www.valgrubbandassociates.com

Fine Tuning the

"New Normal"

for Your Workforce

Valerie M. Grubb, Principal

www.valgrubbandassociates.com

vgrubb@valgrubbandassociates.com

WELCOME!!

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To Hire or Not to Hire

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As if hiring wasn’t tricky enough, now it’s impossible to meet candidates face to face.

When it comes to the question of hiring, can you go for two more months without key positions?

Recruiting

• Utilize social media functions to allow quick access to the application process.

• Ensure the individuals responsible for social media response are incredibly quick when responding to candidate inquiries.

• Use social media tools like hashtags to draw attention to the organization when appropriate.

• Encourage employees to be active on social media. They may be able to forward job openings to their network, for example.

• Consider hosting online events via social media platforms to encourage candidate interaction with the organization. (If you use this option, troubleshoot the entire process, and do practice runs to ensure it goes smoothly. Test on multiple platforms and devices before going live.)

• Consider using the various paid options offered by different social media platforms to host and/or boost a job post. This may include advertising or other specific job post functionalities.

• Ensure your social media pages are optimized to be found in search results.

• Use social media platforms to seek out and proactively reach out to passive candidates.

• Utilize the data analytics tools that social media sites provide to help tailor your posts to garner more interaction.

Interviewing

• Conducting virtual interviews doesn’t require too much technology, either. So long as your computer has a web camera, or your cell phone has FaceTime or Skype-like features, you can get the job done. I’ve been using Zoom for several clients.

• LinkedIn is now offering interviewing capabilities via its Talent Hub platform. This new benefit allows users to interview candidates and a host of other !

• Time to role out a scheduling software like Candidly that shows your availability for interviews.

• I’m working with a non-profit in NYC that is so low budget, their computers don’t have cameras in them! They are doing all hiring VIA PHONE. It’s been pretty interesting to say the least. One thing we made sure of was updating their employee handbook to include a 90 day probationary period. That should have been in there already, BUT it is what it is.

• In lieu of an interview, for some roles, it may be appropriate to ask candidates to provide a completed project, the requirements of which are created and detailed in advance by the hiring company. This shows the individual’s skills upfront and tells you a lot about the applicant by how he or she approaches the entire project.

• If your company does a significant amount of hiring for more entry-level employees, now may be the time to implement video resumes or a first round of screening. A lot of universities are incorporating video resumes for graduating students so if you recruit new graduates, def talk with the school.

• Before your managers interview candidates (or you for that matter), do zoom or other video software training. It IS different and we cannot assume managers can just pick it up without some sort of training.

On-Boarding

• Break it up over several days/weeks. Key is to DO IT.

• A best practice anyway for new hires is for on-boarding to take place over 6 months or so. We try to cram it into one day just to get it over with before our new hires split to the respective departments. That said, now is the time

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A 2019 study* found that nearly two-thirds

of employees have considered quitting

solely because of a lack of workplace

communication.

* 2019 Dynamic Signal

Motivating Remote Employees

Before all this mess started with COVID-19, communication from managers was

SUPER critical to employees. And without it, you run the risk of losing valuable

people. Not surprising right? Working in a vacuum is not motivating for ANY of us.

The importance of communication has only ramped up, particularly as employees

have scattered to their respective homes.

What makes communication even more important in the age of COVID-19 is that

research on emotional intelligence confirms that employees look to their managers

for cues about how to react to sudden changes and/or crisis situations.

If a manager communicates stress and helplessness, that has a “trickle-down”

effect on employees.

Effective leaders need to take a two-pronged approach, both acknowledging the

stress and anxiety that employees may be feeling in difficult circumstances, but

also providing affirmation of their confidence in their teams, using phrases such as

“we’ve got this” or “this is tough, but I know we can handle it” or “let’s look for ways

to use our strengths during this time.” Or, “let’s talk about what’s not working and

help each other through this crisis.”

Phrases like this reinforce that we’re all still part of a team and that you’re not

alone, even if you are alone in your apartment. Or wishing you were alone in the

office because the kids are driving you crazy!

So upping your communication game should be your #1 priority when managing

newly remote employees. Let’s talk about some strategies.

