Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

Up Close with Middle Managers

In the first post in our middle manager series, I looked at research related to the challenges facing middle managers. However, I was curious to learn what middle managers themselves have been thinking. I consulted a diverse panel of four:  

• Daniel Cook, director of human resources at the law firm Mullen & Mullen 
• Luke Horrocks, inventory analyst at vehicle salvage company Scrap My Car 
• Lorraine Lee, editorial director at Prezi
• Colleen Acanto, a fast casual restaurant chain manager 

Colleen’s real identity has been withheld to protect her privacy.  

What was your biggest fear as a middle manager during the pandemic? 

Luke: I think we were all quite worried about our jobs and what would happen to the company. No one knew which industry would be affected the most, obviously apart from retail. With the focus of our business being collecting damaged cars, the fact that no cars would really be on the road was incredibly concerning. 

Colleen: I feared my staff wouldn’t show up. Of course, I wanted them to put their health and safety first, but we also had a business that was still open during the pandemic.  

Did you feel burned out, and if so, how did you cope with that? 

Daniel: Yes. Sometimes, at work, I reach my maximum mental capacity to digest information and utilize it productively. This is when I realize that I am exhausted and am facing burnout. Usually, when I am burned out, I feel emotionally frustrated and physically drained. Often, it can lead to severe migraines that affect my work quality and mood. There have been times I’ve felt fatigued to the point where I am forced to take a half day and leave work early. I definitely believe in taking constant breaks during work so I’m able to focus and I reward myself for completing tasks. It motivates me to do more. 

Luke: I never felt burned out during the pandemic. I think working from home gave me some comfort in a strange way. Post pandemic, our business has hit levels we haven’t seen for a long time, so getting back into the swing of things was quite a struggle initially. Long hours to catch up and little social time started to affect me. 

What was an aspect of your management style that you changed during or after COVID-19? 

Luke: While we were hit by the pandemic, we had to focus on different areas of the business than we had before, so I assigned new tasks like going through existing stock or revamping our storage areas. I also started meeting with my team every morning for a general catch-up and to check in on how everyone was coping with the at-home work environment. 

Lorraine: With the shift to remote work, I saw that I needed to become a lot more intentional with general communication and feedback to my team. I recall one time when some managers hosted a virtual happy hour, and one of our quietest employees was really talkative. This was a clear sign to us that he was craving connection and we needed to create more touchpoints for that. 

While making sure your direct reports were taken care of, how did you keep your own boss in the loop? 

Lorraine: In pre-pandemic times, it was easier for your boss to know what you were working on because you were in the office together. You could have watercooler chats in which you'd bring up an exciting idea or connect the dots between different teams. Now, us middle managers need to be our own best advocates. I meet one-on-one with my manager weekly and provide them with a single, easy-to-read document with the most important updates. 

Colleen: I work at a franchise, and the owner isn’t around a lot. There have been a lot of times when I’ve asked how they want to receive information and have needed to get permission to handle an issue that might come up out of the blue. Generally, I feel that there’s no such thing as too much communication, but I’ve also realized that sometimes I won’t get answers and will have to move forward confidently anyway. 

Thanks to my panel of middle managers for sharing their experiences so openly and thoughtfully. It was inspiring to hear that despite a high level of uncertainty, middle managers are committed to caring both for themselves and their organizations, regardless of organizational hurdles or management style. 

In the next post, we’ll begin tackling solutions for supporting the Lukes, Daniels, Lorraines, and Colleens in your organization.

The Plight of the Middle Manager in 2022

Welcome to our blog series on middle managers. Over the next two months, we will focus on the millions who comprise this heroic group. We’ll start with an overview of modern middle manager challenges and follow with some individual perspectives from middle managers. Our final two posts will cover general solutions and technology-specific solutions for supporting the middle managers in our organizations.

When I was 24 years old and working in a junior-level PR job in New York City, I decided to write a book about everything work-related I hadn’t been taught in college. Burnout was top of mind.

