In this new normal, it’s not only a side consideration to onboard and facilitate remote working - it’s become a standard approach for tech companies up and down the UK.
Post-lockdown, as we return to a working-in-the-office mindset, it’s likely that employers and employees will want to continue a remote working mentality, alongside an operational but less full-time office team.
This will result in mixed location working, with some employees working in the office and some working from home. But how do you manage this combined team culture and how can you make sure that you manage to keep all parties happy - including yourself? Here are some key points that you might want to consider.
1 Identify the typical issues of mixed location working
Your team is still your team, whether it’s part-remote and part in the office, and so you have to be on top of how you manage your employees wherever and however they work.
If you think that managing your new agile and part-remote team is going to mean no change at all - think again, issues can creep up on you quickly.
If there are no extra communication methods in place, teams can become divided pretty fast with cliques forming and people misreading and misinterpreting communications solely given over email or slack etc.
Lack of cohesive messaging can lead to divisions in a team - and it's not always immediately apparent how those divisions all started.
2 Involve the whole team
Good management is in part, focused around pre-empting key issues that might arise within your tech startup or business team. Be quick to get your whole team together, to unify this new cultural approach and to understand and agree as a collective how things will work going forward.
Ask the team what they are most concerned about with mixed location working and take on board the key issues that they identify.
3 Plans of action
Share your own concerns with the team too, as it is important that this is a collective and open forum.
Post any key issues that you and the team identify, plan what the process might be to make sure that if a work scenario occurs, what the agreed approach is that the team will take to make sure any issues or concerns are resolved. Figuring out solutions together is a good way to part resolve issues before they happen too.
4 Have a plan to integrate new starters
With typical issues identified and solutions for these scenarios at least mapped out, make sure to integrate any new starters into this way of thinking so that they too understand the role that they will also play in making sure that positive team culture is protected and perhaps even enhanced.
Alongside this, actively plan for new starters to meet both parts to the team so that team unity is protected. Perhaps even twin a new starter with a team member who works in the other location, so that rapport can hopefully be built up quickly.
5 Communications plan
Slack, Microsoft Teams, Asana, Flock, etc were all mentioned in our recent article that focuses on apps and platforms used by tech startups and alongside good face to face or virtual communication, they can provide effective ways to communicate out key objectives and goals and to keep on top of projects and teams. Whatever technology you decide to use, make sure that everyone in the team, virtual or in the office, uses the same platforms. That way, everyone is on the same page with what is going on.
Alongside technology it is important that communication between everyone in the office is regular. Weekly calls, zooms and team meetings should be the norn. Remember that verbal communication and discussion is better than just email etc, where instruction and plans of action can become confused or misinterpreted.
6 Get-togethers
If your workforce, both remote and in the office, are still all local enough to the business HQ, be that the startup office in Old Street, or that co-working space just outside of town, there’s the option to bring them all together on occasion for socially-distanced meetings.
If you have a big event space, research what the current government guidelines are for physical meetings for teams and how many people is a responsible number to have in one place together at one time. If the appropriate guidelines can be respected and your team is small enough in size, a meeting face to face can be a good way of getting the team on board to understand and communicate how things are going to work.
If a physical meeting is not an option, bring them all together for a virtual meeting. Research how best to do this type of meeting, what options you can use to make sure that Q & A's are allowed and that the meeting agenda continues to flow. You can also have some fun virtually, as our previous article on ways to bring your team together when working from home highlights.
Whether face to face or virtual, it is a good idea to record notes from the meeting and to then email the key meeting points to all of the team, including any key action points. That way, anyone who is away from work or on holiday will still get those all-important updates too. And, if you have department managers, make sure that they also are responsible for repeating and reiterating key messages too.
7 Look after the team's mental health
Finally, nothing is more appropriate when managing a team than to check that everyone is okay - especially at the moment. In this new normal, we are all getting used to new processes, procedures and business realities.
It can be easy to forget, whether your business is a scaling startup, or an established business with 50 years' history, that your employees are dealing with quite a lot right now. Looking after your team's mental health, be they in the office or working remotely can be key to a team's success, so take it seriously. Perhaps check out mental health champions Sanctus for advice or guidance on that.
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