Remote Working for the staff forced into their homes due to COVID-19 can prove a challenge to many. For many of the displaced staff, this may very well be the first time in their professional lives where they are required to work from Home for an extended duration of time.
Thus, managers need to watch out for the key challenges that plague remote working staff, as well as formulate necessary strategies to counter or mitigate these challenges.
Social Isolation is one of the key challenge faced by remote workers. This particular challenge is more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic as many staff are trapped within their own homes, with no companionship but their family members (unless they are living alone), and with limited to no social interaction with colleagues and friends. With the lack of proper social interaction towards co-workers, a disconnect could occur where staff loses their productivity, passion for the job, and their sense of belonging to the organization fades.
Managers are able to mitigate this problem to some extent through the following:
Conduct weekly (or even daily if the need calls for it) face-to face chats with the entire team. While a Skype/Zoom call is hardly a substitute for the social interaction a staff needs, It at least reminds staff members that they are part of a team, rather than let them get lost in a void of silence.
Observation: Be caution that the many daily conference call is wearing your staff and colleagues down as they begin too have back-to-back meeting and end up doing very little productive work.
Icebreakers are one possible way to get some social interaction in. Managers could, for example, take 5 to 10 minutes of what would be a long video conferencing session to ask employees how their day went, how they're adapting to remote working, what are some of the challenges/difficulties their facing. Technology, in the absence of physical presence, must be used to build and bridge the workplace community.
Additionally, managers should encourage the use of video conferencing between staff members where appropriate. While email and text messaging is a convenient way of conveying information, it is often insufficient for more important, nuanced topics.
While there has been ongoing concern that staff will not work as hard in a remote setting without direct managerial supervision, the reverse is also true: some staff may find themselves struggling without the access to the manager.
What once was a quick step into the office to clarify a report has now become something cumbersome and distant. Thus, it is important that managers present themselves as available for questions, clarifications, and discussions during work hours (Or at least certain periods of time during the day) to ensure that staff do not feel alienated or unsupported during their remote working stint. This does not need to be limited solely to professional inquiries; sometimes the staff just wants to talk about his personal difficulties adapting.
Many staff have family members living with them at home. Some of these family members could be kids, constantly in need of attention, or the elderly who require constant assistance in various household chores. These diversions are further exacerbated because, due to the pandemic, there is a good chance that many Daycare centres and Nursing Homes have been shut down. Unless the staff is living alone, diversions are inevitable.
There is no easy solution to this challenge, especially in the COVID-19 pandemic. People are trapped within their houses and their family members. The best a manager can do is encourage workers to establish their own workspace away from the rest of the family, one that would allow them to work in relative peace. However, not all homes have the size to accommodate such a thing.
While the section on Social Isolation covers some of the same points here, Lack of consistence and information deals with the perceived loss in routine and structure that the workplace provides. Staff, who once had a consistent timetable to adhere to, are at risk of getting lost/bogged down by the sudden transition to remote working, and it is up to the manager to anchor them back to consistent productivity
Have a scheduled daily check-in, a scheduled weekly meeting, and scheduled individual meetings (if necessary) with individual staff members.
If a group chat has not been established on a messaging platform, remote working is the best time to do so. Ensure that staff have an official group chat/channel to be able to communicate with each other and to more than one person at a time.
These are just some of the suggestions and as the pandemic outbreak escalate and de-escalates, there are many other areas that you may want to consider.
Click right button to read more about "Remote Working During COVID-19"
https://hbr.org/2020/03/a-guide-to-managing-your-newly-remote-workers
https://slackhq.com/manager-manual-for-remote-work
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Goh, M. H. (2016). A Manager’s Guide to Implement Your Infectious Disease Business Continuity Plan, 2nd Edition. GMH Pte Ltd.