Full disclosure:  I have been telecommuting for more than a decade from my home 2.5 hours away from BlessingWhite’s headquarters. I also believe that our organization and our parent company, GP Strategies, have a flexible yet highly productive global work environment.   

According to the American Community Survey, 2.6 percent of Americans in the work force (or 3.2 million workers) who work from someone other than themselves work from home at least half the time. This doesn’t include those who work from home one to two days a week, or those who work for themselves.  That included it percentage would rise to over 30 percent. 

The virtual workplace is not just about flexible job conditions for employees doing the delicate work/life integration/balance dance. It is essential for companies that don’t want geography to restrict their talent pool. It is a way of life for global organizations that need team members close to customers and production. 

You need to get it right, whether your managers are leading teams of telecommuters in sweatpants or suited employees scattered across time zones, client sites, and decentralized office locations.    

Making it work 

Many of the best practices we share in our book, The Engagement Equation: Leadership Strategies for an Inspired Workforce, are appropriate for managers leading remote teams. Managers need to focus on these areas:

• aligning employees with the organization’s direction and priorities

• setting clear performance expectations

• building trusting relationships, understand each person’s engagement drivers and talents

• creating a sense of community

• holding the team accountable for high performance. 

Making this work in the virtual workplace is a bit tricky, so here are a few ideas to prevent remote workers from becoming disconnected or disengaged. 

Expectations. Managers need to discuss not only expectations of results, but also how to work together. What tools exist for collaboration? Most important: How will they communicate? Managers may need to “give permission” to employees to call them. (Some workers assume a phone call to the manager equals escalation and they founder on their own.) Instant messaging is a great way to handle those “quick questions” as well as provide an “open door” feel to the virtual work environment.   

Community. Regular team check-ins by video or phone with a loose agenda of catching-up allows for tangents and relationship-building. Bring individuals in from the field or have them meet in clusters whenever practical to boost a sense of community. This is particularly important when a team features a mix of on-site and remote employees. 

Relationship building. Our research consistently links trust and engagement. The virtual workplace doesn’t provide all the informal opportunities to exchange information that exist on location (such as an impromptu lunch, chance meeting in the hallway, or classic water cooler conversation). Trust is built on an understanding of the person behind the title, so managers need to be more purposeful in sharing insights into their personal motivation and goals. 

Engagement reviews focus on clarifying an employee’s point of view on job success, providing clarity on the most pressing work priorities, understanding work challenges, demonstrating support, and recognizing the role the employees plays in the company’s success. They are particularly useful in the virtual workplace because they provide a format for obtaining insights that might be easier to gain through observation in the office. 

Accountability for engagement 

In the last few years there’s have been a lot of debate about work-at-home practices.  The lesson I take away from this is that any workplace practice needs to be effectively executed in support of satisfaction and contribution in the context of a particular company’s strategic priorities, customer requirements, and organizational culture.