Telework Success

©2014 PowerSkills Training & Development, Inc. & Robert J Schout

December 7, 2014

By: Robert J Schout

TELEWORK SUCCESS

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Telework, as a program initiative, is vital for all work sectors (e.g., government, business, non-profit). The facts …regarding productivity, maintenance of acceptable and even ‘high’ performance, generational demographic trend analysis, and employee appreciation of workplace flexibility options…all support Telework, as a program, should not only stay in place but be expanded.

That being said, there are many employees, supervisors, managers and senior directors who don’t understand basic program principles, paradigms, practices or problem-solving. Here are some common challenges that pop up and which must be addressed, in some programs:

• Supervisor/Management Challenges (e.g., competency and confidence in dealing with nuances of employee management/decisions (e.g., ensuring accountability, handling employee requests and discerning right decisions,

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etc..) Example: Being swayed or confused by a blurring of the term “situational” related to telework decisions and ensuring that there are “standards, expectations related to, and guidelines for” telework approval

• Environmental Challenges (e.g., security of sensitive information off-site; competing priorities in a home environment…children, chores; lack of bandwidth to support technology)

• Team/Organizational Cultural Challenges (e.g., management supporting a culture of “fear”….fear of grievances, fear of repercussions, fear of having to deal with resistance, etc.; management creating a culture of dependency on rules, answers for everything, equanimity; etc.)

Here are some tips to support success:

• Offer supervisors/managers (or create with sup/mgrs) a standardized list of criteria for Telework Situational Approval. The list should be ranked in order of probable consideration. An example is listed here:

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1. Job/Task applicability to telework

2. Security of sensitive information

3. Assurance of high quality customer services (re: internal AND external customers)

4. Team workload management and sharing

5. Quality and efficiency of individual work products

6. Team (and cross-team) relationship maintenance, communication and cohesion

• Engage all employees, individually, in discussions related to questions on the Telework Employee Survey

• Engage the supervisors/managers in teams to develop “consistency” of decisions and responses

• Assess supervisor/manager competencies and confidences in basic skill areas and for nuanced interactions and decisions; provide “advanced training”

(Continued on next page)

INSIDE THIS ISSUE 1-2 Telework Success 2 Values at Work 3 New products, booklets and webinars

PowerSkills Training & Development, Inc.

Training & development, Inc.

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(TELEWORK cont.) • Formalize agreements for

monthly performance assessment, weekly monitoring of tasks/projects, intervention criteria and processes, restrictions on telework agreements themselves, etc.

• Step into “supervisory” roles and habits and define your practices to ensure accountability, quality, development, team building, customer services, etc.

• Make “development”, “management of people and processes” and “monitoring” mainstays of your daily and weekly practices.

• Convene weekly team meetings and monthly partner meetings to assess challenges early.

• Engage in immediate corrective actions even for micro-offences.

• Balance telework time with on-site face time to ensure worksite coverage, relationship development, and supervisory face-time.

• Partner with labor relations garnering the acceptance of tools and strategies to insure employee performance and productivity; demonstrating that those tools and strategies also ensure the continuation of an employee’s opportunities to engage in telework. ©2014 Bob Schout & PowerSkills Training & Development, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Values form the foundation of workplace cultures. Whether the leaders and organizational stakeholder values demonstrate respect and integrity, or coercion and autocracy…values in action are experienced by all who interact with the organization. They influence the climate (collective attitudes), the culture (agreed upon norms), motivation, morale and ultimately performance and productivity.

Values may be identified by the leaders but they must be acquiesced to and lived by all…beginning with the leaders, right off the bat. However, even if certain leaders do not live up to nor demonstrate positive values-in-action, that does not and should not give other stakeholders leeway to become more lenient in demonstration of their own – or the agreed upon – values. Everyone influences a culture through value-demonstrations.

The trick, for success, is for an organization to weave them into its very culture. Organizations do this by first identifying core values. Then collaboratively defining them so that everyone’s on the same page. Once that’s done an organization must attach specific behavioral metrics/measurements to each value, along with specific ways to weave them into processes, procedures, policies, and operational management practices.

Organizations trip up, inadvertently, in a few ways. Take a look at this list and see if your organization may be accidentally tripping up:

1) Beginning the process of values identification and definement

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but then abruptly, or over time, not finishing it.

2) Allowing leaders (e.g., senior directors, managers, supervisors, or team leads) to behave in ways that are in opposition to the stated values.

3) Identifying values and posting, distributing and highlighting them but not weaving them into specific organizational operations, management practices, and team practices.

4) Lack of sustainment with maintaining a value-based culture as a permanent facet, instead, implying that it is the organizational change ‘flavor of the month’.

5) Allowing employees or other stakeholders to absolve themselves from value-based interactions because they can point to one or a few leaders who have tripped up.

Remember how long it took for you, as a child and adolescent, to learn and then integrate values into your everyday behaviors and belief systems. My guess is that it took years, and that you’re still working on some day-to-day.

For values to be permanently in place and enhance a workplace, it takes time, persistence, fortitude, consistency, and patience…all are VIRTUES. We’ll talk about virtues in the next issue.

©2014 Bob Schout & PowerSkills Training & Development, Inc. All rights reserved.

Values at work

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2015 New Products

Products that will Enhance Your Team, Organizational Culture and Leadership Skills

• Team Up Relationship Building Question Cards: 52 cards containing fun and provocative questions that will help you break the ice and build relationships at work ($18 per set)

• The Virtue Deck & The Virtue Deal: 52 virtue cards that can help you weave virtues into your own development and workplace practices and processes ($18 per set)

2015 New Booklets

Brief guides focused on topics that will build your professional leadership skills and capacities.

• Forgiveness @ Work: principles, practices and strategies for healing hurts in the workplace ($18)

• Value, Virtues & Vestiges @ Work: creating a culture of empowerment and integrity at work ($18)

• Building a Program to Last: volunteer program development from start to success ($18)

• Diversity Appreciation @ Work: practical action steps, programs and initiatives for meaningful diversity appreciation at work ($18)

Email for order forms & payment options:

[email protected]

[email protected]

2015 Webinar Series

• Anger Management @ Work

• Forgiveness @ Work

• Leadership Star Basic Training

• Meeting Management Techniques

• Mentor Program Success

• Motivation & Morale and Recognition & Reward Practices that Work @ Work

• Power, Influence and Negotiation Skills for Supervisors & Managers

• Solutions to Telework Troubles

• Values, Virtues and Vestiges @ Work

• Work-Life Balancing Strategies and Practices

Email or call for course overviews, schedules, registration forms and payment processes.

Email options:

[email protected]

[email protected]

Ph. 619-517-6299

Make every day a step along the path of learning, leading, loving

and living a little bit more, as you grow into the fullness of your

potential. Don’t force it. Let it happen. Each day offers

multitudes of interactional possibilities; each one a chance and a

choice to learn more, lead more, love more and live more…

than you did just the moment before.

– Bob Schout

Powerskills training & development, Inc.

PowerSkills offers training seminars, coaching services,

organizational consulting, and retreat programs that are designed

to grow skills, spirit and community at work and in each

person’s life. We work with non-profit organizations,

government agencies, business and corporate enterprises, and

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that ensure high performance, productivity, diversity, creativity,

opportunity and harmony.

For a list of our services contact us soon!

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