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Transitioning into a Remote Workforce – What to Focus on

The following tips will help you overcome hurdles together with your team and prepare your company for the future job market.

The current crisis [Covid-19] presents many companies with unprecedented challenges, especially the related home office regulations. To maintain day-to-day business remotely, leadership qualities are more crucial than ever.

The following tips will help you overcome hurdles together with your team and prepare your company for the future job market.

1 Don’t be afraid of losing control
The office is deserted, the employees work from home. Therefore, they are out of sight.

This unfamiliar situation triggers a feeling of loss of control in many bosses. Immediate availability is no longer given and is instead tied to a technical medium. Basically, the employee can decide for himself whether he is currently available or not.

But don’t worry: the initial fear of losing control is entirely normal. Always keep in mind that you have always seen your employees, but you don’t know whether they are working more efficiently. Presence is no guarantee of consistent performance.

The current home office regulations are new territory for everyone, and trust is now more critical than ever for a successful collaboration. Dare to share your worries with your team. You can find helpful support from other executives with home office experience or acquaintances in managerial positions.

2 Lead by results, not time
The following motto should apply in every company, but especially in the current situation: Leading according to results, not according to time. Do not insist on the contractually agreed working hours per week. Pay more attention to achieved goals and completed tasks.

Together with your team, set weekly or monthly goals and review them over the next few weeks to determine the optimal utilization. You can make it easier with Citrix Workspace Partners. The Citrix Workspace ecosystem is more responsive, always accessible, reliable, and easy to use.

Nowadays, you should be less interested in whether my employees strictly adhere to their number of hours as long as they deliver results. Admittedly, this requires a rethink. After all, bosses have been encouraged for decades to put attendance and control first.

In times like these, key figures such as sales are secondary and not explicitly meaningful anyway. First, focus on structuring the way you work together. This is one of the fundamental tasks of a manager and should never be postponed or neglected entirely.

3 Develop general home office guidelines together with your team
Trust is an essential aspect for a smooth workflow in the home office, as is a team code with general guidelines. You should create this together with your employees before you start working from home.

Make sure you take the time for it because a 1:1 transfer of previous office work will not lead to successful everyday home office work.

It is crucial to find a compromise for each regulation that all employees agree to. In the office, you can see that a colleague rushes from meeting to meeting all day and cannot answer emails. However, you don’t always know that in the home office.

Communication with one another is, therefore, essential – precisely because it no longer happens automatically. The questions that you and your team should clarify together include:

  • Do we only work independent of location or also independent of time?
  • Is it okay to go shopping in the afternoon and finish the presentation in the evening?
  • Is it essential for the team that everyone is online simultaneously, or do you have a minimum number of participants to start with?

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