More businesses are implementing work-from-home policies in response to the spread of Covid-19. For many, working from home is fast becoming a new norm, at least for the time being. How and where we work greatly affects our productivity.
Remote working can provide space for creativeness and innovation as well as boosting a team’s morale, which in turn impacts positively on output and the building of trust with our colleagues. However, it can also lead to feelings of isolation and low morale if left unchecked.
Stay productive. Stay focused.
How can you ensure that your staff stay focused and productive when they work remotely? And, how do you know if independent work will even suit them?
Profiling your employees is vital to understanding how they will behave when working from home. McQuaig uses unique personality and cognitive assessments to determine someone’s abilities and performance at work. It provides you with two different behavioural perspectives:
- How a person prefers to behave (Real)
- How that person is actually behaving right now (Situational)
Often seen as a recuitment tool, the McQuaig Word Survey® is incredibly powerful in helping managers to better understand their established teams when suddenly faced with change, such as we are experiencing now. It gives leaders and their teams the insights they need to make behavourial adjustments and support each other through uncertain times.
Working remotely requires a certain personality type to keep focused and productive. McQuaig identifies the traits employees have, allowing you to provide the relevant support to enable continued success when working in a remote environment. Some will find it easier than others so additional coaching may be required, and more frequent communication can help to keep the work on track.
Understanding morale in remote workers.
McQuaig assessments are crucial in understanding whether an employee has high or low morale, and how their temperament and behaviour can be affected by change. They provide real insight into behaviours and traits and:
- Give an accurate indication of a person’s behavioural preferences
- Show individual strengths and their subsequent value to your business
- Reveal preferred communication styles and how these could be adapted for greater effect
The McQuaig Word Survey® measures core personality traits as well as how an employee behaves in their current role. Analysis between the two shows the adjustments that person is making at work. It can help you to recognise what you need to put in place to ensure their productivity and that of their team does not decrease despite any changes in working circumstances.
Working from home, resilience and motivation
Profiling employees enables you and them to understand and manage their own emotions and how they might interpret and deal with the emotions of others. This is particularly valuable for teams working remotely, where good communication really is key. Remember that when you don’t see colleagues face-to-face, you can’t pick up on behavioural triggers such as their expressions, tone of voice or levels of attention, so email and phone communication on their own can lead to misinterpretation.
Knowing what motivates and engages each team member is vital in determining their levels of resilience, and how focused and effective they are even when they find themselves working remotely from home. Understanding an employee’s adaptability and attitude towards a work-life balance and appreciating how they derive meaning from the work they undertake, will help you to identify how easily they can endure challenges and bounce back from them. You can also gauge how committed they are to performing at their optimum level in different circumstances.
A new dawn of opportunity?
While the world seems a pretty dark place right now, it’s important to recognise that there will be good to come out of this. It’s up to leaders and their teams to be ambitious and ready.
We have the opportunity to shape new workplaces, effective workplaces, fit for the 21st Century. Already, working from home is a day-to-day reality for many who use little but a computer and a phone. It’s time to sling out the 20th Century managerial attitude of ‘if I can’t see you, I don’t believe you are working’.
A global study from as far back as 2004 found that far-flung virtual teams “were not only productive but also more innovative than face-to-face teams.” It’s time that the traditional workplace caught up. And it looks like it’s just about to.
Work with Holst to support and keep your remote teams engaged
Want to know more? McQuaig is a complete and cost-effective solution to create productive and engaged teams, including those working remotely. Visit www.mcquaig.co.uk for more.
Designed to support and engage individuals to achieve better outcomes, discover unique resilience and motivation assessments from flowprofiler®.
Contact us using the form below or call 0203 111 9292.
