The Manager's Guide To Working From Home
Winning the War for Talent in this Changing Environment
Remote work is here to stay, and remote work works. Covid-19 has moved many companies online, and due to its endemic nature, people are hesitant to return. To add further fuel to this fire, for the most part, employees do not want to go back as they enjoy working from home, and companies have been relatively successful with their employees out of the office. People are able to communicate effectively using tools like Zoom and messaging apps like Slack. Further, a Gallup survey found that people have been more productive at home. It is partially attributed to the fact that people are actually putting in more hours as their commutes have been significantly shortened. While this may improve the company's bottom line, it is not without its cost. At home work has negatively affected many people's health. While some people may enjoy and find working from home relaxing and better for their mental health, as they get to spend more time with their family etc., studies have shown that social isolation from working at home can "reduce a person's lifespan." (Semuels) This being said, since remote work is here to stay and management styles have to be shifted, there are some steps leaders can take to retain and manage employees in these unprecedented times.
The work-from-home environment brings along new challenges and complications. As a manager, the first thing you need to ensure is clarity. You need to provide your employees with clearly specified guidelines and assignments, and they need to provide you with updates and deliverables in a timely manner. The agenda should be written down if it is all possible and should be discussed regularly. This environment is critical to keeping everyone on task and on schedule. This is even more important for when multiple team members are responsible for a specific task. In order for everyone to do their part, clearly defined roles and lots of communication are needed.
Communication is key. In order to effectively complete tasks, employees' communication and clarity of communication are a necessity, particularly in this work-from-home environment where messaging and email are so dominant. It is critical to avoid assumptions and be crystal clear on what the expectations and goals are. Remembering that we must talk to each other differently over instant message or email then we would in person is imperative. Inflections and sarcasm are not easily conveyed over email. It is important to have an established communication medium, have meetings regularly, and feel comfortable reaching out and asking questions to be effective and efficient.
This communication can also allow for more flexibility regarding when and how the work gets done so long as this occurs promptly. This communication will create cohesion between the team and drive synergies.
Connecting with your fellow employees is also of vital importance. These synergies allow for you to improve your workplace. If people don't communicate with one another and don't work together, your company will get less done. The further step that is of vital importance is that people connect and collaborate in order to create mentorship opportunities. In a work-from-home environment, it is incredibly difficult to mentor young people. Covid has severely impacted the ability of younger people to receive mentorship, develop skills and manage stress. Traditionally you had a hands on manager who would teach you how to work and how to do your job. This isn't the case with Gen-Z.
"Gen Zers already experience a difficult cultural transition between college and the professional world that can leave them feeling disoriented and confused. Now that their structured learning has been upended, employers and employees may need to develop greater patience with Gen Z's adjustment to the professional world and a greater focus on intergenerational mentoring and support." (Rikleen)
Companies need to place a far greater emphasis on assisting these young future employees. They have missed coming of age moments and "milestones such as proms, plays, athletics, and the ritual of graduation (which) can be crucial to social and emotional development." (Rikleen) These moments teach us important life lessons that we carry forward: teaching us how to deal with conflict, how to work with others, or how to handle pressure in a bad situation.
Gen Z is sorely lacking in these experiences, and it's crucial that they are able to function as members of society. Without these pivotal moments in their lives and the traditional hands-on teaching a manager would provide, employers will need to take a more hands-on approach towards mentoring these young employees.
Mentoring allows people to grow and improve their craft and be able to take on things they wouldn't have otherwise been able to.
With these young employees, however, this needs to be done carefully. Due to their lack of traditional coming-of-age experiences and lack of work experience, they have not been trained to take feedback in a conventional corporate style.
"In college, feedback is clear and consistent. You have a syllabus, which details the requirements for the semester and the standards upon which you'll be graded. And then, for each assignment you submit, you receive feedback from your professor. You don't need to ask for the feedback — it's provided to you directly, and typically without much personal explanation. In addition, because grades are standardized, it's quite easy to understand your personal performance level relative to others, or relative to yourself in previous classes or semesters" (Pitman)
In corporate America, the feedback is not as clear and consistent. It can be much more harsh and confusing. It will also come less often and be much more important. This can create a cultural difference that employers will need to overcome.
If there is no connection outside or inside of work, these mentorships will not occur. Previously in the work environment, mentoring took place over golfing or going out after work for dinner. In the age of a pandemic, this time must be deliberately created between the mentor and mentee, and management must ensure that this occurs as it's in the company's interest to have up-and-coming rising stars. It's also of vital importance to these younger employees, who more often than not will leave if they feel they are not being properly mentored. This all plays into a culture that must shift during the work-from-home period.
It is vital to have a strong culture. This will need to be a culture that can bring young workers into the quote-unquote real world. Gen Z's untraditional upbringing in your corporate culture will be even more critical. "Despite being advised to hit the ground running, many young people we spoke with felt disoriented, confused, dissatisfied, and in many cases overwhelmed with the real world." (Pitman) In order to counter these, employees will need to create a culture of accountability and give constant clear, concise feedback. You're going to need to show these young employees how to do things the company's way and how the company functions. For their part, they're going to need to listen and do it properly. In terms of creating a good culture, feedback will be extremely important so as not to create a feedback vacuum. Where these young employees feel as though they're not receiving enough feedback to allow themselves to be successful and give them an opportunity to assist the company.
Finally, it's also important to set boundaries and schedules. This is because employees can't feel like they're working all the time as this added pressure will not result in the production of a good work product. It is important that people feel they have free time and feel that they can get away from work as they previously would by going home in the evening. Employees must carve out this time at management's discretion and must actively do this in order to prevent work from becoming overwhelming and too dominant in their personal life. Ie. work-life balance is key.
This bears the question can one have it all. The answer is that you can't have it all. The best you can hope for is to have a respectable balance. Due to the way that our corporate structure is now it certainly makes it more difficult. The corporate lattice shows how, traditionally, people had a more linear career path. Now, this is not the case. today there are more "varied paths of growth in development." (Vicksburg) This somewhat destroys the balance in the short term. When your career is rapidly expanding and you are improving at work, you won't have time for much else. You won't have a perfectly balanced life, and work will be somewhat dominant.
On the contrary, when your career is someone plateauing or when you're not progressing rapidly, you can focus more on personal and family life.
With that being said, in terms of family especially, you can't be everything to all people. The egalitarian model when it comes to the work-family life balance is incorrect. You are never going to have a 50-50 split. If you want to be career-driven and be there for your family, you need to devote your time appropriately where it's needed. Sometimes this will mean 80% of your time is going to work-related tasks. Other times the majority of your time is going to be spent on your family. That being said, there isn't enough time in the day to reach your highest career aspirations and be there all the time for your family whenever they need you. This is why the breadwinner traditionally hopes to get to all the important moments but misses some of the small ones.
All this being said, it is abundantly clear that in order to allow workplace success for your company, the most important thing you can do is provide excellent feedback. Feedback is extraordinarily important for young employees. Feedback will be the backbone of their ability to be employed. In order to build success and cohesion, excellent feedback will need to be provided. In order to provide this feedback, you need to cultivate a relationship with these young employees. This relationship is extremely difficult to cultivate virtually. Since it is currently more difficult to meet in person, it will be essential to have social events that take place online. However, these employees need to get into the office in order to properly cultivate a relationship with upper management. As this relationship is cultivated, feedback will be that much more appreciated, and this will allow your company to excel at building culture. Your culture is the best way for you to retain employees and the best way for you to have Superior culture is by following what is set out above.