Flexible Working and Virtual Teamworking

Up to 100,000 more people could be regularly working from home as a result of the UK Government's 2005 consultation on extending the present family-friendly flexible working laws. Many of these will be remote workers who use technology to communicate and collaborate with managers, colleagues and staff. But how successful and sustainable will remote working be for these new adopters? We have consistently found remote workers and their managers struggling with the differences between office work and remote work, such as supervision, communication, motivation and isolation. A particular issue is managers not trusting remote workers to work remotely.

This matters. Two surveys found that mistrust of remote workers leads organisations not to implement this way of working.

In another, UK human resource professionals said that lack of management skill was a barrier to implementing remote working. In a further survey, remote workers across Europe said training for them and their managers would make remote working more productive and satisfying.

It’s not difficult to conclude that training would positively impact the take-up and sustainability of remote working.

However that doesn't necessarily translate into practice. Often remote workers believe the difficulties they face are personal failings, not common reactions to working at a distance that appropriate training/coaching could remedy. Their managers can also reject training/coaching because they fail to see the need for new remote management skills, or believe they can figure them out unaided.

So although a large number of people may start working remotely as a result of the Government's current consultation and eventual legislation:

• How many more requests would be granted if employers were confident that their managers could manage effectively at a distance and create secure trust-based agreements staff?

• How many managers will be managing remote workers badly because they don't recognise the need for new remote management skills?

• How many remote workers will be turning in reduced performance, feeling isolated and stressed, because they haven't been taught how to make a success of working from home?

Contact your local Accredited Partner for more details.

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