As it turns out, I had no idea.

Fast forward 20 years, and many of my generational compatriots are middle managers. They took these roles at a time when burnout had increased so much that the World Health Organization had labeled it an “occupational phenomenon.” And, in conjunction with the COVID-19 pandemic, late 2021 survey data from Gallup found that manager and middle manager burnout is only getting worse and is precipitously higher than individual contributor burnout.

It's not just the pandemic

It’s easy to attribute burnout to working two years in a pandemic, but the issue is more nuanced and multifactorial. First, let’s consider the role within the organization. A manager in the middle of several layers of hierarchy must maintain relationships with those below them and those above them. “It requires being both a proactive leader to direct reports and an engaged follower to the top management – all at the same time,” wrote Zahira Jaser last year in Harvard Business Review.

Jaser explored other challenges facing middle managers, including the need to create a dialogue with and appease people with conflicting agendas, to amplify the voices of direct reports upwards, and to critically appraise and balance dilemmas.

Do middle managers receive proper training for this complex dance? It depends, but the answer is often no. Ceridian’s 2022 Executive Survey found that while leaders recognize the value of middle managers, they aren’t always great at supporting them.

When Executive Survey respondents were asked how their organizations support middle managers, only half (51%) said their organizations offer management training programs.

A lack of comprehensive leadership development guidance and mentoring often leaves middle managers feeling less secure. Millennial managers are especially vulnerable to getting in over their heads, as they were promoted into supervisory positions much earlier than prior generations. All these factors lead to a profound experience of middle manager burnout.

For the rest of this piece, head over to the Ceridian website.

Caring for Your Managers' Well Being

I know a PR professional who rocked her individual contributor job during the pandemic. Her boss took notice, and at the beginning of this year, she was promoted to a supervisor role.

While she was more than qualified for this transition, my friend struggled. She’d suffered anxiety and burnout during the two long years of COVID-19 and felt physically and emotionally isolated from the team she now managed.

Her organization probably would have wanted to help her – if they knew what was going on. But, the company didn’t have a mechanism to find out, and this woman didn’t feel comfortable sharing out of the blue.

A 2021 Gartner survey revealed that 68% of HR leaders agree that hybrid work responsibilities are overwhelming for managers, but only 14% are taking action to remedy this. The manager experience, and especially the new manager experience, can go a long way.

Here is a sample of my guidance related to caring for your new managers’ well-being.

Build a sense of psychological safety: Psychological safety is a shared belief held by members of a team that others on the team will not embarrass, reject, or punish you for speaking up. Psychological safety is a component of organizational culture that admittedly takes time to establish, but the essence is this: new managers should not feel like their new position or reputation is in jeopardy if they admit they’re struggling.

Develop online training materials that demonstrate empathy: There are obviously certain things you expect your new managers to learn. However, these messages should avoid judging and acknowledge that everyone is doing the best they can. They will also communicate that you understand the stressors new managers are facing and that you give your new managers permission to be human.

Facilitate open dialogue between leaders, managers, and colleagues about mental health: Provide talking points (depression and anxiety are nothing to be ashamed of, etc.) and offer confidential support resources (behavioral health, crisis hotlines, etc.).

Consider expanding your benefits package beyond the basic EAP: Be creative with new wellness services that may include things like nutrition coaching, health retreats, and massage.

Organize all-hands events that focus on mindfulness, resilience, and coping with uncertainty: These can be provided in person or virtually, and ideally, senior leaders will participate. In addition to sharing new tools and coping methods, these events will double as team building and relationship enhancing exercises for your distributed workers.

Share the signs of burnout and encourage new managers to seek help before they are drowning: Ensure new managers understand their career and flexwork options, and that you’ve provided training on how to operate most effectively in a hybrid or remote work environment. Remember that this is still a new concept for everyone and new managers don’t know what they don’t know.

To learn more about building a supportive experience for your new managers, check out the webinar replay and let us know what you think!