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Upping your communication game is key when working with remote employees!

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Make Communication Priority #1

• Hopefully by now you’ve agreed with your team HOW you’re going to communicate and HOW OFTEN.

• In terms of the HOW - What platform will you use? There are SO many options: email, text messages, google hangout, slack, trello, Whatsapp, ZOOM. Seriously, it’s overwhelming at times.

• The challenge with multiple communication methods is where does your employee go to find out critical new instructions on an existing project? Or how do you communicate that something of higher priority has been sent to your employee?

• Having multiple channels of communication may hurt you in these scenarios UNLESS you talk about how each will be used.

• For my employees, I use texting to communicate anything critical or timely that I need them to focus on RIGHT NOW (to the exclusion of other projects).

• I also use…wait for it..THE PHONE! It’s crazy to like pick up the phone and just call people when there is a change in priorities.

• I’ve found the # of emails I get to be OUT OF HAND (and it was bad before). So I’m trying to not inundate everyone with 1000 emails a day by varying my communication.

• But, I will say that we talked about that as a group. We agreed that that is how we would work together.

• Email for non-priority, texting for utmost priority and phone if it’s a quick note or question.

• Discuss the timeframe for responses. Remote communication has the danger of swinging one of two ways: it’s either overdrive and spamming your inbox of off-the-radar leaving you at the boss wondering if they are still working on the project. Neither are very productive.

• Setting a communication time-frame helps bring a balance and peace of mind. For example, with my own remote team, I’ve asked that emails are responded to within 24 hour sand that goes for myself too. This gives a decent window of opportunity allowing you to reply when it’s most convenient but not too long that it leaves either party twiddling their thumbs waiting or important answers.

• Establishing this 24-hour rule also helps manage expectations – I have a tendency towork late into the evenings. I don’t want my staff feeling like they have to immediately respond. I want them focused on their family at night.

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Discuss Communication Preferences

Now, don’t write this in the chat, but what do they say about ASSUMING?!?!

Discuss communication preferences AND STYLE.

When it comes to communication in the office……we often make the assumption

that how I like to communicate is how my colleagues like to communicate.

• What do I mean by that?

• If I like to email, that everybody likes to receive emails. That if I like to text, that

everybody is OK with texting.

• That includes HOW someone will read my note – I cannot control HOW someone will

read my note. Most of us read it via the voice in our head. Which has it’s own filters and

biases. I would say we have to be extra careful in how we craft messages.

• I am President of the Board for the New Orleans Film Society. I wrote what I thought

was an encouraging email to the person is going to succeed me as President. It was a

bit of advice on an email he sent.

• He wrote back about how offended he was at my condescending tone.

• It’s not about intent, it’s about impact. Who here has gotten a text and said to

themselves “well, WHAT is that attitude he is giving me right now?!?!” That’s because

it doesn’t matter how he or she wrote it – it’s how I read it in my head.

• I’ve led discussions with my team on how we’re all under stress and that we may have

shorter fuses than normal. Let’s all try to think about the intent with which someone

would write an email. Are they really trying to be mean or am I perhaps reading more in

to it than is there

• Also that everybody reads it like I wrote it. The challenge is that my voice is different

from you voice.

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Meetings, meetings & more meetings

• 1-on-1 meetings with your direct reports on a regular basis is a good thing AND incredibly motivating!

• It’s also about you as their manager showing that you value your employees as NOTHING is more previous than our TIME.

• If you relied on more adhoc meeting time, preferring to just grab an employee and chat with them.

• Now is the time when you need to schedule regular meetings with your employees and then stick to that time. If you keep canceling, you’re saying that there are FAR MORE IMPORTANT THINGS THAN YOU. Why stay on task if my boss doesn’t think I’m a priority?

Many successful managers for remote ees establish a DAILY call with their remote employees.

• One-on-one calls, if your employees work more independently from each other

• Team call, if their work his highly collaborative.

• They don’t have to be long – it’s about how long is needed to be effective and keep employees moving forward with their respective projects.

