this conference will all be recorded I had 12 o’clock of my yeah bond so we’ll
get started first of all I want to welcome everyone I’m just going to go to
the next slide I’m involved and I’m the manager stakeholder engagement at electricity Human Resources Canada or eh
RC thank you for joining our webinar on managing teleworkers it’s a practice
that has become the new normal for so many of us during this pandemic approach
I’m sorry we know this is an incredibly stressful time and our doing our best to
support you over the coming weeks or months oh I hear some audio okay so uh more on
that end at the end of this session today I’m just going to turn off my camera actually so that we can all hear
each other and there’ll be less cycle before we get started first of all I
want to extend our condolences to the province of Nova Scotia I also want to
welcome some of the participants today from our neighbors down south all the way from the US welcome I have just a
few housekeeping notes we will be recording this webinar and we’re we will host it on to our website and YouTube
there will be a Q&A session after the presentation so please feel free feel
free to type in your questions at this at any stage during the presentation and we’ll cube will queue them in that’s the
little chat icon that you see at the top of your screen for the first oh my
goodness for those of you who don’t know who we are EHR C is a national not-for-profit organization supporting the human
resources needs of the Canadian electricity sector we have heard from many of our members that one of the
biggest challenges during koban 19 is managing and supporting employees working from home many people have never
had to work from home before well many of you who do are reporting that it’s very different being forced to do it and
that’s before you include the dog the cat and possibly kids as BOCES who are also at home I’m confident that today’s
content will help you both as an individual or a manager while you work with your team in this new reality now
I’m very delighted to introduce our presenter Victoria miles who is a strategic partner of vision weal
marketing with 25 years of experience in helping organisations shape and deliver
organizational strategies whether it has been through leadership roles in global brand companies as an entrepreneur in
the leading edge corporate consultancy or working for international and national nonprofits she has always
focused on those things that will be truly transformative she provides counsel to both corporate and nonprofit
clients alike and loves a good whiteboard and data she loves data and
that I can attest to welcome Victoria I’m now gonna hand it over to you oh
thank you so much for that gracious introduction I recognize a few names out there I see Sarah Robinson and we used
to work together many years ago oh hi how are you I’m just gonna talk my webcam and then I’m gonna switch to
presentation mode and I was Marie said we’ll have lots of time at the end for questions as well
okay yes getting in
the PowerPoint to be patient okay there
we go all right well thank you so much for that gracious introduction Marie and
thank you to Michele and the EHR C team for inviting me to share with you today I am really grateful I have spent the
better part of my own how many your career understanding what engages people knowing people focusing people spurring
them on arming them with the right tools and then loving them and really appreciating them I mean that’s been the
heart of everything I’ve done over the past however many years that was so it’s
Monday March 9th and I’m leading this full-day workshop of 21 managers from a
sizeable government department I’d been invited there as they were trying to figure out how best to roll out the
Treasury board’s direction to embrace teleworking employees so part of that was training for managers so they could
adapt to a remote workforce during the course we looked at benefits and drawbacks to piloting and and over the
course of the day really unpacked kind of everything they needed to know to start testing this out I mean their plan
was to start small maybe with a few ready people maybe like once or twice a week and then gradually moving up from
there when they could prove this was working and productivity wouldn’t wane but actually increase after lunch a
couple of the managers said they needed to pop out for a quick call at 2 o’clock could we maybe break early who would
have known that that 15 minutes would change everything when they returned they were visibly
shaken they’d been told that all government travel would come to a halt immediately due to the threats around
Koba 19 the meeting changed it went from nice to have information to we need this
and morale where it went from if we’ll do this to this is happening by Friday
of that same week March 13th it was real schools were closing and businesses
we’re sending people home you know I’ve thought a lot about that group since then and what they’re putting into practice now that they’re working during
a crisis from home what I do know is that this has given them and really all
of us the to incorporate new ways of working which will last far beyond our current status
and for that we should be optimistic in this shortened version of our longer
workshop around managing teleworkers will focus in on three key things today the culture ships that are already
taking place and what you need to learn the manager remote workforce building and sustaining trust and then will peek
at anticipating the future challenges such as managing conflict which is a key component of employee engagement I’ll
share a few examples of what some of our clients are doing to keep engagement high and I really want you to know that I’ve tried to include some real
practical takeaways so you can leave feeling like you have a few new tools as well so the first most obvious thing to
remember as a manager of teleworkers is that these are your people you know them you hired them you’ve trained them
you’ve rewarded them you’ve promoted them so let’s all start from the same place these are the same people but in a
