Trust

Trust is critical when managing staff who work from home. The distance created by homeworking means that management changes from assessing work performance based on visibly seeing staff working in the office, to trusting them to complete their work from home. For homeworking to be successful trust must exist by default.

Be flexible

• Managers should examine what level of flexibility is available for staff when work is undertaken
• Flexibility around hours will enable staff to work around things like quiet or noisy periods at home, availability of IT access, and caring responsibilities for dependants
• Outline if there are core hours for the department when everyone should be available, or whether a completely flexible approach can be adopted to enable the member of staff to work when they are most productive

Focus on outcomes not inputs

• It is important for managers to empower staff to manage their time and responsibilities
• Spend time confirming expectations on key objectives and work outputs that need to be met, support required and time frame for delivery. Ensure clear communication on how performance will be reviewed and regularly feedback to staff
• Where there is disparity in the work produced, talk to the member of staff to understand why and what support may be required

Top tip:

If a staff member is measured on specific goals and outcomes then they can be productive, whether this is on the Trust's sites or at home. If they are not able to deliver on goals then regardless of whether they are on-site or not you have to deal with the performance. But remember to first ask them why their performance might have changed. Do they have all the tools they require to be able to work from home productively? What's changed in regards to motivation? Is there anything else that is impacting on them (e.g. health and well-being/personal circumstances)?            

Build in learning opportunities

• Culture and context for work can often be set through social learning that takes place in the office through listening to conversations. This context helps staff know how to operate and the standards of communication expected.
• Working from home reduces the exposure to this learning, but it can be built through the following:
  • Standing agenda for team meetings – create an agenda item within team meetings for staff to share their learning experiences with each other. This could be achieved through all staff contributing their experiences or through nominating one member of staff each meeting to act as a learning champion
  • Lunch and learn – arrange weekly or monthly "lunch and learn" virtual meetings for staff to share experiences and learning with each other
  • Share and update – managers should ensure they share appropriate updates or learning from other meetings and projects