5 Boxes to Check for Your First-Time Manager Experience

The first time I was promoted into a managerial position, I closed the door of my fancy new office and held back tears born of fear and Impostor Syndrome. But here’s the thing. I could leave said office, walk down the hall, and get a pep talk from my boss.

In a distributed workforce where you rarely or never see your own manager or direct reports and are often doing the jobs of three people, you may be experiencing the toughest time in recent history for managers.

According to a Gallup survey, depression increased for managers in 2021 despite being unchanged for leaders and ICs, and one in three managers often or always feel burned out.

In my recent column for the Wall Street Journal’s Workplace Report, I spoke with Alyssa Lahar, chief human resources officer for ZoomInfo, a subscription-based database service. Lahar shared that managers often find themselves not at the bottom rung and but also not in positions of influence, which leads to a feeling of powerlessness. “Middle managers tend to be stretched the thinnest, and their work tends to be unseen,” she said.

Especially vulnerable are first-time middle managers, who too often are thrust into new roles without proper guidance, mentorship, or training. Without the in-person management experience to draw from, it’s even  more important that organizations use technology to fill the gaps.

Specifically, they should identify a solution that immerses new managers in the organization’s approach to leadership, performance, engagement and productivity.

Not only should the technology be customizable for the unique needs of the individual manager, but it should also have the capability to flex with evolving business requirements. If you are smartly rethinking your first-time manager offering, here are five elements to consider including.

• Retention: Providing detailed information on new role expectations and team contributions, reducing the uncertainty, frustration, and burnout that leads to attrition.
• Knowledge Transfer: Communicating with key stakeholders to ensure continuous project management and workflow.
• Recruitment: Making the hiring process as seamless as possible so that managers can quickly select and onboard new talent for vacant roles.
• Talent Management: Facilitating consistent and timely performance evaluations for and engagement with direct reports.
• Internal Mobility: Clarifying manager career paths and opportunities for internal movement and transition.

Creating a Culture Where Employees Feel Safe

Each month, the UKG Workforce Institute poses a top-of-mind question from the world of HR and include several perspectives from our advisory board (including me!)

“What are two ways companies can create a culture where employees feel safe speaking up, asking questions, and/or providing feedback?”

“Rather than focus on aggregate corporate culture, ask where in the organization this is a problem that is impacting business results, then look deeply at the individual cases to determine the root cause. Be careful about assuming speaking up and asking questions is the natural and correct way of being. There are many ‘good’ reasons why managers may not want employees to speak up, and we need to be open to understanding — not merely dismissing — those reasons.” — David Creelman, chief executive officer, Creelman Research

“First, start early by conducting candidate experience surveys. Not only does the organization make sure its strategy is on target but, when done right, it sends the message that the organization values employee feedback. Then, practice empathetic listening. This will help to reduce misunderstandings and create better connections.” — Sharlyn Lauby, author, HR Bartender blog

“Leaders should look at their new hybrid cultures as an opportunity to boost employees’ sense of belonging and take diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) efforts to the next level. Consult your employees — especially those in marginalized groups — before establishing new rituals to ensure they are as fair and inclusive as possible. Additionally, hybrid-workplace communication must be more frequent and purposeful, with employee-listening mechanisms built into the daily experience, so people can provide opinions and feedback on their needs and wishes. Scheduled digital messages and verbal check-ins are standard protocol top to bottom, but what about side to side (peer) and cross-functionally?” — Alexandra Levit, author, Humanity Works

“First, start with trusting your employees and train managers to trust their employees. Consider this sentiment from Aron Ain, the CEO of a well-respected worldwide company: ‘employees have to un-earn my trust.’ State clearly to employees that you trust them and also state the kinds of actions or events that will likely result in losing your trust. Second, develop managers in such a way that they communicate with their employees whenever they are on the pathway that will result in a loss of trust, unless the respective employee changes their path. Clearly state (to an employee) how to change the path in such a manner that will avoid the loss of trust. It is only from a position of mutual trust that we can expect employees to be open in their communications to management and each other, such as asking questions, making suggestions, or providing feedback.” — Dennis Miller, assistant vice president of HR and benefits administration, The Claremont Colleges

