Want Permanent Work from Home? Bring your A-Game.

This pandemic shifted how we work, and for most organizations, it has completely changed how they function.  There has been a push to make work from home permanent from some staff.  Out of 1022 professionals surveyed, 30% said they would resign from their position if they had to return to their office after the pandemic.  Scary yes, but don’t rush the process.

I have been managing people working from home for over 6 years now and have worked from home before that.  I have helped organizations through this journey before, and now want to help with your journey.

It isn’t always wise to make long-lasting decisions during a pandemic.  Use this time to build trust and lead by example.

Two Points of View

To get your point across in life, take in an opinion that isn’t yours and understand where people are coming from. We aren’t always right. 

 There are some (keyword some) people who have concerns about a work from home option.  Why?

• Too many distractions at home.

• Loss of organic, in-person conversations, that help build relationships and ideas.

• Staff cannot have a true work-life balance.

• Virtual meeting fatigue.

• The commute home was an important alone time for some.

• Some leaders are unable to manage and understand productivity with remote staff.

•   Not everyone has a family, partner or roommates and loneliness is a real mental concern and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

 But what are the benefits for employees?

• Goodbye traffic and your commute.  Along with the lead-up time to get ready in the morning.

• No distractions from walk-ups.

• Increased productivity.

• Increase household income through savings.  Gas, insurance and eating out are some examples of expenses that decrease.

• Time with your family increases.  I wanted to be funny and put this as a negative, but my wife reads my articles.

Recommended Approach

The most important thing you can do is understand your culture first.  Are there trust issues?  Does your company, team or maybe even you, have a history of not completing tasks or projects? Be honest with yourself here.  As a senior leader, I would bring back a staff member who has a history of not performing well at work.  Thankfully, I do not have this issue currently, but I have had it in the past.  

However, you and your team are rock stars, so that can’t be it.  What can you do?  Let’s go over some suggestions.

1.  Prepare yourself and your team to be fully transparent.  If there is a sense of an iron curtain and your team is not showing what’s being done, you aren’t helping yourself.  Don’t play the victim and say they should just trust us.  Prove it with data. 

a.  Track your daily activities and how much time you spend on it.  This can be done in a spreadsheet, task list or if you are lucky enough, maybe you have a time tracking tool.  Don’t wait for senior leaders to make this decision, just do it yourself.  Is this painful? Maybe, but it shows transparency.

b.  Regular updates on operational tasks are key.  Start with a weekly or bi-weekly update, even if no one is asking for it.  If no one needs it, they will let you know.

c.  Consistently update project sponsors on their projects. If projects are moving forward and milestones are met, you are building a strong case.  If you hide project issues to save work from home, you will lose trust.

 2.  Make a plan to increase your team engagement and retention levels.  If your organization does an employee engagement survey and your team members are at home, make sure they don’t score low.

a. Create your own team engagement survey and do it monthly.  Survey fatigue is real so keep it short.  Ask non-work-related questions, about mental health, work-life balance, etc.  If people show they are burnt out, senior leaders will adjust as needed.  Stay on top of it.

b. Do not go more than a week without talking with your teammates.  Currently, I have managers that are my direct reports, and I talk to them almost daily.  Sometimes it has nothing to do with work.

c.  Increase your team’s collaboration.  Brainstorm new ideas and design solutions with a new mindset.  Use virtual meetings and tools like Mural to help foster new ideas.  Remember, there has to be some net new benefit that is directly related to staff working from home.

d. Celebrate success.  We should be doing this even if people aren’t at home, but it’s vital now because we have less face time with each other.  Find some wins and throw a virtual parade.

3.  Ask to be on a pilot program.  Try this out for a year and show you can do the above items and more.  During the pilot, remind everyone what are benefits of working from home.  Here are a few,

a.  Hire talent from essentially anywhere and watch your talent pool expand.

b.  Save on lease payments for buildings, promote hotel-style offices.  Be ready to give up your desk.

c.  Rock stars, like you, will have an increase in productivity.  This will benefit the company and with time tracking, you will have ample evidence to prove it.

d.  Reduce your carbon footprint.  I had my team track their milage to the office and then had our energy team show us the environmental benefits of work from home.  Pretty mind-blowing.

 4.  Take in the downfalls of working from home and plan to mitigate them.  Be aware of them as someone else is already thinking about them.

a.  People are noticed for promotions in traditional ways in some organizations.  For example, if you aren’t visible but still doing well, how can the culture ensure you get noticed? Make sure people get rewarded and are given opportunities for promotion, even if they are home.

b.  People at home need a plan to separate their work life and home life.  You can easily go on your computer at home and work all night.  I have my team take 5 minutes or so to do an activity to get a break at the end of their day.  A bike ride at the end of the day can help separate yourself from work. 

c.  Some leaders don’t have the training to manage staff from home.  This is a new skill and will require some training.  Be patient, long-lasting changes won’t happen overnight.

Consider a few items.

1.  Staff are assets to an organization, and sometimes people will associate staff to a financial number.  It can be difficult for people to pay salaries and not visually see staff.  Redefine success with key data driven metrics.  If you track time, this will help.  Reach out to me if you need help with this one.

2.  There are managers that will have an internal trigger of success when they see people at their desks.  The points above will slowly help redefine that.  Make sure everyone is aware of this feeling.  This will take time to change.

3.  It will take time for organizations to build a work from home policy that covers topics around home office setup, injuries at home and in some cases, there are collective bargaining agreements.  Be mindful here, you may not understand the full picture yet.

There may be a sense that certain tasks cannot be done remotely.  Healthcare is a great example.  Not every position can be done outside of the office.  I recently started following Zachary Frace’s blog page on Successful Healthcare Management.  There is clearly a way to manage staff within healthcare while still having people work fully or partly from home.  His post on meetings will help, regardless of where people are working from.

Final thought

Working from home has it benefits which I agree with.  However, make sure you don’t force people to accept work from home.  Not everyone enjoys working at home and coming to the office might be their only interactions with other people.  Mental health issues from loneliness are real and I have mentioned it twice for a reason.  Be a mindful leader and consider all perspectives.