By Rebecca Knight
Your employees’ needs are always varied. But right now, as many companies navigate a return to the office in some shape or form, your team members are likely contending with vastly different situations. Some have limited or no child care or are managing their kids’ online schooling; some have health issues that preclude them from returning to in-person work; and some are eager and excited to get out of the house and head back to their cubicles.
As a leader, how do you manage these various circumstances while treating everyone fairly?
Having a team in which some employees are in the office and others do their jobs remotely presents a number of challenges for managers, says Liane Davey, author of You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff Done. Some of these challenges might feel familiar. For instance, there could be some of the same kind of communication, engagement and coordination issues that are common with geographically distributed teams. But other challenges are new, according to Linda Hill, co-author of Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader. For example, working under the shadow of a global pandemic adds another layer of stress and complexity. That’s why it’s critical to lead with compassion during this time.
Here are some tips to achieve that:
Offer support
Your primary role as a manager is to support your employees, especially amid a global health crisis, economic uncertainty and ongoing social unrest. “Employees are under immense stress,” says Davey. It’s incumbent on you to reach out. Have socially distant conversations with colleagues at the office and one-on-one video calls with your remote workers. Ask them about their individual circumstances. Allow people to admit how they’re feeling, and give them space to open up about their anxieties, says Hill. Listen and offer support.
Create and set expectations
Talk with your team about creating new practices and protocols. “Have an explicit discussion about how and when you’re going to communicate, who has access to what information, who needs to be in which meetings, and who needs to be in on which decisions,” says Hill. Discuss, too, how employees plan to structure their working hours. “The end of the day is becoming nebulous,” Hill adds. “People out of the office may want flexibility and the freedom to rework their hours, and the people in the office may want more structure. Sometimes compromises will be necessary.”
Prioritize with flexibility in mind
The only certainty right now is that the future is unpredictable. Schools might close; health guidelines might shift; certain towns and cities may have to go on lockdown. The best way to prepare is to set clear priorities so that everyone on your team knows what’s most important, says Davey. She suggests holding a regular “Monday huddle,” where you prioritize the most important work that needs to get done that week. In addition, you should discuss the deliverables that would be nice to have if workers have discretionary time. Focusing on the most important work builds flexibility into the system.
Emphasize inclusion
Building a fair and equitable workplace is more complicated when you’re running a hybrid team, says Hill. There’s a proximity bias that leads to the incorrect assumption that the people in the office are more productive than those who are not, she explains. As a leader, you need to put in place practices to counteract this tendency. Davey suggests establishing the basic ground rule that all-team meetings take place over Zoom—even though some people may be together in the office.
You should also make sure team members in the office don’t communicate in a way that even inadvertently excludes remote colleagues, adds Hill. You need to make sure that everyone on your team is given the opportunity to weigh in. She suggests saying something simple like, “Let’s get Jane on the phone to discuss this.”
Strive for equity
Another risk in a hybrid environment is that it will exacerbate your own biases about particular employees, says Davey. In other words, you’ll continue to hold your star employees in high regard and to see workers you’re adversely predisposed to in a negative light. It may be human nature, but that doesn’t make it right.
The first step is to pay attention, says Davey. Are you inclined to give the benefit of the doubt to the employee you think is terrific? And do you discount the needs of the employee who annoys you? “Ask yourself, are there people on this team that I have not given a fair shake to, and what would it look like if I did?” she says. Next, make a concerted effort to do better. Think about ways you can position all your team members for success. Make sure that you’re using objective data to evaluate their performance.
Watch for signs of burnout
It’s critical that, throughout these transitions, you pay close attention to your team members’ stress levels. Many people are irritable and exhausted — including you. But if you notice that someone is not behaving like his usual self, consider the possibility of burnout.
Davey recommends taking steps to help your employee. For instance, if team members tell you they are overwhelmed, try helping them prioritize. “They may have seven big things on their plate, but of those, only two things really matter,” she says. “Focus and connection are the antidote to burnout.”
Make it fun
It’s also worth thinking about how to bring some playfulness into the workday. Many of us miss the laughter and levity from our pre-pandemic lives. Davey suggests holding an informal Zoom meeting every day around lunchtime so that people can chat freely about books they’re reading, their kids or their latest Netflix obsessions—like they would in the office lunchroom. Your aim, adds Hill, is to make people feel connected and create a sense of community.
Take heart
Finally, don’t expect any of this to be easy. There will be bumps along the way. Be humble and patient. “It’s a new time,” says Hill. “It requires a whole new level of being present, being agile and being able to adapt.” But look at the bright side. “This crisis is forcing you to develop skills and implement practices that will stand you in great stead for the rest of your career,” says Davey.
Rebecca Knight is a freelance journalist in Boston and a lecturer at Wesleyan University.
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