Learn from REAL WORLD experiences & straight talk, go beyond the articles & textbooks, and hear the typically unspoken tips -- register for our March 24th seminar, 8am-12pm, held at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Lake Forest IL.
Join the LinkedIn Managers of Telecommuters Group.
Your monitoring your telecommuters as approriate for their job. Everything's OK with Mary but it's not working for John. What does it mean… it's not working?
When I ask managers the opposite, in other words, how do you know when it is working? And have them answer very quickly…I gain some insight into their management style. Many first say, the employee is meeting their goals. Some will say, they're happy in the telecommuting situation. Some will say, they're productive. And some will say, they're not goofing off.
Whatever "working" means to you (and please do define it before you take on telecommuters), what will you do if comes to a point that it isn't working? How will you know? When will you know? What will you do?
Looks for a trend. You determine for the job what the trend should be. A week, a month? If the trend indicates "it isn't working," take action immeduately. Ask questions. Explore what might be going on. Coach. If after a period of time, you have determined and communicated, it still isn't working, action needs to be taken. Action needs to be based on the guidelines of your company, i.e., bring them into the physical workplace, put them on a performance improvement plan, etc.
Tony, a student from our November workshop, coined the term "telecommuter-ready" during an after class discussion. The term refers to the readiness of an employee to undertake a telecommuting work option.
Does the employee have the right stuff? Just like selecting a candidate for any job, there is some art and some science to predicting whether an employee will be able to 
perform up to your standards while working from home or some other offsite location. Yes, it is a prediction. And you only know after the fact if it worked.
I'm sure you know some of the obvious "readiness" characteristics: can work independently, routinely meets their goals, works well in a team, etc. But I'd like to raise some awareness about the less obvious…
Don't assume a high performer in the office will be a high performer in the home environment. Chances are good but not certain. Why? A high performer like any performer, has an ecosystem around them in which they operate. Change that ecosystem (people, physical environment, feedback, energy, equipment, etc) and their performance may change. This can be true for low performers as well, but is more true for middle performers where there is a greater amount of variation.
Anytime I ask managers what decision makers really consider when deciding who to promote or differentially reward, VISIBILITY is always at the top of the list regardless of the organization. Visibility can certainly mean different things to different people. Most of the time in this case, it means the decision makers can physically see you or are keenly aware of you doing things they value – whether it be significantly contributing to a key project or above and beyond performance on a key goal, etc.
With telecommuting and other flexible work options in play in our organizations today, how do we handle the "visibility" conundrum. There are two important pieces to this puzzle: 1. How to help telecommuters get the visibility needed and deserved, and 2. How to change the VISIBILITY NORM, i.e., the expectations around physical visibility that are needed for advancement. Item 1 needs to go up. And Item 2 needs to go down in its current definition and at the same be redefined for the new world order.
Ways to garner more visbility for your telecommuter…Have them lead an important project; Have telecommuters skilled in a particular area, coach others (non-telecommuters and telecommuters); Have a telecommuter lead a virtual team meeting; Have a telecommuter conduct a training session.
Ways to change the Visibility Norm…as a management team, plan a special meeting to discuss advancement criteria inlight of the new flexible work options in play in your organization. It's important to have a frank and direct discussion of what is now and what will need to change as employee work habits change. Since new or modified criteria will involve a behavior change on the part of the managers, have everyone agree to hold each other accountable in a professional manner by calling each other on it when they sway and acknowledging each other when they adhere to the agreed approach.
It's all in the way you think about telecommuting that will drive your management approach. Are you managing telecommuters or are you managing an organization that includes one of many flexible work options, one of which is telecommuting? If you look at your organization as telecommuters and non-telecommuters, you may inadvertently polarize the group.
Treating telecommuters and non-telecommuters differently is an easy trap to fall into. Recently, someone asked me if they should have their telecommuters report to the team what they are working on so the onsite team would know the telecommuters are working hard like everyone else.
No, no, no! If it's just the telecommuters reporting, this will polarize the team. It looks like need to justify their work and the onsite folks don't need to justify their work. Instead, have everyone provide a quick overview to share information and possible connections for efficiencies. In that way, onsite staff know what telecommuters are working on but in a way that shows equity & respect for all.
Remember that an employee's work option should not change your fundamental management principles & practices. Just alter the conduits or channels or communication methods you use. Stay grounded!
People work best as a team when they are physically co-located. That's the perfect world. When people are physically together, they can better see non-verbals, feel energy, sense attitude – essentially connect as 
humans do. But the world isn't perfect. And we need to accommodate and adapt as we humans have done since our beginning.
How do we accommodate and adapt? Just look at how we communicate when we're not physically together. A great example of accommodation can be seen in our use of email. Emails contain hieroglyphics such as smiley faces, sad faces, winks, etc to convey attitude and tone since our voices cannot be heard and our body language cannot be seen. Yes, we have returned to our earlier "best practice" of hieroglyphics.
When we communicate, and we are not in person, we seek to close the gap on the missing human element – whether it be seeing, hearing, or touching. Managers of telecommuters need to recognize this at a level and depth beyond their previous awareness…and act on it.
How might we act on it? When meeting with telecommuters, use webcams – see each other. Use an on-demand collaboration, online meeting, web conferencing or video conferencing application such as GoToMeeting, WebEx, LiveMeeting, etc. Set communication expectations for telecommuters and non-telecommuters. Bring telecommuters together periodically to maintain and build relationships.
There's no substitute for the real thing…but we can do our best to close the gap as creatively as we can with the available tools and technologies.
Telecommuting from your vehicle may be easier than you think soon! Nissan's NV200 Mobile Office concept was recently introduced. Looks like you might be able to also moonlight as an undercover agent with 
this set-up…
Typically rated 3.7-3.8 out of 4 by participants!
Learn from REAL WORLD experiences & straight talk, go beyond the articles & textbooks, and hear the typically unspoken tips -- register for our October 20 seminar, 8am-12pm, held at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Lake Forest IL.
Join the LinkedIn Managers of Telecommuters Group.
From time to time, I hear a manager lamenting about the amount of time it will require to manage telecommuters. Frankly, when I hear this, I wonder how effective this manager is at managing his or her onsite organization. Why? Because at its essence, managing telecommuters should be fundamentally no different than managing anyone else….if you are performing the principles and practices of good management. If not, then you bet it will be more work; the work the manager should have been doing all along. "How much work" is all relative to your starting point.
The problem is that many managers have been a bit lax in performing the principles and practices of good management. When the organization is co-located, deficiencies in management approach can be compensated for by other means, especially informal communication means. However, as soon as people are no longer co-located, the lack of physical presence reduces the opportunity for informal communication, and thus the effects of lax management practices cause negative impact if managers don't step up and improve.
Let's think about it. Setting expectations, monitoring work, managing performance, rewarding & recognizing, building teams & work flow, motivating, learning & development… Which of these would a manager do or not do whether an employee was a telecommuter or not.
In today's world, managers need to manage a wide variety of employee work options. The day of managing only co-located personnel is over; whether it's remote employees at other locations, telecommuters, free agents, hotelers, or part-timers. Let's help our managers close the gap on their skill sets to make this new world order a win for our organizations.
Typically rated 3.7-3.8 out of 4 by participants!
Learn from REAL WORLD experiences & straight talk, go beyond the articles & textbooks, and hear the typically unspoken tips, join managers from other companies -- register for our September 23rd seminar, 8am-12pm, held at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management in Lake Forest IL.
Join the LinkedIn Managers of Telecommuters Group.