Critical to incorporate video-conferencing in your daily huddles as it helps:

1. Improve communication

2. Provide visual cues to everyone on the stressors that we’re all under (including if you’re having to homeschool children)

3. And yes, require your employees to use video. It helps to keep people focused. Think of how difficult it is to not look at your phone when you’re in a meeting in your office! Now add the fact that I can keep email open while on a call? Forget about it. Require video.

Make effective use of team meetings:

• Discuss successes, challenges, where to find information

• Perhaps do a deep dive into a project – rotate through projects each week so everyone feels connected as a group (and in the loop). Helps to break down silos and isolation.

• Do a deep dive into long-term planning or the overall schedule once a week. It reminds employees that there is a future after COVID-19.

• Introduce folks to your home, family or pets!

• Discuss shared times when we would all be working so that we know we have a better chance of catching one another for questions. With kids at home or other distractions, we may all be working odd hours.

• Discuss best time to catch a person for a quick question. For me, it’s late in the day – after 3 pm.

• Another idea that I’ve found to be wildly successful with zoom meetings is we end each meeting by everyone going around the video room and saying something positive about today. The goal is to leave everyone on a positive note.

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Promote Interaction

• Newly remote workers are often surprised by the added time and effort needed to locate information from co-workers. Even getting answers to what seem like simple questions can feel like a large obstacle to a worker based at home.

• As the manager, we need to foster that team approach where we’re all helping one another. That is why team meetings are so critical. Ask your employees “who is missing information?” I ask “who has had a conversation with another team member since we last spoke?”

• Share your own frustrations with finding answers!

• Another thing to note and be wary of is because we’re not co-located anymore, we miss the subtle queues that we take for granted in the office. As an example, if you know your officemate is having a rough day, you will view a brusque email from them as a natural product to the stress that they are under. However, if you receive a brusque email from a remote coworker, with no understanding of their current circumstances, you are more likely to take offense, or at a minimum to think poorly of your coworkers professionalism.

• Regularly meeting with your team virtually can also help stave off the negative repercussions of social isolation. This is particularly important right now when the news is so dire.

• We’re been using this time to have each person practice presenting via zoom -it’s SO DIFFERENT and MUCH HARDER

• We’ve been doing two a week just to give practice (and learn from each other). It’s been awesome to watch folks ask questions about what each person is working on AND it’s helped with uncovering hidden resources of information!

• It’s amazing at how much knowledge employees have that at times, they don’t even realize they know so much! It’s a great way to help unleash that knowledge sharing!

If you have someone new to your organization, regularly reach out to them in

particular to check on them. Remember, it can be tough to tell the boss, I haven’t

the slightest idea what I’m doing. Be the coach and mentor we wish we all had.

Learn from this time how challenging it can be to be a remote employee – what can

you learn for the future?

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The foundation of managing employees is

setting clear and concise expectations.

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Setting the Stage for Success

• Setting clear and concise expectations has always been the cornerstone of good people management.

• That said, you can kk-ii-nn-dd-aa get away with NOT being clear and concise when folks were sitting in the cube across from you or right outside your office.

• From an employee’s perspective, it can be harder to ask those quick, simple, perhaps even goofy questions to help clarify expectations. Meaning your employee may just go off on their own, using their interpretation of what you’ve asked them to do.

• So when delegating new projects, don’t use email. Instead, handover assignments via conference call so you can see if the employee is 1) listening/not distracted, 2) is showing the face of confusion AND finally, you can discuss in more detail what FINISHED looks like.

• I phrase it such that “when this project is over, when it’s Day 1 following completed implementation”, this is my expectation of what it will look like or the process going forward.

• You can’t convey nuances via email. That has to be communicated “face-to-face” or as face-to-face as we can get right now.

• So when setting expectations, it’s good to do that via conference call so you have the chance to discuss it in details.

• Now, normally when we’re all co-located, it’s important as the manager to establish monthly, quarterly and yearly performance goals as well as targets for what hitting it out of the park looks like.

• I’ve dialed that back and I’m discussing goals this week, next week. My long-term planning is the end of April. I’m finding employees are just TOO DISTRACTED to think about what we’re going to get done in 2020. Employees are hoping to get through the week and not get sick (or eject their spouse, children or pets from their home!).

