Managing Teleworkers

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