“Employers create a culture where employees feel safe giving feedback by 1) asking for it and 2) responding positively and transparently to it. Asking for feedback should begin from their first interview encounter with the company. Ask candidates about their experience: what went well, what could have been improved, whether or not the experience makes them more/less excited to work with the company. Within their first 30 days of work, ask about their onboarding and orientation experiences, as well as how the job is measuring up compared with what was shared during the interview process. Ask about their benefits, their compensation, the systems being used, the processes being followed, their managers, the coworkers — everything you can think of! Solicit their feedback as early and often as possible. Once you receive their feedback, respond to it. If you send out a survey, publish the results. If you ask an employee for their feedback, thank them. If your employees make suggestions, acknowledge them, especially when you use those suggestions as a factor in business decisions. If you cannot use their suggestions or take action on something they’ve requested, explain why the petition isn’t possible at the time (or ever). When we treat our employees like capable adults who contribute value to our organizations, they will feel the safety and support they need to behave as such.” — Sarah Morgan, chief excellence officer, BuzzARooney, LLC

“Vulnerability goes a long way in creating a culture where employees feel safe speaking up or asking awkward questions. For example, leaders shouldn’t be afraid to anticipate what’s on the mind of employees, go first, and ask and answer the tough questions that people are thinking. Technology can also aid in the creation of a culture where employees feel secure providing feedback. Using surveys and communicating the anonymity behind the questionnaire can be one way to ensure workers that employees’ psychological safety is a priority.” — Laurie Ruettimann, host, Punk Rock HR podcast

Build Gen Z's Engagement, Confidence, and Skills

When I was 22 years old, I was struggling mightily in my first job out of college. Even as a high achieving student, I had no idea how to behave in the business world, and despite valiant efforts, I was not successful.

It was hard enough learning the rules when I was physically surrounded by people willing and able to indoctrinate me, and I can’t help but feel for the Generation Z-ers (born 1996-2012) who are launching their careers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

These young professionals are trying to assess responsibilities and expectations in an environment where everyone is behind a screen, scattered around the world.

Gen Z may be digitally adept, but they’ve been prevented from observing a lot of behavior in person, and as such, can’t absorb the nuances of work as easily. It’s one thing to work remotely when you already know how the business world operates and can use established relationships to figure out any ambiguities.

My suspicion is that failing to understand and address this will affect companies’ ability to keep their Gen Z talent, and these young workers will seek out companies that better support them.

I tested this assumption against a recent global Gen Z workforce study from consumer software firm Adobe. The survey of 3,400 workers indicated that more than half of Gen Z employees intend to pursue a new job in the next year – a higher percentage than any other generation. It also found that Gen Z is the least satisfied generation at work, with only 56% satisfied with work/life balance and 59% with their jobs overall.

The pandemic certainly isn’t the only story here. According to a Western Governors University study released just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gen Z was already suffering. At that time, only 45% of Gen Z-ers said their mental health was good or excellent. That’s significantly lower than the next closest generation, millennials. Thirty-seven percent of Gen Z-ers also reported that they received help from a psychologist or mental health expert – more than any other generation.

While it’s not an employer’s responsibility to solve all of Gen Z’s problems, work-related isolation doesn’t help their cause, and well-placed intervention can go a long way in attracting and keeping young talent.

By combining our knowledge about the temperament and preferences of this generation with the high tech/high touch capabilities of human capital management software, you can rally your junior level employees to higher productivity and engagement.

 

Gen Z strategy 1: Enhanced onboarding

Communicate actively with young professional hires between the offer letter and start date. Do not give them time to regret their decision or change their minds, and instead send targeted, friendly messages expressing your enthusiasm that they’re joining the team. The right employee onboarding software can help support organic interactions and introduce new Gen Z hires to your culture, right from their first day.