• Help your employees FOCUS by discussing goals and expectations weekly.

• I have one employee that I’m meeting with daily to help her get focused as she’s really affected by this whole mess. I’m having her walk around the block when she gets stressed then sick back down and focus on the #1 goal on her list.

• Understand you may have to hand hold a bit more right now – or spoon feed timing and expectations, but 1) you’ll walk out of this experience actually getting stuff accomplished and 2) your team will be stronger because you helped instead of criticized during this time.

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Individual Goals should be SMART:

• Specific – clear, detailed and unambiguous

• Measurable – establish concrete criteria for measuring progress

• Achievable – challenging and a stretch, but realistic

• Relevant – personally impact the goal and must be important to the department/organization

• Time-bound – specific time to accomplish

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Setting Expectations

You’re probably familiar with the concept of SMART goals.

Now, you may have gotten away with setting goals on a daily or weekly basis – as you walked

by your employees desk, you can hand them out one at a time. That doesn’t work with remote

employees. It’s about delegating projects and responsibilities in a more organized approach so

that employees know what you need them to do.

• Specific = add guidelines, details, behaviors – must be able to see if they met the goal or not;

is only way you’ll be able to give feedback

• Example: Resolve accounting discrepancies within 48 hours.

• Measurable = add numbers, make it objective – goes hand-in-hand w/specific

• Example: Secure pledges from ten new donors by end of each week.

• Achievable = goal setting research shows that we are most motivated to achieve goals when

they aren’t too easy or too hard – ASK: why do you think that is (too easy = insulting, “get

around to it”; too hard = pessimistic, “there’s no way”)

• Example: Obtain the PMP professional certification within one year.

• Relevant = tie directly into the company achieving it’s goal.

• Example: Develop and implement a diversity recruitment plan that increases the

number of diversity candidates by 10%.

• Time-bound = absolutely necessary – can be week, month, quarter; need to have, even if it

gets adjusted – helps with time mgmt skills

• Example: Check the fire alarms and emergency lighting in all buildings every six

months.

Setting expectations is a cornerstone of managing all employees, but especially critical for

remote employees. Milestones help motivate and build confidence when they are met. Setting

expectations allows you to easily review and assess their productivity and their progress.

Stay Focused On Goals, Not Activity: It is important to manage expectations and stay focused

on goals when embracing a remote workforce. Don't worry as much about what is being done.

Instead, concentrate on what is being accomplished. If we are meeting our goals, then great. If

not, we need to look into the situation further. It is all about accomplishment, not activity.

If you short-change this process, you’re not setting up your employees for success. At all. AND

THAT IS ON YOU AS THEIR MANAGER.

I have always made it a practice to have employees send an update each Friday of major

accomplishments and their top priorities for the coming week. It’s NOT a thesis – it’s quick bullet

points because we’re also meeting regularly. This is an OUTSTANDING tool to look back on and

see what each employee accomplished (from both your perspective and their perspective),

especially at review time.

Company Goals

Employee Goals

DIRECTION

PERFORMANCE

Departmental Goals

Individual Performance

Setting Expectations

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Linking individual performance to Department Goals that link to Company goals

can help motivate and engage employees who are already distracted.

Your performance is directly helping the company to move forward which in turn

ensures our long-term success. Which will directly benefit you.

I have one employee who is really struggling with this. Oh, and by the way, she’s

an A player. Tying her goals into company performance has made a FANTASTIC

difference in her ability to concentrate. She’s know there is more riding on her

projects than just what I need her to do.

I’ve had her try focusing for one hour sprints throughout the day. Just focus for an

hour and then you can let the world back in because I need your performance to

improve. Can you try that?

She is also the person that I’m having walk around the block when she feels that

shortness of breath because she’s panicking.

It is what it is – I have to help her through this so we can get work done and I don’t

have to terminate an employee for subpar performance.

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Update Goals

Monitor ProgressAgree to Goals

Draft Goals

Define Expected Results

Goal-Setting Process

Setting Expectations

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Another tool/methodology

Have your employees help you draft their goals.