physically different environment now I want to be really clear before we move on your people may not have changed but
things in their life certainly have for some of them they’re experiencing stress from health issues to parenting to
isolation and any number of other real and present symptoms of the current lockdown and while there is a whole body
of work right now focused on helping them deal with these issues we won’t have time in our limited 30
minutes to nuance everything but from your leaders vantage point it is worth spending time did I say critical to do
just take a look at your organization and start capturing some of those sentiments so now that a few weeks have
passed and your people are settling into this different routine many of you leaders are likely already feeling that
culture shift some organizations are really struggling but there are others who are finding ways to thrive even grow
in this time now under normal circumstances where there is an intentional plan to shift this new model
we would normally call out and recognize some of the real benefits so with a huge caveat that these are not normal times I
really do want to dwell for a quick second on some of the benefits that can be gained for employees from players and
even for the community so when it comes to some of the benefits
for employees they include things like travel cost savings and savings on parking fees less or no commuting time
more flexibility and perhaps improved quality of life I mean they might be
working in a choir environment with less interruptions of course there’s the expected higher morale and then if the
work hours are flexible really the ability to capitalize on personal peak productivity periods lasts an increase
control in terms of work scheduling and perhaps even child and elder care now
for the employer there’s the increased productivity and reduced absenteeism perhaps less disruptions during bad
weather and other emergencies improve recruitment and retention options for
example have you thought about how it provides more options when accommodating employees with disabilities and for the
government in particular the one of the key benefits they cite is the anticipated savings in facility costs
but last it’s that ability for the business of function in an emergency by our remote locations to preserve
business continuity and here we are
ordinarily the first step is building a plan for setting up teleworking and it’s
considering if the organization is ready to move to this new model so ordinarily you would assess readiness in a whole
bunch of areas but one of the ones that is of interest test today is employee readiness usually we recommend that
employees complete a self-assessment because it should not be assumed that every employee can be a successful
teleworkers that could be happening right now but this is our first practical takeaway from today a good
self-assessment is a tool that managers can use to start a conversation and dive into the anticipated challenges an
employee might have I mean although you are now in a forced telework situation it is still worth checking in with each
employee using this as a guideline rather than asking them to fill this in and you could use it to direct a
conversation with them this way you can than some of the pertinent questions and then use this as a checklist for your
own benefit it’ll help you gauge which of your team members are excelling and which require added coaching or
direction and then in what areas it does focus in part on the environment in
which they are creating in their own home and so it’s really important to be mindful of the way you probe for example
you may not want to say do you have a quiet place to work with no distractions
knowing that they are working at home with three children who are also expecting to be homeschooled
entertainment entertained and maybe even bed but having this Intel will allow you
to prioritize some of the key areas that you may want to focus on as you support your people have you heard of personal
peak productivity periods this is key and it’s something that may lead to practical changes you can start making
tomorrow as a manager you may want to work individually with your team to have
them consider this question what times of the day are you most productive now
working from home will make this cleared of many people as other schedules are disrupted as a manager do you see an
opportunity here to shift something culturally I mean the nine-to-five routine is really based on a workforce
that adapts to this kind of artificial set of rules but do you now have an opportunity to capitalize on a team that
can be more productive based on the times they feel most creative or if you’re like a couple of our clients who
have large call centers can you set new schedules to maximize this opportunity and take advantage of the early birds
and the night owls you’ll know this by having that open honest conversation which with each of them next as a
manager you need to acknowledge the work at home traps when you’re working at home the distractions will hit you like
an avalanche and unlike when you’re working in the office these distractions are often really enticing television bed
loved ones exercise shopping you name it and the distractions will come in all shapes and forms you must help your
people and yourself learn to avoid them at least up to a point although it may
be tempting to carry a laptop to the bedroom and work from bed the next logical step is maybe to take a nap then you’ll get nothing down and
then wind up scrambling to meet the deadlines at the end of the day so what
else are they doing helping a teleworker adjust to their new work style is an important part of the managers
responsibility it’s really important to acknowledge up front that your work force are probably doing a lot of things
other than working now I want to
challenge you leaders have you considered why they’re doing it have you had to tell someone they’re
non-essential we’ve been working with one of our clients for some time and the woman who was directing the project
