Embracing hybrid schedules in the post-pandemic world is one of the biggest challenges plaguing most organizations. Remote team management is only next in line. With some employees working online and others onsite, friction is bound to occur.
After all, those onsite do not get to experience the same flexibility. How can you, as a manager/supervisor, foster cohesiveness and minimize tension between the two? Here are some ways to identify and deal with friction between employees.
Taking resentment between employees at face value might not always be a solution. It would only mean that more employees should work from home. Managing such situations requires getting to the crux of what caused the resentment in the first place.
Recent research shows that daily rates of stress, anger, sadness, and worry among American workers have significantly increased in the last decade. The hybrid working model may only add fuel to the fire in the coming years. This is why having frequent, honest conversations and conducting focus group discussions is the key to managing rifts from time to time.
Managing your team remotely requires practicing some degree of transparency. According to Daniel Davis, a Ph.D. who studies future workplace trends, there are many factors at play when deciding which employees should be onsite or remote. These factors include but are not limited to:
After all, what works well for one may not work well for another. The key is to ensure that internal communications remain as transparent as possible. It doesn’t matter who works onsite or remotely. But employees reserve the right to know why they can or cannot work remotely.
Most companies can now hire international employees. Most of these employees have no choice but to work remotely. When some employees work onsite and others work remotely, it can foster the “us vs them” mentality.
As a manager, it’s critical that you address this sentiment by sharing details about the sacrifices remote employees make when it comes to meeting deadlines and completing tasks. Address the perception that employees who work remotely get to enjoy all the flexibility they want. Help them understand that working from home carries its own challenges.
Sometimes, ensuring smooth remote team management requires rethinking and even changing certain policies. Did you possibly overlook certain jobs that could be performed remotely? Do the onsite employees really have to be onsite?
For example, it’s understandable that factory workers have to be physically present to do the job. But on days they only have paperwork, can working from home be considered? Reflecting on these questions will certainly help you take the first step toward changing certain policies that no longer serve your workforce.
Employees who show up to work every day may be yearning for more appreciation. They may carry the belief that if they wake up early and navigate through traffic to show up, they are eligible for some appreciation.
To some extent, it’s alright for onsite employees to feel that way. The right way to go about it is for managers to take note of their time-related discipline and praise them honestly. Even a small act of appreciation goes a long way in making onsite employees feel valuable.
Hiring global talent can benefit your organization in many ways. But managing the global team is not everyone’s cup of tea.
A huge cause of the rift between onsite and online employees is the different standards they’re held to. To some degree, onsite employees should also enjoy the same flexibility as online employees.
For example, you can start by giving all employees the same scheduling options. Give your employees the flexibility to decide where they want to work and how they want to manage the ebb and flow out of or inside the office.
Let them decide how they’ll achieve targets by working where they want to. When you give everyone the same freedom, you can greatly reduce instances of friction.
Contrary to popular belief about onsite or remote team management, most employees are resentful about the lack of trust and not necessarily the absence of flexibility. Sure, they may desire to work in their pajamas all day and enjoy the comfort of their homes, but at the core of it, they may believe their managers don’t trust them enough to allow them to work from home.
They may also have a general distrust of their remote counterparts that they’re not really working if they’re at home. This is why pairing the onsite and remote teams frequently is important. Create more engagement opportunities across the company and ensure that all employees meet at least twice or thrice a year.
At Top Notch Remote Solutions, we believe in strengthening the company’s culture, as it is the key to ensuring employee retention and motivation. No matter where resentments may stem from, a strong culture can help tackle all of them.
We don’t only invest our resources in hiring teams for you but also in sharing tools and techniques that will help you retain them. The more engaged your onsite and remote employees are, the longer they will stay. The longer they stay, the better your firm’s revenue growth. And the higher the turnover, the lower your company’s chances of creating and sustaining profit.
Contact us now for more information and a detailed consultation!
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