The situation we are living has accelerated a change in those sectors where it is possible to work remotely. However, telecommuting is a new professional challenge for managers and employees.

Want to know some of the keys to adapting to this immense transformation and making it a lasting reality? Keep on reading 😉

Accelerated change: the need for trust rather than vigilance

Telework in Europe barely reached 3.5% of workers before COVID-19. The healthcare crisis has boosted this percentage and is likely to transform the way we work forever.

This change has taken us all by surprise, but especially many organizations that were not ready to take the leap, as it implies a change in corporate culture. To deal with this new paradigm, the first thing to be clear about is that it has been proven that remote workers are just as productive as their colleagues. So what happens?

The main barrier to teleworking is the lack of trust; a mentality typical of the industrial era in which it is believed that the employee tends not to work and needs a boss on top of him/her to force him/her not to "get away" from his/her duties.

This may seem like a caricature, but it hides a real problem: the employee (or the team as a whole) needs trust and not vigilance. The manager must act as a leader and lay the foundations to generate this climate because remote employees need to feel integrated and aligned with the team in order to trust the people who manage them. Isolation is a huge challenge and trust helps to feel part of the group and to develop everyone's potential to the maximum.

How to build a relationship of trust through leadership

The new company dynamics that have emerged with this health crisis make it necessary to establish the aforementioned climate of trust that arises from leadership, but that is also reciprocal. The keys are:

• Set clear roles and make sure that everyone knows what is expected of them. Guidelines and priorities must be agreed and well assigned.
• Ensure that all employees have what they need. You can't send them home without providing them with devices, connections and tools to work with.
• Establish effective communication among the entire team. All channels must be open and the flow of information on the status of projects must be constant to build a cohesive and committed group.
• Give continuous feedback and never fail to recognize a job well done. Some people working remotely may feel that they are working for nothing or that they are working on projects that never get completed. Recognition is the best motivational formula there is, and it is also one of the foundations of trust.
• Respect each person's capacity for self-management and understand that everyone has their own rhythms, is organized in a different way and approaches projects from different perspectives. Do not be on top of the fulfillment of the schedule, but look at whether the goals set are being achieved.

In addition, maintaining the emotional connection in the team is extremely important. Employees need spaces to socialize, even remotely. For example, virtual coffees and breakfasts are ideal for chatting, sharing and catching up. To create these spaces and facilitate communication between teams, there are group video call systems such as Slack, Skype or Zoom.

We are experiencing a true global transformation in the production culture. The forced implementation of remote work will transform the reality of work and it is our opportunity to bet on the work-life balance and work flexibility that we need so much . How responsible we are and the results we achieve will lay the foundations for the work of the future.