wrote us the saddest email I’ve ever read we hadn’t heard from her in a bit so after sending questions and
parameters for the next stage of what was supposed to be an important project kind of high on the priority list the
senior team it says this I’m sorry for the silence I’m considered non-essential
right now I’ve also not had email due to technical limitations I’ll have spotty access here and there
for the next few weeks as we figure out our new reality of working remotely the initiative has been delayed with the
possibility of being cancelled things are pretty up in the air right now while senior management works to get organized
imagine her rezoned – her project has been canceled or postponed she now has no reason to work harder
she’s growing unsatisfied and could even be drifting into boredom and on top of
that her sentiment veiled or not towards managers like yourself is souring even
if you haven’t had the non-essential conversation directly your people may be reading that into your current situation
even if it’s not there so where to from this point our next practical takeaway
is to consider a quick third-party survey we call ours the reality check
the reality check is a real-time rapid survey which provides insights into what
your people are feeling fast it’s not a full employee engagement survey but it’s a tool you can use to gauge how they are
feeling and what some of their top concerns are and it can also yield amazing untapped ideas later I’ll share
how one of our clients is using it to manage their telework and even extended it to their board and members now since we’re looking at
managing teleworkers specifically here a quick reality check different from the one-on-one with your team members should
be grounded in three things first it should be relevant for today asking
questions that relate to a narrow window of time and focused on the key things that are priority one for the organize a
exam sorry organization for example if security of data is important ask
questions to probe how aware they are of security issues if you are expecting
people to understand how to use new communication tools you may want to gauge people’s ability to use them
effectively and if they need help or training the next is that it should be
actionable consider what areas will have impact specifically when designing
questions you need to be thinking are we really prepared to act on this question does this question actually tell us
something useful as opposed to something just interesting and then is it time bound for example one of our clients is
asking things like what new skills might you want to learn during this time for
people who have been deemed non-essential what about working with them on a small professional development
plan if they stay within the organization you’ll have a newly skilled individual and if you have to sadly let
them go they’ll leave with a new cadre of tools they didn’t previously possess and they will feel way more positive
about their departure and way more confident for future employers when it
comes to loving your people this one practical suggestion of offering a training opportunity right now that’s
free or low-cost to you could be invaluable and the last it should really
be forward-looking now is not the time to be diving into the past or unpacking
historical issues this is about getting a read on the culture and where people are at today so we could ask all the
time how do you make sure people participate well in our experience there are two things driving their enthusiasm and
willingness to participate honestly if they believe that you take action on the results they share
they are way more likely to participate so it’s key to let them know what you plan to do after and when secondly if
they believe it is confidential and anonymous usually handled by a third party preferably they are also more
likely to share their thoughts honestly we just deployed these with one of our clients later and when the first 12
hours we had 88 responses leaders your people are looking for ways to engage
with you are you making it easy for them
just a word of caution however organisations who are unprepared to communicate the value of these
initiatives or underplay their consequences find it can negatively impact culture at large so please be
prepared and heed this word of caution when you focus on engagement you need to follow through so let’s dive into a few
other practical tools for you as managers when it comes to your remote workforce managing a remote workforce is
a skill that more and more people will need to learn but it’s more than just managing it’s also a deliberate effort
to keep people engaged with the work and with each other why does it matter that people work together in the same
location the leadership expert Kevin Eikenberry says when you work together
you get a lot of information just by osmosis you can look over and see someone banging their head on their
monitor and frustration or overhear conversations in the break room but when people work remotely
often the signs of strain are missed and then the opportunity says assist might
be too late they already feel you don’t care or maybe have ignored their issue the results are problems like failed
deadlines poor teamwork bad communication low employee engagement and retention issues so what are some
best practices what I came up with 6 for our call today the first is talk about your teleworking protocols meet with
your team have an open conversation to agree on your organizational norms for teleworking you know brainstorm with
your employees on what it means to telework as a team the second be transparent please no one is
expecting you as leaders to have all the answers figure it out but be honest about what you know and what you don’t
know you are in a position of leadership now which means that along the way you’ve acquired both technical skills
and great emotional skills no one is getting ahead without both and now more than ever it’s time for you to pour out
