Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, you might already have had team members working from home, or this might be a completely new experience for you and your team. Working from home is a transition for all concerned and whether managers are seasoned in managing their teams remotely, or new to this, there is much to bear in mind to uphold effective and safe practice when working in this way. In this blog we outline some key considerations regarding remote working.
One of the biggest concerns for managers is maintaining a balance between being supportive of people who are working off-site and potentially coming across as a micro-manager. This is particularly difficult as home working removes the ability of the manager to monitor employees within the usual workplace setting.
However, you can strike a healthy balance by considering the following:
- Recognise that working from home will be new to some – if not many – of your team members, so take time to ask each of them what will help. Everyone is different; some people will be happy to use emails to check-in with you while others might feel that a daily video call will keep them on track. Be sensitive to what individuals need while balancing their preferences with the specific needs of the business.
- Set expectations as early on as possible. Explain that you trust everyone to get their work done, just as they would in the office, but that you’ll need to be able to reach them consistently during working hours. Encourage people to take short breaks during the day and have a set time for lunch – just as they would in the workplace – but ask that they let you know if they will be unavailable for long periods of time due to conference calls or project deadlines. Make it clear that emails should be answered as quickly as possible, and voicemails returned on the same day.
- Ask team members to keep their office diaries up to date and give them sight of yours where possible. It can feel unsettling not to be able to get hold of a colleague about an urgent matter but knowing that they are otherwise engaged in work can ease concerns about their availability.
- Reassure team members that you are there for them when they need you but to reduce anxiety around waiting times, suggest that anyone contacts you if there is anything urgent that they need support with.
- Schedule a regular catch-up with the whole team and use video calling if this is available. Working from home can feel lonely, especially for colleagues who live alone. Even a ten-minute check-in can be helpful. And don’t make it just about work – be sure to let everyone catch up on the news just as they would at the office.
- Encourage team members to connect with each other, whether by phone or video conference. This can relieve feelings of stress and isolation and reassure people that they’re still part of a team.
- Recognise the limitations that homeworking may present. While your organisation will no doubt ensure that key tasks can be completed by colleagues working from home, acknowledge that there may be tasks that cannot be completed as they usually would due to technological or logistical restrictions.
- Encourage team members to create a healthy workstation. Share ideas in team meetings about how individuals have setup their workstations. What images, colours, smells, inspirational quotes do they around their workstation, as much as we would consider this when working in an office. Some people have diffusers, oil burners, images of family or holidays, poems or prayers, or other comforting objects that they can see regularly throughout the day when working.
- Encourage team members to manage their wellbeing. As working from home may be a new experience, encourage your team to openly talk about how they are feeling and to seek help if they are feeling overwhelmed knowing that they will not be penalised for doing so. If your staff are trained on our ‘Stress Management and Resilient Building’ workshop get them to share their wellbeing plans with each other based on our RESPECT resilience model (Dunkley, 2018) to share ideas of remaining resilient.
- Promote a mentally healthy workplace. One of the most effective things managers can do to foster a mentally healthy workplace when working remotely is to personally role-model healthy, boundaried working practices that promote self-care. This may mean ‘logging off’ from online work platforms at appropriate times, limiting calls and e-mails to within working hours, and being seen to regularly take breaks and annual leave.
- Signposting & Further Support. Know what services are available to psychologically support staff. Does your organisation have an Employee Assistance Programme (EPA), or trained PFA peer supporters? During this pandemic it may also be useful to have a trauma specialist service to refer staff to such as FD Consultants. Many organisations have asked us to offer trauma support alongside their EAP. If a member of staff losses a family member or loved one through Covid, organisations are appropriately offering traumatic grief counselling, rather than bereavement counselling. Training several members of your staff in PFA (Psychological First Aid) peer support could also significantly help build confidence in how you and your organisation respond to mental health difficulties, and PFA can be delivered remotely as well as face-to-face. Such training, which is offered by FD Consultants, is not only a good use of staff resources but it also helps promote cohesion, trust and a resilient organisation.
Please contact FD Consultants for further information on how such training might be tailored for your organisation at [email protected]
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For organisations looking for employee psychological support, FD Consultants are the trauma specialists and well-being service who will best deliver a reliable, quick, and bespoke support system in the workplace. FD Consultant’s team of accredited specialists will offer ongoing support to help manage stress, prevent burnout and provide specialist trauma care where required, enabling your staff with the tools to cope, and recover more quickly.
