#AskUsAnything: inclusive remote working
This week, we tackled one of the main challenges facing all line managers right now: remote working inclusively. We - along with our panel of industry experts - had a frank discussion about the ways we can manage the complex switch to remote working.
Even the most astute amongst us hardly anticipated such a dramatic change in mandatory home working to happen so quickly. Offices that weren’t online-based were forced to scramble to assemble the appropriate equipment virtually overnight. Managers who had spent their careers resisting flexible working had to adapt to a new challenge. Teams were cut down with little warning.
But: the reality is that normal ‘work from home’ and ‘flexible working’ practices can never apply to our current situation. We can’t cut-and-paste our usual guidelines for working out of the office to a global pandemic. With this in mind, we called out to our industry experts to offer their guidance and support for businesses leaders feeling challenged right now.
Helen Matthews - Chief People Officer at Ogilvy - discussed the agency’s new ‘Managed Remote Working’ framework. They’re sharing tips to keep their employees happy, healthy and productive during this time. This includes starting the day with a ‘form score’ from 1-10: how are you arriving today? This is something we’ve discussed at previous Ask Us Anything sessions, and it serves as a way of acknowledging that things aren’t normal right now, and that we all arrive in different ways.
Michael Brown - Partner, Insight and Cross-Culture at UM London - echoed the principle of compassionate leadership. He reminded us of the importance of emotional intelligence as a leader: showing vulnerability at the moment is not a weakness. By being honest and open with your team about your struggles, you allow for more genuine conversation and understanding amongst your colleagues.
Communication also emerged as a key theme throughout the session. Helen suggested using formal and informal methods of talking to staff - such as GIFs - to maintain some of the ‘water-cooler’ chats that we are all missing out on. Lucy Hobbs - Founder of The Future is NeuroDiverse - underlined the importance of different contact strategies for different individuals, particularly those who are neurodiverse. Allow your employees flexibility too: not everyone wants to have their camera on in meetings, and try not to stigmatise employees asking for written summaries instead of attending virtual meetings.
We also discussed furlough and how to manage staff who are currently out of office. With our own team working with reduced capacity from this week, it felt like a poignant moment to reflect on what that means and how to handle relationships moving forward. Michael suggested de-stigmatising the word itself: furlough is not the same as redundancy, and we should not treat it as such. Helen recommended maintaining consistent communication when employees return: make sure that they know their team and manager are excited that they are coming back, and give them opportunities to upskill when they return to the office.
We’d like to thank the honesty of our participants in the session this week too. We had so many great questions and comments from the audience, and it was amazing to see everyone engaged and working together on solutions.
You can find our full takeaway deck here and sign up to our session next week here.
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