all you have for your people and if you don’t feel you have great abilities to be authentic and resilient emotionally
aware trustworthy or transparent then be honest with yourself there are courses and there’s training to help you the
next is to check in and check them out we’ve already implied that you need to be in touch with your people more
frequently but start by just saying hello every morning it sounds basic but an email a phone a Skype whatever works
a casual message daily with longer meetings set up her weekly sorry set up weekly with a formal date and time are
really important to staying connected next help them to do what they said they
would do experts say that teleworking does not create inefficiencies but rather exposes them that’s right
telework does not necessarily create these inefficiencies but exposes them
maybe you’re experiencing this already it’s still your job to help employees be
accountable for their work fairly and promptly don’t change that habit but don’t micromanage now either one of your
best tools as a manager is your ability to foster the team keep them working closely camaraderie is important for
teleworkers after all it’s one of their number-one concerns the FOMO the fear of missing out remote employees can feel
isolated pay attention to opportunity to facilitate conversation during meetings sometimes we get asked well what do you
do in an organization where you have a mix of both blue collar and white collar workers you need to find a way to
support them some kind of collective action to help them because otherwise you’re completely isolating people who
are critically important to your operation you may want to consider a task force or ways to generate solutions
to keep them connected and ensure they still feel valued and please include
them in the planning last update update update really help
teleworkers feel more informed and valued by updating them and everyone a lot more often over communicate
everything new hires new goals updates on your performance big and small over
the years and through innumerable conversations with leaders we’ve learned that there are three things that keep
you up at night and know if one of them isn’t drinking coffee at 11:00 although that is sometimes necessary when working
late the first is vision when your people are not being provided the basic information
they need to see where the organization is going they can’t connect to work this is a vision issue vision issues are a
problem because employees will have a hard time setting goals and managers will feel that constant source of
frustration with these employees the second is purpose when you’re people
don’t feel valued in their job or workplace or they feel like their job is menial they will feel a lack of meaning
this is a purpose issue and purpose issues are a problem because they start at the top or maybe the bottom depending
how you look at it but everything you do as an organization needs to flow from the why if you’ve read anything from
synapse simon Sinek there’s a lot to say on this and start with why when your people understand your collective why
they feel more engaged and the last is trust when they aren’t receiving any
meaningful feedback in order to become a more valuable employee of a trust issue and trust issues are insidious and can
be extremely toxic they are the life breath of a disgruntled employee and they’re contagious and guess what if you
have trust issues they will be exposed during a remote work situation how do
you know if trust is an issue there are some clues we can point to you and just bear in mind that this is a lot to take
on board all at once so if you want to replay this webinar later you might want to do sort of get catch all the points
here people say sometimes listening to me is like drinking from a firehose so I
apologize but I really want to get you the most amount of content here so how
do you know Trust is an issue number one team members may stop referring to themselves as we may be focusing instead
on their personal needs and agendas silos might start developer
among subgroups leading to communication breakdowns there’s a steep rise in lack of communication or information sharing
which leaves obviously team members in the dark micromanagement starts to increase suggesting that people don’t
trust each other to follow through on commitments conflicts are not resolved and there’s more discussion offline team
members are openly negative undermining team confidence and team members aren’t
regarding the commitments of others as credible making collaboration difficult if not impossible and then there is low
productivity and maybe even miss deadlines do you recognize any of these
so while I can’t guess at which ones are problematic for you or not here are a few key takeaways to consider when it
comes to building trust from the managers perspective the first is to encourage your team members to communicate openly and honestly seems
pretty basic it gets harder from here model positive behaviors maybe try
implementing a communication plan for team interactions and ensure that they’re accessible and responsive help
teams become better acquainted and learn about each other’s backgrounds and experience if they see each other more personally they may be less likely to
feel the trust issues of course teams should use tools like video and instant
messaging and encourage spontaneous and informal interactions among members or or the team allowing them to collaborate
freely you get to know each other organically but huge caution here we’ve heard that’s lacked in Skype and
Microsoft teams can be the death of remote workers as they are constantly bombarded with the pings and beeps and
whooshes all day long do yourself a favor and set protocols on these please and help people recognize if they’re
becoming a nuisance a vision wheel we use these tools with each other and some of our clients as well and having an
open line of communication the guy tell you it’s great for the illumina requests but we also embrace what we call bubble
time which is just that I’m going into a bubble that is undisturbed time for