When they do come aboard, make sure your orientation schedule and materials are customized to the person and the role. For instance, many Gen Z-ers prefer a one-on-one manager chat and team intros to a generic “about the business” program and would rather consume short video clips via a tech-driven employee onboarding software over a massive employee handbook.

Digitize your paperwork and, keeping in mind diversity and inclusion best practices, put together a roster of topics and expectations to cover that are specific to young professionals. This roster may include areas you think are common sense (e.g. the importance of arriving on time to meetings, the appropriate language to use when texting or emailing a client), but these norms might not be universal across cultures, and Gen Z’s experience with them might be limited.

Work with new hires’ managers to set their goals and learning cadence and build in weekly (if not daily) check-ins to assess how Gen Z-ers are feeling.

Gen Z strategy 2: Flexible scheduling

Many Gen Z-ers have never had to commute to a building and work in an office for a set number of hours every day. Especially when their safety and convenience are at stake, your Gen Z-ers may balk if an employer mandates staff back to the office without good reason.

Engage in employee listening strategies, from official pulse surveys to informal text chats, and ascertain the type of work arrangement that works best for your staff in various cultures and locations. Then, allow individual employees as much control as possible in determining their hours and environment. A hybrid work model can go a long way toward Gen Z employee retention and engagement.

For the rest of the article, head over to the Ceridian blog.

How to Make the Most of Your DEI Initiatives

For most organizations, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals are aspirational. Businesses, and the leaders within them, want to be as inclusive as possible. However, they often languish at the stage of simply getting a diverse group of employees into the room.

In Ceridian’s 2022 Pulse of Talent survey of more than 6,800 workers from around the globe, we see some positive news about the state of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace today. Fifty-four percent of respondents described their organizations as very or extremely diverse, and only 2% said their organizations aren’t diverse at all. Sixty-eight percent rated their employers as being good or excellent at fostering a culture of belonging.

However, there is still room for improvement. Just over half (53%) of this year’s Pulse of Talent respondents said their organizations are committed to addressing inequities in the workplace, and only 49% reported knowing that their employer has a DEI strategy.

Of those respondents who said their organizations have a DEI strategy, less than one-third (32%) felt they are making progress towards diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. Only 14% said their employers are leaders in DEI.

This data may indicate that efforts to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace are occurring behind the scenes but aren’t impacting the employee experience.

Also of note in the latest Pulse of Talent survey findings is that an overall lack of alignment between employer and employee values – which may include DEI – is driving some turnover. Twenty percent of respondents who are seeking a new job cite it as the reason they’re leaving.

So, how can employers move beyond just paying lip service to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace and ensure their DEI initiatives have a meaningful impact on their workforce and culture? Here are five tips.

Set appropriate DEI metrics

Unfortunately, some efforts aimed at achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace are undertaken for optics, with little intention to change an organization’s culture. But DEI programs are only as valuable as the degree to which they sufficiently motivate a diverse group of employees to join and stay with your company, which means accurate progress tracking is essential.

Many organizations already have representation metrics, meaning they measure whether the number of diverse employees in a department or job level is suitable given overall demographics. However, your DEI initiatives should also move the needle on metrics such as a diverse group of employees interviewed, a diverse group of employees promoted, a diverse group of employees retained within the company, and a diverse group of employees in senior leadership positions.

Perform a DEI analysis

Here’s where employee listening, or the process by which you capture and understand the employee experience, can get you started on taking your DEI initiatives to the next level.

Just because you’ve taken actions to focus on DEI or set up employee resource groups (ERGs) or committees already doesn’t mean you shouldn’t regularly revisit your strategy. You can engage a third-party expert to perform a DEI analysis to understand how various programs, messaging, and measurement techniques fit together and where you stand compared to your competitors.

People analytics platforms can also help you understand what marginalized groups experience throughout your employee lifecycle and identify any issues, how these came about, and what to do about them.