To create motivation and accountability, leaders need to define the expected

results, then let their employees determine how to reach those goals.

Giving employees a direct role in shaping their objectives strengthens their level

of commitment much more than merely handing them a list of goals and sending

them on their way.

Think of how you work. As someone who has a high level of accountability.

How do you react when someone hands you a goal and tells you to do it vs.

when you’re involved in achieving larger company initiatives.

You’re level of commitment is WAY higher in the latter scenario.

So don’t short change employees by thinking they can’t handle larger projects –

quite the opposite actually! Now is the time to delegate those big projects so

that employees see there will be life after COVID! The company will be here for

the long-run and we’re not just surviving, we’re setting ourselves and the

company up to thrive!

I have LOVED having these discussions via zoom too. It’s really been enjoyable

to push folks to think outside the box!

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If employees don’t commit to accomplishing the goals….

Setting Expectations

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When setting expectations and goals, I ask my employees:

• Which goals make you nervous?

• Which goals are you excited about?

• How do your individual goals connect to your personal goals?

• How do your individual goals connect to department/company goals?

• Can you commit to accomplishing these goals?

Not committing is often a sign that:

• Employees think that the goals are unrealistic.

• Employees are not making the connection between their goals and the department/company goals.

• The employee may be unsure of themselves and need additional encouragement and support.

• Employees may be afraid and unable to concentrate. A LOT of that going around right now!!!

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HIGH

LOW HIGH

WIL

L

SKILL

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Situational Leadership:

Skill vs. Will

-Another way to look at motivation is the relationship b/w the employee’s

skill level and will to do the job

-An employee’s “score” (from high to low) on both of these dimensions will

tell you a lot on how you should motivate them; let’s look at some

examples

-Give name for that quadrant and ASK class for some ideas on how they

would motivate that style (can have them break into 4 groups to do,

depending on time); exps:

-High Skill, High Will = “Superstar” = great skill level, great attitude;

motivate by giving stretch goals

-High Skill, Low Will = “Arrogant” = great skill, bad attitude; motivate

by giving them teaching/mentoring responsibilities for others; giving

them new challenges

-Low Skill, Low Will = “Dud” = bad on both; first try to move them to

another box, but if don’t improve, don’t want to keep them

-Low Skill, High Will = “Good Intentions” = “I know I’m incompetent,

but I love this company so much!”; motivate by helping with tasks –

intense teaching, break information/tasks into chunks

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GUIDE/COACH

•Direction/Guidance

•Tell plus questioning

•Discussion/Dialogue

•Stress confidence

•Teach/Train

•Encourage

•Provide ongoing feedback

•Reward small accomplishments

DELEGATE

•Assign responsibility & accountability

•Agree to milestones

•Clarify desired outcome

•Authorize

•Check In

•Increase responsibility

•Increase visibility within organization

•Recognize and Praise

DIRECT

•Tell

•Direction

•Close supervision

•Stress confidence in their ability to learn

•Breakdown tasks

•Create detailed development plan

•Provide just in time feedback

EXCITE/FACILITATE

•Listening

•Supporting

•Discussion

•Encouragement

•Clarify reward/benefit

•Diversify tasks

•Define incentives

•Reward incremental accomplishments

WIL

LSKILL

HIGH

HIGHLOW

LOW

Skill vs. Will Management

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How to adjust your management style based on their attitude (aka

will) vs. skill level.

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Describe to me…

•Your most relevant experiences.

•Your understanding of your role in performing the task.

•Your reactions to performing the task.

•What the end product will look like.

What do you see as…

•The critical components of the task?

•The major obstacles to accomplishing the task?

•My expectations of you in performing this task?

Tell me about…

•How you would get started.

•How you will go about accomplishing this task.

•Our past experiences on tasks of this type.

•How you would prioritize your work.

•How you would like to be managed.

•Any training or preparation you’ve done for this task.

How do you feel about…

•The amount of responsibility you have?

•The difficulty of the task?

•The amount of supervision you can expect from me?

•Your growth opportunities from performing this task?

WIL

L

SKILL

HIGH

HIGHLOW

LOW

SKILL

Skill vs. Will Management

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• As a manager, in most instances, it’s better that you LISTEN vs. TALK.