thinking planning writing whatever’s needed team members need to be empowered
to make back decisions this is really important especially because they won’t always be
able to wait for approval on all tasks spend some time thinking through which
decisions can be made without your approval as needed now it may surprise you to learn that I
actually have an honours degree in history with a specialty in military strategy and totalitarianism I know and
while in my early career I didn’t see any natural linkages so the work I was doing in the world of branding and
employee engagement I have come to appreciate the foundation the study of influence and the language it’s applied
if you’ve read about military strategy there is a concept taught during battle of distributed Authority with central
coordination we need them very same here businesses large and small are embracing
this to help deal with local country issues store issues or city issues that could never be coordinated in the
central way they report daily stand-up meetings where people from all over the world can talk about their problems and
local decisions and how are they keeping unified shared platforms shared
strategies and most importantly shared values last so important our very
favorite strategy and we’ve seen this working brilliantly have your team members partner up with other people in
other locations to encourage them to develop working relationships so these teams can be switched up over time as
well managing conflict can be more difficult
for leaders of teleworkers and virtual teams it is not uncommon for people to be misunderstood when they’re
communicating through email telephone or other networking tools here’s the thing when conflict occurs amongst the remote
team the urgency to resolve it may become lessened there are lots of ideas
we’ve seen used very effectively to resolve conflict or keep it minimized insisting on face to face beatings and
under normal circumstances creating a virtual watercooler finding reasons to celebrate you know partnering a team but
the one thing we know for sure that’s guaranteed to work a hundred percent of the time is this create space
and time for employees to come to you directly this is the magic formula so
we’ve covered a lot of ground in our short time and I just want to leave you with a few practical examples of organizations we’re working with who are
trying out some new engagement tools to really compensate during this season first one of our clients is the Ontario
secondary school teachers Federation recognising that communication is one of their main drivers of keeping their
people feeling valued we quickly brainstormed a few ways to engage with them during the shutdown they said to us
our members need to get information in their hands as quickly as possible it
needs to be current and it needs to be organized then they went on to say that it needed to be cost effective of course
and showed they cared well in 2018 we had already launched something called the info hub which was a web-enabled app
that gave them access to all their HR documents key dates FAQ etc in one spot it was actually the perfect solution for
this time to help them manage their teleworking members we developed a special code 9 code 19 response section
which now houses everything they need to know from personal support information to updates on the school board and
provincial decisions to tools we also importantly included stories from
members themselves to encourage each other it’s been wildly successful and
has actually been recognized as one of the most valuable assets on hand right now another one of our clients is
working to reuse their onboarding platform kind of their system for educating and providing online resources
if you have one of these think about transfer transferring it into kind of a work at home Resource Centre do you have
existing tools that could be redeployed or rethought to shortcut development times with frontline credit union which
is an Ottawa based financial institution coincidentally which also represents hydro Ottawa workers shout out to hydro
de WA their concern was showing decisive action they asked us how we could help
them show their staff their board and members how much they cared and get some really quick feedback so they could take
action on their people’s most pressing needs we launched a survey immediately we kept
it anonymous except in one key area and this is important we told them that frontline was looking for ways to help
them really practically because we were administering it we let the participants know that we would decouple their
responses so it stayed confidential and only sent the names and contact information of those who responded to
the question is there anything we can do for you today provide your name and contact people did not hesitate as I
mentioned before we had 88 responses in the first 12 hours have you thought about checking in with your team and
maybe your board and other stakeholders the last is bail we’ve been working with
this global brand for many many years across most of their lines of business and we’ve developed a particular
specialty of understanding how to engage people within their call centers each quarter we design a fun interactive
campaign to connect their teams to business drivers ranging from new product launches to changes in strategy
it takes new forms each quarter from micro sites with task based learning to more kind of traditional training
modules for them the challenge was put to us like this our call center team
needs to be more aware of the needs of our customers at this time to manage their learning can we add a component to
our quarterly motivational campaign to reward them for learning soft skills like empathy and compassion because we
were already underway we were reworked the campaign elements to add kind of new modules that unpacked what it actually
sounded like to be more compassionate and empathetic with customers and we wrote scenarios that would help them
roleplay for practicing these skills so they felt confident managing this team
