Remote Work Training - While We’re Already Working Remotely! (Part 3)
Even just one week ago, I don't think we thought we'd be where we are today. This is both from the standpoint of “the health crisis is worse than we imagined” and from the standpoint of “wow, our staff have really stepped up their commitment to making their remote work, work”.
We’ve now been working remotely for a few weeks. Because we had to rush to remote work, we had no time to assess whether people were suited for it or not. So the first post in this Remote Work series suggested we now look at the characteristics we would have assessed in ourselves and our staff. If you looked at the questions in the first post “Is Telecommuting Right For Me? I bet you found one or two areas that were lacking in each of your staff (and maybe yourself).
What can you do now, now that we’re already working remotely, to enhance the areas with deficiencies and make even stronger those areas that are strong?
Characteristics of people best suited for remote work:
~ effective and consistent communication
~ responsible for setting and completing work on deadline
~ super interested in seeing result of work
~ independent thinker
~ completely understand the scope of their job and of the job of the people they work with frequently
~ completely understand the mission, vision and values of the organization
~ feel they are successful at the tasks of their job
~ adaptable
~ able to tell people they have to wait, they need to complete a project, etc
~ understand that it’s ok to have social interaction as long as it’s in a scheduled manner
~ the home situation is supportive to remote work
Why Train
In 1998, near the beginning of telecommuting/telework, surveys were showing that it wasn’t netting the results - cost savings, productivity increases - that had been predicted. Why? - the surveys discovered that a major reason was that staff and the supervisors of those working remotely weren’t getting adequate training to deal with the telecommuting experience.
And today it’s for sure we didn’t train before they all went remote. Without adequate training staff are ill-prepared and are frustrated. Even if you have some staff who are doing better now they may run into difficulty later as others in the organization, and those they work with outside (vendors, customers, etc), get better at it. Without some guidance and self discover identifying the areas in which they could benefit from improvements their feeling of frustration could make for less productivity.
What to Help Them Learn
Technical training is where most of the focus has been so far and staff do need to feel confident in their ability. But being able to use various pieces of software well won’t make for success for the long haul (and it’s now looking like this period of everyone being remote will be a long haul).
We also need these Core Remote Work Success areas to make it an effective training program:
how to develop a deliverables mentality - think projects and assignments completion not hours spent on it
managing your own job and performance- some of the same skills supervisors have learned but applied to yourself
setting objectives and measuring productivity
creatively setting up your remote office space (whether you think you have the physical space or not)
creating your daily schedule
enhancing the communication skills you have to work in a remote situation
what to expect from working physically away from your co-workers, staff, boss and customers
dealing with family/ friends and internet and current situation distraction
How to Create Successful Learning
Who to do the training - HR and the authentic voices of successful remote workers
Staff and their supervisors participate in the training together
Facilitate it in super small groups so everyone can interact (these are not skills learned by listening - although we can make a case for some of the skills - like setting objectives -being learned in online self study mini modules)
Start with a 45 minute live session -
1st - assessment of their current behaviors and feelings using the Characteristics of People Best Suited for Remote Work list above
2nd - brainstorming with group of 3 on how to improve at least one thing they don’t do successfully (in breakout function of software OR by people leaving the group video conference to have 3 person video conferences for 15 minutes)
3rd - small groups come back to share great ideas with whole group
Separate 30 minute sessions on each of the Core Remote Work Success areas from above
Where to Do the Training
Now we’ll all be in this training via video conference software (whichever one you currently use is fine - Zoom has the extra benefit of the group breakout rooms). Use all the things you’ve learned these past weeks about setting up your environment for facilitating and for learning. If you’re the facilitator, be sure to communicate these things in writing before you’re together (email us for a list to send to people). It’s always good to remind everyone even though people have likely heard this many times before.
What happens when we can return to our organization offices? - your guess is as good as mine but we’re betting that organizations that have seen how fast people adapted will want to save some overhead and cut down on the staff who must office there. We’re also betting that some staff will approach the organization first about not wanting to come back to the office. Even if the organization and all your staff want to be back working in the organization office it’s possible (some would say likely) that the need for emergency remote work will happen again. So what happens next for sure is that we all need to make this Remote Work training a part of any new employee orientation (and their job descriptions - “able to work remotely if needed”). Even if a particular job doesn’t seem to lend itself to remote work - what if we need everyone to go remote ever again? Plan for the future now!
When You Should See Results
Immediately!!! Many people are already figuring out remote work success - adapting - we see huge changes since this Fast Move to Remote started. But why waste any more time? Why allow staff to be frustrated with themselves or their co-workers? Get this training going now.