Employees working from home need more than just a phone and laptop

OPINION

The reality today is that there are many businesses that do not have official remote work policies and if there was remote work it was ad hoc and very informal.

Therefore, the mistake that organisations are making right now is to define the exact detail of what remote work policies should be. This is a little too late because it has already happened, employees are already working ad hoc — remotely so the question would be, now that we have employees who are working from home, how do employers ensure that they are not stuck up in the home environment.

Leaders should ensure that employees have the technology that they need to be successful. Technology is more than a laptop and a cellphone. These are necessary, but not sufficient. Employers must ensure that the virtual private network (VPN) that the employees are using is capable of handling all that is required, along with providing employees great quality cameras to enable effective video conferencing. The internet accesses and Wi-Fi services at employees' homes should be robust enough to enable work to go on smoothly. 

The employers need to ensure that the managers and employees know the right way to communicate in a virtual environment, for example, how do you think about communicating in a virtual workplace when you do not have body language to see what is going on, Leaders need to become intentional in making remote services work by enhancing communication procedures to coach managers and employees to work effectively in a remote environment.

Employers have to put a lot of focus on how to improve manager-employee interactions and communication in order to maintain productivity in a remote environment, however, with an informal remote workforce it turns out that employees begin to have a relationship of peer to peer rather than manager to employee relationship, therefore, employers need to think about how to make an employee to employee relationships work for the good of the organisation.

Organisations need to know that this is not a snow day where you know it will last for one or two days. Working remotely has dawned on us and is here to stay as the new normal, therefore, leaders and managers should stop thinking about the processes and activities that remote employees get involved with such as taking care of the children as they work which would limit their ability to focus on work related matters, but rather managers should instead think about accomplishing the outcomes. 

Are things getting done? Flexibility is at the heart of remote work which is fine for employers and managers to shift from managing processes to focusing on outcomes.

In seasons of disruption like these, remote service employees will require more tools in order to be most productive and as a manager, the right thing to do is to suspend disbelief and instead put uttermost belief and trust in your employees and solve the puzzle later when the performance evaluation kicks in. During times of difficulty, employees desire to be recognised for their contribution, therefore, as a manager identify what your employees are doing and their contribution and thank them. 

Leaders and employees should be ready to face the challenges that come with new ways of working, but also learn fundamental lessons and skills in this season. 

The writer is a Human Resource and Organisational Development Advisor