But now your real work as a remote manager will start because as time passes, one of the biggest struggles of working remotely, social isolation, will creep in. Productivity doesn’t necessarily have to go down, and that’s why this stage is a vital phase to monitor for job effectiveness and job happiness.
We are all social creatures, and working in the office always has a crucial social effect that directly impacts our performance and psychological health and wellbeing. Losing this aspect of work because of the “social distancing” part of this crisis will create feelings of lack of control and not belonging to a group, and working remotely can become a daily struggle. It can even trigger procrastination, which puts the remote worker at risk of no longer being able to stay on track.
When you see the early signals of procrastination, assist your remote workers in finding solutions to their work- or social-related problems. Also, give the team a way to communicate on non-work related topics to bring the social aspect of work back.
4. Building an adaptive behavior
Effective self-management is one of the critical skills for achieving remote working success. Adopting an agile mindset allows the remote worker to perform well despite distractions.
When people are working from home, their personal life will end up interfering with their job. For example, a child may get sick, or a parent may need help with an urgent task. Such events will affect a remote worker’s schedule and output. Remote workers need to learn to handle personal emergencies while not falling behind their work.
However, maintaining work-life balance requires sacrifices at times, such as working longer hours. You may have heard some of your remote workers say, “I know I’m behind schedule, but I’ll pull an all-nighter and get the work done by the deadline.” But making a habit of switching work-hours leads to overworking and the risk of burnout.
Encourage your remote workers to devise agile solutions for maintaining their work-life balance, as it does not only contributes to remote working success but also career success in the long run. In this phase, even if workers have some form of flexible mindset, stay focused on establishing boundaries to avoid mental health problems.
5. Having a daily structure for success
Having a daily structure is the basis for achieving remote working success. It means your remote worker is being efficient, managing time effectively, and producing the expected output. Remote working masters are able to structure their day to maximize job effectiveness while avoiding burnout and copping with remote working loneliness.
To help them remain productive and happy, reward these workers for achieving mastery of remote working. Also, make treasure of their knowledge. For example, establish a mentoring scheme so they can share their knowledge with the new remote workers or the on-boarding team in your company. It’s known that mentoring provides both benefits and an opportunity to make a difference and to guide not only the mentee but also offer new insight and resources for your company in dealing with this new reality of work effectually.
Final thoughts
The process of remote working involves climbing a series of steps, starting from getting the infrastructure right, and ending up with achieving mastery. Managers can use this framework as a guideline to help their employees evolve to remote working masters. With the right guidance and tools, remote workers are able to stay focused, committed, and happy, and maintain the desired job performance.