Your best source of information, however, may come from asking people directly. By surveying or interviewing diverse employees about what they think of workplace DEI efforts to date and what else they feel needs to be done, you will gain a more accurate picture of the true impact of your efforts.

For the rest of the piece, head over to the Ceridian blog.

Pre-empt the Great Resignation with Creative Sourcing

By now, most everyone in human capital and workforce circles has heard the term “Great Resignation.” The general idea is this: as the economy improves and companies are mandating that employees head back to the office, disengaged workers who have stayed put through the pandemic are taking the leap. In fact, according to the 2021 Microsoft Work Trend Index, 41% of employees are planning to leave their current job within a year.

Over the next year or two, we can expect the current employer’s market to evolve into a job seeker’s market, especially for seasoned employees in hot industries. This means that no matter how prestigious your employer brand, or how desirable your positions are, you may find yourself at a loss for talent.

The obvious way to pre-empt the Great Resignation is by improving the experience you’re offering to current employees. However, talent acquisition is an essential piece of the puzzle, and if you recruit the way you’ve always recruited – for example, insisting on candidates who check two dozen specific boxes or who graduated from the “best” universities – your hiring process is likely to drag on far longer than it needs to. And this, in turn, negatively impacts the employee experience for current employees who are doing more with less.
Let’s look at a few creative sourcing strategies through which you are most likely to interface with passive candidates who are the best fit for your organization.

Contact people who started a new job during the pandemic.

I heard this one in a recent HR expert roundtable, and it makes a lot of sense. Combine the fact that many companies have been terrible at onboarding during COVID-19 with the notion that employees are most likely to quit a job in the first three months, and you have a whole lot of good people sitting on LinkedIn wishing they’d made a different choice. Talk to them. You never know what you might find out.

Don’t insist on FTEs or local candidates.

Are you sure you require someone full-time and/or someone who lives close to headquarters? Because when you insist on these two things, you narrow your candidate pool considerably. Contract workers especially are so common now that the U.S. government even addresses them on the W4 form. I encourage you to consider whether a given job can be done just as easily by a worker in another state, or one who earns money another way when you don’t need them.

Join an industry guild or association.

This is admittedly not a new sourcing tip for me, but after joining several groups over the last few years, I’ve personally realized its power. Through my associations with the Grey Swan Guild, the Future Today Institute, and the Association of Professional Futurists, I’ve casually met enough talented futurists to fill my collaboration cup for the rest of my career.

For more where this came from, head over to the SilkRoad blog.

Don’t Be a Victim of the Great Resignation

By now, you’ve likely heard the term “the great resignation.” Anthony Klotz, a professor at Texas A&M University, coined the term in a May Bloomberg article to refer to the great numbers of workers expected to exit the workforce after the pandemic.

Klotz does his own research, but a recent Microsoft study, the 2021 Work Trend Index, mirrored his findings. Microsoft surveyed more than 30,000 people in 31 countries and analyzed trillions of productivity and labor signals across LinkedIn and Microsoft 365 to forecast the pending workforce departures.

According to Microsoft, over 40 percent of the global workforce are considering leaving their employer this year, 46 percent are planning to make a major pivot or transition, and only 38 percent of employees are thriving in their careers right now. The situation is worse for women. McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2020 study found that one in three working mothers have considered leaving the workforce or downshifting their careers because of COVID-19.

The Microsoft and McKinsey data suggest that the pandemic led employees to question their priorities and either transition to work they found more meaningful or decrease the focus on their job generally. But while this was certainly a factor, new data from Stanford University illustrated that how companies treated their employees also played a significant role.

According to Stanford, the pandemic had a cascading effect on organizations with unsupportive cultures. Companies that had historically laid people off, decreased compensation, held back promotions, or sacrificed psychological safety to preserve the bottom line engaged in more of these behaviors during COVID-19. Stressed-out employees who might have been disgruntled before were downright disgusted. And now they’re ready to quit.

