Communication when homeworking
- Just as when managing staff on site, it is important to ensure that staff know how to make contact if needed
- Managers must maintain regular communication and 1:1s to ensure staff have enough support. Methods of communication should be discussed and agreed prior to homeworking starting, and should be regularly reviewed, e.g. emails for updates, phone calls for urgent conversations
- Recognise the need to adapt and strike a balance to incorporate individual communication styles, for example, some staff may prefer video calls, others may prefer email
- Ensure that regular team meetings are scheduled with clear agendas to enable sharing of information, updates and team building
- Schedule regular "check-ins" as a team
- Have an agreement in place on how information, ideas and feedback will be shared across the teams to keep everyone informed on what is happening and how to access support from each other, utilising technology to keep everyone connected
Alternative communication approaches
| Challenge | Replicating online |
|---|---|
| Reduction in social conversations taking place within the work environment. These are essential for team working, building rapport and reducing feelings of isolation | Make use of technology to create informal meetings to build opportunities for social conversations to take place. This could be achieved through creation of water cooler moments, virtual coffees and team huddles. These could be frequent 15-minute meetings scheduled into diaries to enable staff to keep connecting as a team, check in with each other and keep conversations and work flow on track. It is important to keep them free of agendas to enable staff to freely and openly communicate with other. Make use of technology to create dedicated spaces for celebrating special days (e.g. birthdays). Being intentional about creating a team culture helps encourage connection, which can result in increased productivity |
| Homeworkers can be missed out of key decision making or update conversations | Build a culture of adding people on calls. When in the office it is easy to ask someone to join a meeting when trying to clarify or gain expertise on a certain topic. With homeworkers this can be forgotten about. When these situations arise it’s important to use technology to bring the member of staff into the meeting or wait until they are available |
| Being unable to see body language means that key information is missed out in conversations | Research identifies that while body language can help with conversations, when visual cues are not available people will pay more attention to content and tone of voice. Therefore, important messages and undertones can still be identified. In situations where you feel that something isn’t being said, use questions to clarify understanding. Communication isn’t perfect and where intent behind a message has been missed, encourage and be open to feedback from staff to look at how things can be communicated more clearly |
| Technology can result in communication becoming hierarchical or task-focused | When communicating, take time to incorporate time for social conversations. Encourage the type of conversations that would normally take place within the office to ensure that staff feel engaged. Consider adopting a coaching style when undertaking 1:1 conversations, making use of coaching style questions such as "What's on your mind?", "How's homeworking going for you so far?", "What's your current biggest problem or challenge?", "What's working well?" etc. These help staff to consider their responses and provide opportunity to share any challenges they might be facing. Finally, make sure you listen and empathise with staff |