TELEWORKING
Although we were already familiar with it, the term “teleworking” has become part of our active jargon for the past year, since the Covid-19 pandemic forever changed our personal and professional contexts.
According to the International Labour Organization, teleworking is “a form of work performed in a location distant from the office and/or production center, which allows physical separation and involves the use of a new communication facilitating technology”.
Those who thought this would be a temporary situation were mistaken. For over a year now, a good portion of the active population has been teleworking and the Portuguese Government has just decreed mandatory teleworking: “The decree-law was approved that extends, until December 31, 2021, the exceptional and temporary regime for the reorganization of work and minimization of risks of transmission of the COVID-19 disease infection in the scope of labor relations, without prejudice to the possibility of additional extension after consultation with social partners.”
Today, we share 5 challenges that will make the teleworking experience more intuitive and rewarding.
CHALLENGE 1 The first challenge lies in the knowledge of the team and each of its members, and in trust.
It is as important to know the team as a whole as it is each individual member. The best way to do this is to organize regular meetings with the team (at least one per month) and also, whenever possible, with each member individually.
In these meetings, objectives should be tracked and fine-tuned, and members’ motivation should be investigated. Based on what we can learn, we should act accordingly: redefine objectives, recognize members for their achievements, motivate those who are losing some energy…
CHALLENGE 2 As we have seen in the previous point, motivation is an essential element. We must ensure that it never wanes. In teleworking, this can be done in various ways. Here are two effective examples:
a) promoting regular online meetings (not exclusively dedicated to work), verbally or in writing, acknowledging team members for achieving objectives (praise!); b) providing relevant training for team members; experiences for personal and professional growth and development.
CHALLENGE 3 It is essential that objectives are clearly indicated, as well as the associated dates/deadlines.
Objective and objective rules should be defined regarding the communication channels to be used, who does what and how, and how results will be tracked, etc.
CHALLENGE 4 The communication tools available to team members should be intuitive and attractive. It is important that the employee feels that, although at home, they have professional and effective work tools that they enjoy using.
If they can foster visual and auditory contact with the rest of the team, so much the better.
CHALLENGE 5 The last challenge – but far from the least important! -: promote democratic leadership, that is, a leadership style in which all members feel that they participated in decision-making, contributed, and were heard.
CONCLUSIONS It is obvious that the success of teleworking also depends on the type of tasks involved and the profile of the employee. There will be tasks and profiles for which teleworking is more or less easy to implement.
The watchword is adaptation! Since this work reality is here to stay (even if only partially), the sooner we find credible strategies to facilitate our work in a pleasant and effective way, the better!
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