Interestingly, food service, hospitality and retail – some of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic – are experiencing the most resignations. A “We Quit” sign left on the door of a Nebraska Burger King restaurant after the entire staff walked out really said it all.

For more, check out the full piece on the SilkRoad blog.

Managing a Team You Never Meet: The Remote Small Business

Small-business owners who offer remote work as part of their hiring perks packages may find themselves a step ahead of competitors who don’t in the search for talent in a tight labor market. But how can small-business owners be sure they’re prepared to manage a part-time or fully remote workforce?

To make the most out of remote-work policies, consider what jobs are best suited for remote work, the differences between the types of remote work, and how you can apply key organizational principles to your workforce to ensure it is effective, responsive, and productive.

How Remote Work Has Changed

Although remote work isn't new, just two years ago, the landscape looked quite different. In late 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shared a report based on the responses of 10,000 salaried workers in 2017 and 2018. It found that that only 15 percent of "wage and salary workers had days they only worked at home" and "just over one-half of these workers worked one day or more per week at home, and about one-seventh worked at home five or more days per week."

Among salaried and non-salaried workers alike, these numbers were about to change drastically. According to a June 2020 policy brief from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, 42 percent of U.S. workers were working from home full-time, accounting for more than two-thirds of economic activity. (The report surveyed 2,500 employees in May 2020.)

The report also found that nearly one-quarter of U.S. employees expected to continue working from home full-time post-pandemic, and an additional 28 percent expected to work from home part-time. And after COVID-19 dissipates, the report indicates that most organizations will facilitate a hybrid of in-person and remote working.

It can be tempting to think these WFH trends mainly apply to large corporations with thousands of highly compensated employees, but that isn't always the case. In June 2020, an occupational analysis done by the University of Chicago indicated that 37 percent of all U.S. jobs could be done at home.

Some small-business owners seem to intuitively understand this. Also in 2020 (April), more than half (57 percent) of the 250 small and midsize business owners surveyed by Intermedia planned to adopt remote working options for employees in the long term. After shifting to remote working, employee availability went up 19 percent and life satisfaction 7 percent. The surveyed owners also experienced falling overhead costs and improved worker attitudes and productivity.

The Different Types of Remote Work

If you're going to run your business using remote teams, understand that a variety of arrangements constitute remote work. Many successful business owners know that remote work isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition, and that choosing the mix that works best for you and each individual employee will ensure a more effective team down the line.

For simplicity's sake, the primary types of remote work are fully or hybrid virtual teams—that is 100 percent virtual versus some mix of in-person with remote work.

Fully virtual teams describes arrangements in which all team members are 100 percent remote with no office time, explains Lauren Bidwell, senior research scientist at HR technology firm SAP Success Factors.

"Hybrid teams encompass some team members working remotely but coming in occasionally, and others working from the office all or most of the time,” she adds.

A fully virtual team may be preferable if your team members work independently and don't require the resources of a physical office space to do their jobs efficiently. After all, going fully virtual means you can offer your employees the maximum flexibility while potentially saving a bundle on overhead and expenses.

On the other hand, if you have a business in which in person creativity and brainstorming are core components, you may consider requiring the regular physical proximity that hybrid work offers. 

Carlos Castelán, managing director of retail consulting firm The Navio Group, suggests some additional benefits of hybrid work.  “An in-person environment can be beneficial to build a company culture, to give younger employees more hands-on training and to foster innovation,” he says. 

The key for small-business owners? Don't just do what your neighbor or competitor is doing. Take the time to think through whether you really need people in the office, and if so, when, and how much. And there's no harm in asking others for their opinions as you strive to make sense of the issue.

“HR is often called in to decide on the most optimal arrangement, which is usually one that balances employee autonomy, cultural cohesion and productivity,” SAP's Bidwell says.

Jobs Suited to Remote Work

Many are familiar with traditionally remote jobs, including IT and programming, marketing and public relations, accounting and finance, professional services, and customer care. While these roles remain key remote-work candidates, other jobs are increasingly proving they’re remote-friendly. 

