In this guest post, Hannah Hicklen from Clutch discusses the different ways employers can support their employees who might be struggling with working from home.
In an effort to slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, public officials have issued stay-at-home orders around the world, forcing many businesses to close their offices and establish a remote work environment. According to a Gartner report, 88% of businesses had either encouraged or required their employees to work from home in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
For managers and employees alike, the shift from an office space to a work-from-home environment can be challenging. While many workers who live alone are struggling with isolation, others are dealing with distractions. Parents, for example, are trying to be productive while homeschooling children at the same time.
Source: Working Mother
According to Buffer’s 2020 report on the state of remote work, remote employees can struggle with communication, loneliness, balancing their work and home life, distractions, and staying motivated.
Source: Buffer’s State of Remote Work
For employees that are used to having an office space, a routine, and teammates nearby, these issues may be compounded by the sudden transition.
As a manager, you may notice that some of your team is having a hard time adjusting to their new work environment and need additional support. You can help your team address these issues, making them more engaged, productive, and happier, simply by:
- Encouraging communication
- Creating a positive work-from-home culture
- Providing resources for employees
Encourage Open Communication
When working remotely, clear and regular communication ensures that everyone on your team remains engaged and understands their expectations.
In the office, you’re used to stopping by a teammate’s desk to see what they’re working on or to ask a question. Without that daily interaction, remote employees feel that their managers are out of touch and don’t understand their needs.
For employees that need more support while working from home, communication is particularly important. When you’re no longer in the office, communication is more difficult and requires more effort. Here are some tips to strengthen the communication between you and your employees:
- Schedule regular one-on-ones
- Use technology to your advantage
- Make sure you’re available for your team
Taking these measures will enable you to cultivate a transparent remote culture.
Schedule Regular One-On-Ones
Regular one-on-ones can provide insight into the challenges your employees are facing and can help you come up with a plan to address them. Additionally, one-on-ones create opportunities for you to formulate tangible goals and help you motivate your employees going forward.
To prepare for these meetings, come up with a list of questions that will help you understand what’s going on and come up with a possible solution:
- How has your daily routine changed since you’ve started working remotely?
- Is your workspace set up so you can focus and get things done during the day? Do you need anything to help?
- What are you planning to do to stay connected with the rest of the team?
- What are some of the distractions you’re trying to deal with? Maybe we can brainstorm on how to can address them?
Use the first few meetings to come up with a plan. With key action items and tangible goals for them to work towards, your team will understand their expectations and be able to keep you updated on their progress going forward. Discussions like this can help your team focus on problem-solving and overcoming the challenges they currently face, rather than dwelling on what they’re struggling with.
Schedule these meetings on a daily or weekly basis—depending on what your colleague needs—so you can track their progress and stay up to date on what they’re working on.
Use Technology to Your Advantage
While traditional communication tactics like phone and email can be effective for quick updates, they leave a lot of room for misinterpretation. More than half of communication is nonverbal, so without face-to-face meetings, comments can easily be misunderstood. Hand gestures, body language, and facial expressions are key in understanding the point your employees are trying to get across.
To remedy this, use video technology—such as Zoom or Google Hangouts—for both team meetings and one-on-ones. You can address a lot of the same issues through casual communication channels, such as Slack and instant messaging, by using GIFs or cartoons to portray emotion and thoughts.
By using communication technologies with remote workers, you’re playing a role in bringing your team closer together.
Make Yourself Available for Your Team
Communication is a two-way street, and your employees need to be able to reach you when they have questions, concerns, or they want to give you an update. Encourage your team members who are struggling to contact you or their peers when they need support.
Make sure that your team can easily get in touch by keeping several channels open and identifying the easiest way for them to get in contact with you. If your team utilizes Slack or a shared calendar, note when you’re on calls, in meetings, or away from the computer. By doing so, your team can tell when you’re available. You can also block off time for office hours so your team knows that you’re available at the same time each week.
Increasing your availability as a manager will encourage dialog between you and your team.
Create a Positive Work-From-Home Culture
Struggling employees report that two of their biggest remote work challenges are unplugging after work and loneliness.
Although these might not seem like a big deal, these challenges can have a significant influence on engagement and productivity. In fact, several studies have found that happiness in the workplace is closely related to productivity and can impact sales by 37%.
While working from home, you should begin to develop a strong remote team culture by prioritizing your team’s work-life balance and morale-building efforts. Without a water cooler or lunchroom, your team could be craving the social interaction that comes with an in-office environment. During normal office hours, you can encourage collaboration through regular team-wide meetings. Although the focus of these meetings is on team goals, they can also help your team build rapport.
You can ask high-performers to reach out to those who need more support for virtual coffee runs. Not only will this satisfy the need for social interaction, but it can help your employees build a supportive community among their peers. As a result, your employees will be more likely to lean on their peers for help when needed.
According to ADP, peer-to-peer learning can encourage innovative thinking while enhancing autonomy and collaboration. Use that as an opportunity to let your team grow together.
Finally, you should encourage your team to disconnect at the end of the workday. A recent study shows that detachment from work improves concentration and mental health. It can also improve efficiency, prevent burnout, and increase productivity.
You can help your team disconnect by scheduling something fun at the end of the workday. Although you can’t meet in-person, you can create a virtual team-building experience, such as a virtual happy hour, games, or classes. Building a positive culture will encourage employee engagement and productivity.
Provide Resources for Employees
Remember, remote work is a major adjustment for many of your employees. As a result, you need to provide struggling employees with the tools they need to be successful.
While working remotely, soft skills such as problem-solving, communication, self-motivation, and teamwork are more difficult to practice than in the office. Although proficiency in this area is difficult to measure, the impact is clear—they can increase productivity and encourage innovation.
To help your team thrive at home, invest in the development of their soft skills. Your team can access plenty of free professional development courses online. LinkedIn, Coursera, and Skillsoft have expanded their free course offerings during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Each teammate can choose to focus on remote work generally, communication, time management, or any other soft skill. These courses can help your team implement strategies that will strengthen their skills and help them address daily problems. In addition to improving their workflow and collaboration, professional development will keep your workers more engaged and motivated.
You can also connect employees with your HR department. They can provide additional support when it comes to communication, managing stress, and emotional intelligence while working from home.
Struggling employees will benefit from recommendations and professional development resources you can provide them.
Support Struggling Employees Who Work Remotely
Working from home can be a major adjustment for many teams. It creates several challenges regarding collaboration, distractions, motivation, and maintaining a work-life balance.
If some employees are struggling, it’s important for team leaders to provide the support they need. You can help your team thrive in this situation by communicating expectations and helping them address challenges.
A successful team will have a strong work-from-home culture. You can build that by encouraging team-building exercises and balancing work and home life. You can also help your team improve their workflow while working remotely by investing in professional development and soft skills.
Hannah Hicklen is an Editorial Associate for Clutch. She supports the company’s business services research and content efforts.
iStock Image: damircudic
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