When you want to enable a high-performing remote workforce: 5 actions to take

For the third installment of my remote/hybrid/distributed workforce blog, I thought long and hard about which direction to take. There is a huge pendulum shift happening where companies are calling their teams back to the office -- some on a hybrid basis and some on a 5 days a week basis. Ouch. To be honest, I had a hybrid work schedule for 16 years before the pandemic. Since 2006, I have had one day a week at home to help balance work and life.

I started to rant about those executives who are requiring 5 days a week onsite and defend the knowledge worker who can be very productive from their home offices or even their local Starbucks. I don't think this situation is quite this simple, however.

We are balancing opposing ideas in several facets: Work, Management, Culture, and Well-being.

Work: I truly believe people can be very productive working remotely. I also believe there is no replacement for face-to-face whiteboarding and brainstorming on the next new "thing". The challenge for me is I have had successful ideation meetings over Miro for services, but I can't discount that touching and holding product prototypes in the same room can be invaluable.

Management: I feel for those managers who struggle to connect with their distributed teams. As I said last week, it takes work to establish and nurture relationships with your team and colleagues; this can be even more challenging when in different places. Some managers become more micro-managing because they just can't "see" what their teams are doing. I have also seen managers disappear because they are overwhelmed with their own work and the monthly Teams connect is all they can muster with their team.

Culture: So much has been written about culture. Some believe the physical building where people congregate is culture. I think culture is how people act, how they treat each other, how decisions get made, and how we celebrate together. To me, the building, even though it might be "cool", is not culture. Many believe culture suffers when people aren't together, however.

Well-being: My favorite one is our well-being. Are we better at being together with our colleagues in an office or better at being at home with flexible schedules? These things are opposed but both are true. We need both times for independent work as knowledge workers and social interaction together. We need to balance this.

So, what should organizations do? Focus on personalization. The best personalization effort we can undertake is flexibility. This looks different for each person. This may oppose our idea of fairness and equality, but it is necessary to embrace a diverse workforce and not provide a one-size-fits-all solution.

1. Be intentional about office time.

I know some people never want to return to an office again. My husband has worked out of his home office running his own business for more than 20 years very successfully. For those of us working with an organization, there should be purposeful times to come together in person. We value this from a social connection standpoint and can make an impact with in-person problem-solving, innovating, or other more complex work. Mandating days or times a week seems a little far for me, but scheduling intentional time, even if it is weekly, seems more reasonable and impactful.

2. Allow flexibility to manage life.

Flexibility does not mean people do whatever they want, whenever they want to. But it does mean if I need a few hours a week to go to physical therapy (my left knee, unfortunately, demands this now), I want to attend my niece's dance show, I need to lead my son's Boy Scout troop meeting, I need 20 minutes every morning to meditate to keep centered and productive, I am allowed this time. If I can't come to the office on my "normal day", I am given a pass and trusted to do my job otherwise.

3. Get good at setting goals, OKRs, and KPIs.

Our best tool for managers to feel confident and people to feel aligned is to set really good expectations, hold each accountable, and measure results. Performance management has never been more important. This is not a top-down-only thing. For many knowledge workers, we need to understand the top 5 strategic objectives so we know where to prioritize our time. We also need to know how we will be measured so we can stay on track and even exceed those expectations. Most of us want to do great work!

4. Focus on over-communication.

There cannot be enough communication....communication about strategy, goals, metrics, and results. Communication about org changes, lay-offs, arrivals, and departures of people we work with. Communication about new programs, new processes, and new tools. Communication about stories, community involvement, career growth, and new opportunities. There cannot be enough communication through a multitude of channels today. People want to be in the know. If they are not, they don't feel like they belong or are trusted.

5. Check those unconscious biases.

Recency bias and proximity bias are the hardest forms of unconscious bias. Recency bias is where we put more emphasis on recent experiences over older ones. This can translate into the last interview you held for an open position and favoring that person because they are freshest in your mind. Proximity bias is favoring people who you see in the office over those who don't. This bias can apply to promotions, special projects, and compensation adjustments. Organizations need to address these biases with their workforces through training, awareness and modeling good practices.

These are challenging times but there are many actions organizations can take to ensure the needs of the organization, leadership, and staff are all met. Flexibility, Performance Management, Bias Training, and Communication are the keys to success.