• By asking questions, the goal is to understand where the employee is

coming from, or what is driving the attitude their exuding so you can

motivate them and get them back to performing at an acceptable level.

• OR where they may need more training due to their lack of skill level.

• Good management practice should NOT go out the window just because

we’re all working remotely! Oh contaire! Quite the opposite! I would say that

your employees need THE BEST MANAGER THEY CAN GET RIGHT

NOW to keep them motivated and focused.

• Questions that go along with the actions you should take based on their will

(aka attitude) vs. will.

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If someone is struggling to do a job (or just not doing it altogether)….

• Was I clear with my expectations?

• Have I given them enough training and/or direction to succeed?

• Did I perhaps give them too much direction (am I micromanaging)?

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Effective People Management

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Feedback & Coaching

Continue to offer feedback and coach employees, even while working remotely!!

I recommend doing so via video conference (vs. just over the telephone) as it’s as close as you

can get to being “in-person.”

It is critical to be even more clear if you are giving constructive feedback.

Feedback is actionable and effective if it….

1. Is Specific –based on objective first hand experience and observation of job performance.

2. Identified the Action/Behavior – constructively, clearly and specifically describes the

action or behavior for which feedback is being provided.

3. Describes What Did or Didn’t Work – Cites accurate and specific examples that explain

why the individual was or was not completely effective in certain instances.

4a. For constructive feedback, ask for clarification.

4b. For positive feedback, ask what they learned.

5. Provides an Acceptable Benefit – Pinpoints how improvement specifically will benefit

her/him, the department and the company.

6. Is Followed-up – Follow-up on the intent of the feedback and any progress towards

improvement.

This is particularly important if you have an employee whose performance is struggling right

now. Don’t ignore it or think “I’ll deal with this when we get back in the office.” Poor performance

is poor performance.

Coaching is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a manager – have the most

transformative impact when you’re in the role of a coach

• Support/challenge = comes from a supportive place, but you are pushing employees out

of their comfort zones

• Listening = key skill; don’t just stop at the facts – must listen for more

• Asking powerful questions = getting to the root of what’s going on. The goal if possible is

to get your employees to figure out next steps without you telling them how to proceed.

• Providing different lens = share perspectives, will be inevitable differences that can be

instructive

• Wider range of options = 2 heads better than 1

• Ownership/accountability = not therapy, not friend-to-friend conversation; should be a

sense of investment on both sides\

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Manage Conflict

Discuss positive, constructive work habits in the office; discuss how we

as a team can work cooperatively towards a common goal even amidst

all this craziness!

Discuss what it means to live up to the social contract; contribute to your

fullest potential; strive for excellence. BE THERE FOR EACH OTHER.

Recognize and respect others and their individuality, including their

communication preferences.

Think before you speak and be sensitive to others, particularly now.

IF ISSUES ARISE:

1. Talk with the other person (or play mediator if it’s two of your

employees)

2. Focus on facts, not on personalities.

3. Listen carefully.

4. Identify points of agreement and disagreement

5. Prioritize the areas of conflict

6. Develop a plan to work on each conflict

7. Follow through on your plan

8. Build on your success

If things are really out of hand, I ask the employee to discuss with me

and I may or may not get involved (or send them back to figuring it out

on their own).

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Motivating a Distributed Team

1. Be the boss you wish you had during a crisis!

2. Meet regularly as a team and individually (especially important if this is not

what you did when you were in the office)

3. Communication is key

4. Avoiding social isolation

5. Coach

6. Give feedback

7. Offer encouragement

8. Express gratitude

9. Celebrate wins - STILL provide recognition – how can you recognize people

via video? Share success stories! Someone who triumphed even from home!

10.Make video calls FUN – video call bingo – it has made video calls A BLAST!

Who can make it through without their pet making a guest appearance on

video call. Introduce your family to everyone. Do a tour of each other’s homes.

11.Tie what they are doing at home to what they care about personally. REMIND

FOLKS THEY ARE STILL MOVING FORWARD even as the world seems to

have stopped.

12.Tie what they are doing to your company’s core mission and values.