“There really are a variety of businesses that work well remotely," says Rachel Brenke of business coaching firm Real Biz Accelerator. Inspired by the location needs of her military spouse employees, Brenke has managed wholly virtual teams around the world for more than a decade and today leads an all-women remote team of 16.

As an example of a type of small business that is evolving with respect to remote work, Brenke cites law firms. "The mindset has always been that you must be in a suit and tie and in an office every day in order to provide value to your boss and or your clients," she says. "The pandemic has highlighted that this mentality is no longer needed in a world with the technology available at our fingertips, and the quality-of-life improvements that have resulted are very encouraging."

If you are a small-business owner embracing remote work, there are a variety of sources you can tap for ideas and potential employees. Specialized staffing firms, for example, can help you target appropriate remote employees in a variety of functions. You might also consider reaching out to former employees who left on a good note, who understand your business and whom you trust. Their circumstances may have changed, and they could be amenable to a remote work opportunity.

Keep in mind, though, that while remote job categories have certainly expanded this year, working in this way is still best suited to a specific personality: namely someone who can work and solve problems independently without a great deal of supervision. A hands-off, but supportive management style is may be best for these individuals provided they have demonstrated that they are reliable and trustworthy. 

There may well be times when you must manage employees who are not as well suited to virtual work but are doing their jobs to the best of their ability. Be prepared to offer more general assistance and helpful strategies, schedule frequent check-ins, and review their deliverables so excellent (or subpar) contributions don't slip under the radar.

Organizing Your Company in a Remote-First Era

Whether you're starting a new company that will operate fully or semi-remotely or are reconfiguring because of recent events, the way you manage and structure your workforce can be critically important to its success.

Bob Pozen is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and the co-author of Remote, Inc., which explores how to think about management in a remote-first era. "Generally speaking, if you're a small business owner, I don't think it makes sense to run an all-remote team in most situations. Instead, consider how you might design a hybrid work structure," Pozen says.

To do this, Pozen suggests leaders consider five factors he calls FLOCS: function, location, organization, culture, and schedule.

Function

A team member function, for instance, plays into whether employees will be more productive collaborating in person or focusing quietly at home. Determine this by taking an inventory of what each of your employees does on an everyday basis, as well as their unique personality and preferences and customize work arrangements accordingly.

Location

Pozen says that location is critical because if team members are 100 percent geographically dispersed from each other already, there’s no point in making them come to a company location where they'd simply sit in an empty cubicle by themselves. On the other hand, if your employees are somewhat geographically proximal, a hybrid work structure could involve them traveling to an in-person get together a few times a month. 

Organization

In this context, organization refers to your degree of hierarchy, or how many levels of management, you establish for your company. 

“Some research has found that a flatter organizational hierarchy facilitates virtual work, and the more autonomy employees have to do their jobs without micromanagement, the higher their productivity outside the office will be,” Pozen says.

Culture

Be honest about whether your culture is conducive to remote work. The more traditional and bureaucratic your company is, the harder the adjustment may be. For example, Pozen says that companies with an individualistic culture make a smoother transition to virtual work as do companies with employees whose work doesn’t immediately depend on other team members’ actions.

"But, companies that stress collectivism, or have a "we" or "us" mentality, may struggle in a remote-first arrangement," he adds.

If your company isn't suited to remote work, all is not lost. You can still offer your employees other types of flexibility, such as self-scheduling and fluid hours.

Lisa Hudson, president of The Growth Coach, a firm that advises small-business owners on remote work. recommends that remote-first leaders set up clear expectations and timelines, as well as check-in points. 

“Launching a remote or hybrid team requires clear responsibilities, direct lines of leadership and a consistent communication tool,” she says.

“You have to be more strategic and stop relying on ‘drive-by conversations.’ Using virtual collaboration apps like Slack, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, leaders can touch base face-to-face, build rapport with employees they might not have met in person and improve their coaching effectiveness.”

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