through this challenge was all about making sure they connected what are you
doing already that can be tweaked or updated to reflect the season we’re in
how you manage your teleworkers to this time will have a lasting impact on them
if they feel valued no matter the circumstances you will have done your job as a leader I really appreciate you
participating today I really really hope you’ve learned a few key things to take back I’m sure there are a few questions
so I’ll kick it over to Murray and do my best to try and answer as many as I can
if not can follow-up thank you so much Thank
You Victoria I actually want something new from you today so that was enlightening I just remind everybody if
they want to ask the question to put it in the chat section I’m going to start off the questions with this actual mine
Victoria so now we’re having to hire teleworkers can you tell us what should
we be looking for are there questions we should ask them find out if they are suitable that’s a really great question
yeah I guess there was a few things we actually look at some of this stuff like I said in that longer workshop but a
couple things I would focus in on one is clearly looking for things on the resume that contain kind of past teleworking
experience so if they have worked remotely before even kind of a part-time capacity do they have a really clear
idea of what it entails understanding things like the importance of time management functioning functioning on it
without managers etc I would also ask them to describe their home office and
and actually and have them go into a little bit of detail you know what is it adequate that would give you a good
sense of whether or not they would be able to work in a remote situation and then I think just basic things like do
they seem like a self-starter asking real probing questions around around those types of things and can they
sensibly really discuss some of the challenges of remote work let’s not pretend that there there aren’t challenges that come along with this so
are they honest about some of the challenges and can you dive into that area I give me the only other thing I
would say and is just looking for evidence of life outside of work I think it’s really important when you’re
interviewing people for remote situations to to really feel out what other hobbies they have things that are
things other things that are going on in their life there it’s really keyed the health of a teleworker that’s like thanks for us and that’s a
really good question okay thank you and the other question that
I’m going to bring up right now is in regards to our industry so it is similar
to others where not all employees can telework or they’re deemed I won’t say
essential but I’m going to say frontline during a time of crisis similar to Cove
at 19 so are there some tips you can share on how to keep those specific employees motivated that’s a really good
question I’m just thinking about some tips now here’s how I would think about it to answer it I would say because the
team becomes so much more important during a remote work situation anything
that you can do to build team so whether that’s like I said some partnering
strategies people that are maybe inside outside the office or you know
intentional calls where you can bring diverse teams together just so that they can share perspectives of ones ones that
are still in the office and are essential and non-essential and then you
know over communicating everything again just making sure that all the communications aren’t directed externally but recognize the things that
are happening happening internally we will come back and we will have a time when there will still be remote workers
it’s just important to remember to keep in keeping people engaged they all feel valued in this time so focusing on the
things that will bring value to them would be I think the last thing thanks thanks Marie okay I have a couple
more here so the next question is how do you strike the balance between supporting your team especially one with
the number of junior staff and your own responsibilities and deliverables mmm
that’s a really good question so this is a little bit about managing up as well and you know I think that there is an
opportunity right now to redefine what it means to be a leader within organizations and a manager within
organizations it’s your responsibility as a leader is to look after your team
and to ensure that your team is productive and filling their full potential because
when they are doing that then naturally the things that you are responsible for for your manager or your senior people
will be fulfilled as well it is it is still going to be hard to juggle those things but I would say that during this
time your priority focus should be mostly on your people okay here’s
another question what do you see the return to work process looking like when this is all over
positives and negatives please oh my gosh clearly was not in the easy
category I that’s that’s a really good
question at the beginning I you know I said that there would be a time when we would come back and that we shouldn’t
just be looking at this situation as something that’s been a detriment to organizations it’s been a it’s been a
it’s been able given the organization’s the ability to leapfrog a whole bunch of things and move pretty quickly in to
figure out some processes and things to get to get remote workers set up that would be long-term as well the back to
work process is going to be bumpy I think for most organizations I everything that we’ve been thinking
about and and reading and researching around this as has been just helping
organizations to think through what engagement will look like how do we bring people back and have them connect
again face to face particularly because the social distancing has not just been
remote work you know generated it is it has created distance between people and
so we’re thinking through things like okay well what kind of engagement tools can we build to when what kind of
rewards and motivational pieces can we put in to have people kind of we really