13.TRUST your team to work remotely. Give them autonomy.

14.Understand that they may not be as productive at home as they are in the

office. It IS harder to get stuff done working remotely vs. being in the office. It’s

the nature of the beast.

15.Remind my employees that we are learning something new.

16.I’ve tasked employees with keeping a pros/cons list. Or things that we’ll do

next time. If work can get accomplished remotely, once we’re back in the

office, this may be a way that I can have employees work from home one day

a week. TRACK THAT YOURSELF!

17.If it’s not working, DISCUSS IT and FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE IT WORK.

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Be Positive

The attitude in your department starts with YOU.

Be attentive

Be positive

Ask probing questions – don’t assume everything is OK.

Be more generous with praise right now.

Offer encouragement and emotional support. Especially in the context of an abrupt

shift to remote work, it is important for managers to acknowledge stress, to listen to

employees’ anxieties and concerns, and empathize with their struggles.

If a newly remote employee is clearly struggling but not communicating stress or

anxiety, ask them how they’re doing. Proactively reach out and push them to open up.

Even a general questions such as “How is this remote work situation working out for

you so far?” can elicit important information that you might not otherwise hear. One

you ask the question, be sure to listen carefully to the response and briefly restate it

back to the employee, to ensure that you understood correctly.

Let the employee’s stress or concerns (rather than your own) be the focus of this

conversation. That can be hard! It can be a natural tendency to say “oh gosh, yes, I’m

feeling claustrophobic too and launch into your own challenges and tribulations. Active

listening is about the other person, not about you. So amp up your listening skills:

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Organizations with higher levels of

employee engagement indicated lower business costs,

improved performance outcomes, lower staff

turnover and absenteeism, and

fewer safety incidents.*

*Gallup, 201521

Be Social!

Social interactions play an essential role in wellbeing, which, in turn, has a positive impact on employee engagement. And employee engagement does not need to stop just because you are working virtually.

Encourage social interaction! Discuss during a team meeting ways to socialize as a team and individually.

• Talk to one person every day that is not about work. It doesn’t have to be for long; 10-15

minutes is a good amount of time. It’s good for you – it’s good for them. I do this when I

walk around the block or for longer sessions (like walking through the park), I schedule a

couple calls.

• Reach out to someone whom you don’t know well or don’t talk with often.

• Send a text message or email just saying “I hope you’re doing ok.”

• Save time on zoom calls for “coffee talk or weekend chatter.” I typically do that at the

end vs. the beginning if someone needs to go to the next meeting.

• Schedule virtual happy hours or coffee. Grab lunch together via zoom. Virtual pizza

parties – I’ve had pizza delivered to everyone at the same time! It was actually

ridiculously fun.

• Schedule exercise together.

• Book club or at least articles (if books are too much to add to your teams plate at the

moment)

• Don’t forget to celebrate major life events: weddings, anniversaries, holidays, birthdays.

While these types of events may sound artificial or forced, experienced managers of remote

workers (and the workers themselves) report that virtual events help reduce feelings of

isolation, promoting a sense of belonging.

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Exercise

This may seem odd, but as someone who has worked from home for 11 years, it

can be VERY EASY to just work all the time. It’s SO satisfying to finally get all

those emails answered (or close to all those emails answered)! The problem is,

you work all the time!

GET UP AND TAKE A WALK.

Especially if you have young kids at home. You never get a break because

you’re either focused on them or you’re working. Try just to talk around the block

once a day, preferably twice.

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Assume Positive Intent

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I can be changed by what happens to me, but I refuse

to be reduced by it.

~ Maya Angelou

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Thank you!

Thank you so much for joining me today and focusing on how we

can all get along better. I thought I would end with a quote from Maya

Angelou.

We are in unprecedented times whereby our lives are changing – a

lot of which is out of our control. What is within our control how we

react to these event. This quote resonated with me because it says

that no matter what happens, we can refuse to be reduced, or made

less, by it. We can choose how we react, how we respond to what is

happening.

I would urge everyone to stand firm and not allow what is happening

to us today, make us any less than we were before it happened.

Best of luck and stay safe out there!