How to manage employees in the home office

How to manage employees in the home office

Feedback discussions are part of the standard management repertoire in many companies. Why are they so important?

Hans-Peter Machwuerth: They increase employee satisfaction and their work motivation. They are also important for systematic personnel development. Managers should remember this, especially in times like the current ones, in which the general conditions of work as well as their content and goals often change due to Corona. 

Why?

In them, managers have to give their unsettled employees orientation about what needs to be done and why even more often than in normal times; also feedback on their behavior and performance.

Is this happening to a sufficient extent?

Even in normal times, many managers don't talk enough to their employees about their work and the associated expectations and goals. This is often the case in times of crisis, when managers themselves are often under increased tension. In particular, employees working from home are quickly forgotten because they are not physically present. And because the usual small talk at work is no longer necessary, there is often a weekly video call with them for information, but ultimately there is no longer any real leadership.

What can companies do about it?

The human resources department can, for example, write guidelines for managers on what needs to be taken into account when managing employees in the home office. After all, this task is still quite new for many people. A recommendation could be: "Conduct a performance and feedback discussion with every employee in the home office every two or three weeks - be it by telephone or online. Recommended duration: at least 20 minutes; possible content: ..." 

What should be the goal of these discussions?

Feedback discussions do not have the primary goal of discussing problems in everyday work. Rather, the behavior of the employee and his manager should be viewed over a period of time in order to clarify how work and collaboration can be improved. This also applies in Corona times.

What should you pay attention to in such conversations?

Because they are intended to reflect on the past, feedback discussions require preparation on both sides. Consequently, they should be timed. In addition, feedback is only effective if it is specific. So you need examples from everyday professional and working life. In many companies, regular employee appraisals are mandatory. This sometimes leads to superiors only managing them in order to report “completion” to the HR department. Their quality is correspondingly poor. This danger is particularly great when the managers themselves are under tension - as is now the case during the pandemic.

How can you prevent this?

In practice, the following procedure is often recommended: After each appraisal interview, the manager and the employee independently fill out a questionnaire online and send it, for example, to the human resources department.

What questions should the questionnaire contain?

It can include questions such as: How satisfied are you with how the conversation went? How did you find the atmosphere of the conversation? How long did the conversation last? Were development issues also discussed? What should change so that you and your partner benefit even more from the next conversation? Such feedback to the HR department does not guarantee high-quality feedback discussions, but it does ensure a minimum level of quality that can be increased step by step. This is particularly important at the current time, when everyone involved still has very little experience with virtual collaboration and conducting employee discussions by telephone or video call. For example, if certain requests from the interviewees repeatedly appear in the completed questionnaires, this may result in a further recommendation from the human resources department.

How long should an employee or feedback meeting last?

In normal times, when feedback meetings only take place every two or three months, the rule of thumb is at least one hour per employee. A relaxed atmosphere is necessary so that sensitive or personal topics can be discussed. This needs to be created first.

And in Corona times?

If the discussions take place more frequently - for example every three or even two weeks - the requirement of "at least one hour" is usually unrealistic with a larger management span. In any case, the discussions should take place without time pressure or outside interference. It is therefore advisable to run them during off-peak times.

How is a good feedback discussion structured?

It consists of three phases: Firstly, reflection on the past unit of time - for example the previous quarter, secondly, the assessment of the current situation and thirdly, looking ahead. It is important that the employee also receives feedback about their strengths and weaknesses. What does/can he/she do well or not so well? For example, when self-organizing work in the home office? Or when using existing collaboration tools? Or in online communication with colleagues? Because everyone has blind spots - behavior patterns that they are not aware of. That's why we need feedback from outside every now and then so that we become aware of our behavior and its impact.

That sounds like a lot of work for the managers...

Yes, conducting regular feedback discussions with all employees requires a lot of time and energy - also because of the necessary preparation. But the investment is worth it because it ensures that there are fewer ambiguities in everyday work, which in turn also reduces the management effort.

To person: Hans-Peter Machwürth is managing director of the internationally operating management consultancy Machwürth Team International (MTI Consultancy), for which around 450 consultants, trainers, coaches and project managers work worldwide.