mitai gets to the workplace there will still be a lot of fear there will be a long time and there could be second wave
there could be all of those other things that are anticipated so it’s gonna be bumpy I’m not I I think okay well I’ll
ask another question now about if you had to sum up sure
keys to telework success what would they be hmm three keys to telework success
well I think the first is technology making sure that your teleworkers have
the appropriate technology supports that they they need in order to stay connected to the organization hardware
software access points high-speed residential internet whatever that is so the first key I think is making sure
technology is in place the second thing is I would probably prioritize
management training I think that it’s really important for managers to get a grasp on what it means to oversee
teleworkers and you know we’ve spent way before this all happened we’ve been
spending time working with lots of organizations around helping people to be equipped for this time but it’s
really you need to be thinking through things like productivity and employee specific performance goals and and
there’s this really great quote around productivity stand that in that management training it that it’s you know you shouldn’t be managing the way
schoolteachers do by attendants but I think it says but the way college professors do by results so the second
thing I would say is like management training and then maybe the last one and I would have said this before as well a
real sense of executive buy-in and vision it’s it’s really critical that
there be kind of visible leadership and vision casted leadership from the top so
those would be the three success I would say technology mantua training and then real leadership vision okay thank you I
have another question here can you elaborate on why the inefficiencies will be emphasized in telework situation why
inefficiencies are why they are emphasized why they come in last well
for a number of reasons I mean one of them is just the number of distractions that people have to manage and the other
things that are going on in their life we’re not in a situation obviously right now and everyone would agree of normal
telework situations this is working during the crisis from home so there are deficiencies that will happen because of
people’s inability or feel they’re not inability to feel equipped to be able to do their job properly
the distractions like I said that they’re happening and then you know and
even some of the technology tools being a distraction but the reason why I said
that that quote about the fact that inefficiencies are highlighted during a telework situation is that we really
shouldn’t assume everybody is a great teleworker and a great has a great ability to work
remotely and in fact if we weren’t in this situation right now there are
people that you probably wouldn’t put into a remote situation because they were already struggling with efficiency
and productivity in the office so this is highlighting now those things this is
now bringing to light in a much more direct way in a serious way sometimes
what you know what’s happening in that person’s life that is that it’s causing
some of those things so that’s why I mentioned it earlier ok I have one more
question here and well then we can sum it up yes lots of questions it’s
wonderful to help people connect you have do you have any team-building activities for staff while working from
home yeah yeah lots lots lots lots lots in fact what I really really love to do
during during the workshop is to brainstorm some B’s so I try to capture them and I have a I have a huge list
I’ll give you some of my favorites though one of them is that we call share a snapshot so fun team-building activity
is you know saying at the beginning of your call from you know sheriff snapshot of the kind of the shoes you’re wearing
right now are the socks you’re wearing or snapshot of your office at home or
what’s outside your window right now so that’s that’s one thing I love to do the second thing is like trip playing trivia
so it’s a really great way to help people kind of work that are working together as a team you know connect you
might want to keep a trivia game like ongoing for a number of weeks and and how scoring so it’s really team building
Oh time and it’s kind of fun for them to do unexpected kind of trivia questions and
then you know those meeting situations just really making sure you do have build-in some casual fun not
non-work-related conversations so team-building shouldn’t just necessarily be around you know the project that
you’re working on but also getting people to connect really personally so you know people talking about their
favorite movies they just watched what they benched on Netflix last weekend their pets children etc so there’s a few
tips but lots of the fun team building ideas okay thanks and I won’t be sharing
what I watched on Netflix recently but anyway thank you for that um so I’m
gonna actually finish up in there thank you everybody for the great questions today so first of all I want to thank
you Victoria and all of the purchase and all of the participants today we will be
sending out a very quick poll afterwards requesting topics you’d like to see for future webinars
Victoria is also able to provide additional support on workshops on managing teleworkers along with plethora
amount of topics and you can find more about her on vision wheel dot CA and if
there if you are an HRC member please send me a message if you’d like to receive more information how you can
avail from some of these workshops and our new partnership with vision wheel
you can stay informed about future webinars and resources by signing up for a newsletter on electricity HR dot CA
our next webinar will be an introduction to the federal government’s emergency subsidy programs and the following
webinar will focus on mental health so I wish everybody a good rest of your day
and we hope that you will join us soon take care everybody thank you thank you