It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed virtually everything
about how we live and work. Particularly, many companies have shifted to
either having a fully remote team or a partially remote team as a way to
limit and reduce the spread of COVID-19. Unfortunately, regardless of how
great a manager may be when working with employees in person, these things
are often lost in translation when it comes to managing remote work teams.
However, since we live in the information age, finding the information to
help you develop a fantastic team of work from home workers is more
accessible than you think. One such method is by implementing a ROWE, or
results-only work environment. This method allows companies to easily
address many of the issues that are created by switching to a majorly
remote workforce. With that in mind, the following is an overview of the
ROWE work environment that Mars International has implemented and
successfully used for years.
ROWE work environments
One of the best methods of facilitating highly effective work teams is by
creating a ROWE work environment. Given that your employees are now
working from home, it is a more difficult process to manage their tasks.
However, by creating a work environment that is concerned with results
only, you will eliminate many of the issues that often plague remote work
teams.
By focusing only on whether or not the teams have been meeting quotas and
sales goals or are simply completing their tasks in a timely fashion, this
will free both employees and management from worrying about how time is
being spent by those who are working out of the office. There is no need
to focus on how long an employee is taking for lunch, nor do you need to
focus on what time they begin working each day.
work from home, remote work, ROWE
Working from home– or anywhere else
On the other hand, managers must also understand that they should not be
focusing on where the person is completing the work. No matter if they are
at a coffee shop, home, their neighbor’s house, or anywhere else they feel
comfortable, the main goal is receiving the intended results, not
micromanaging where they choose to do the work.
Ditch individual working hours
Moreover, managers should also not concern themselves with the working
hours of each employee. As long as they are getting the work done on time
and achieving results, the times at which they are doing the work should
be irrelevant to the managers and other employees. However, this also
assumes that the employee is using great communication and providing
everyone with updates if they do experience issues along the way.
Communication is key!
Treat people like adults
You may believe this to be counterproductive, however, this only works if
you trust your team to do the job they were hired to do. Although it may
be tempting to use various measures of holding the individual employees
accountable, you should be comfortable with treating everyone like adults.
While there should be obvious consequences for those who are not pulling
their weight, you should also assume that each employee is fully capable
of completing the work on their own. Therefore, rather than focusing on
threatening them with consequences for not completing their work, you
should be offering them the resources necessary to complete their tasks
and encouraging them to reach out if they encounter any major issues in a
timely manner. It is important to clearly define roles and expectations in
order to expect your team to provide.
Mars International is a Results Only Work Environment and can continue to
service your needs while keeping you and our employees safe during the
current pandemic.