Everyone’s working from home these days. Remote working had been trending up long before the pandemic and is expected to stay even after the vaccines.

While there are clear benefits of remote working, your talents also face unique challenges in working away from work.

What can we as team leaders do to manage and support our team while working from home?

1. Always stay connected

It’s easy to drift away from the grid when you’re not meeting face-to-face every day. Without constant communication, team members can get cut off from the rest of the organization. Apart from suffering from disengagement and isolation, the team is also kept in the dark about their task progress.

Keep the communication going with your team. Do regular morning meetings where everyone can give updates on where they are and what they need help on. If anything, it’s important to regularly check up on their progress and let them know that the team is here for them.

The one thing that changed for us here at Dreamtalent is how we welcome new hires. First days are no longer the same since we can’t introduce new hires around and shake hands, or take them on an office tour anymore.

But there are other ways to have new hires (as well as current team members) feel involved without having to meet physically. Regular check-up meetings and the weekly virtual get-together helps the team stay connected even from home.

2. Foster work-life balance

While technology helps remote workers stay more connected than ever, it can also blur the line between work and home life. It sets the unhealthy expectation that we need to answer emails and work calls after working hours. Remote employees may even end up being more overworked than coming into the office.

Just because we have the tools to be hyper-connected with remote workers, doesn’t mean that we should expect our team members to stay plugged in all the time. Make sure the team sticks to the set working hours and help your team maintain a healthy work-life balance.

3. Pay attention to mental health

Being isolated from teammates, missing out on office banters, on top of household concerns and the pandemic going on outside would likely take a toll on your employees’ mental health.

Social distancing doesn’t have to mean isolation. Watch out for signs of distress in your team members and be ready to provide support when needed. Check in regularly and invite them for a talk if you feel there’s something they need. Perhaps a day off or even a change in working arrangements. During these trying times, it’s important as team leaders to be empathetic and support team members when we can.

4. Provide the technology

Working from home can take a while to get used to even for the most tech-savvy among us. What used to be as simple as knocking on someone’s office for a talk has turned to checking someone’s availability for a video call, checking audio and video, stumbling over poor internet connection, etc.

Support your team by providing the necessary technology for them to communicate and work effectively from home. For example, you can use Trello to keep track of tasks and projects, Zoom or Google Meet for meetings, or Dreamtalent for remote recruitment and assessment.

5. Give freedom and focus on the results

While it’s important to keep track of your team’s progress, you can’t really control and micro-manage their every action (nor should you, in most cases) when you can only meet in cyberspace.

Freedom is one of the main reasons why remote work was already popular even before the pandemic. Give your team members the freedom to set their own pace, and even deadline when possible, as long as the output is there and is on time.

Remember that the pandemic also changes life outside of work so there may be additional household commitments, and this flexibility helps your team take care of them while also committing to the task at hand.

For recruitment teams

Recruitment teams may face a unique challenge in having to interview, hire, and onboard talents without ever meeting physically. Dreamtalent solves this problem for recruiters by providing an all-in-one solution for assessment and recruitment with scientifically proven psychometric assessments.