Reference no: EM132575329

Instructions

In this series of articles on working remotely some of the challenges relating to productivity, motivation, and monitoring are being raised. If you were part of the management team that was tasked with developing a leadership strategy to manage remote workers in a way that ensured productivity while also motivating employees, what would you do? In developing your plan you should incorporate one or more of the contingency leadership theories from Chapter 14 and one or more of the contemporary theories of motivation from Chapter 15.

Another contributor to reduced productivity could be the increase in time spent accessing server applications remotely if they were initially designed for on-site use. Saving a large spreadsheet to a server could take minutes instead of seconds when done remotely, which can add up over the course of a workday.

Mike Marks, head of product marketing at Aternity, says industries such as finance and tech experience shorter wait times when using applications, compared to education and manufacturing. "Application performance varied by industry, based probably on the extent to which IT departments spend part of their budget on employee technology versus technology for consumers," says Mr. Marks.

Aternity's report also revealed that a significant number of employees shifted their working day by 30 minutes to an hour, starting later in the day and ending later in the day. Prof. Halinski believes that the shift could potentially be beneficial to productivity. "People would be happier sleeping in, so naturally they'd be more productive," he says. However, businesses that rely more on real-time collaboration could see a decrease in productivity with less overlap in their team's work hours.

While e-mails, instant messaging and phone calls do a decent job at replacing in-office interactions, the adaptation to communicating remotely can also affect productivity. "In the office, you'd be sitting in your cubicle, you'd look to your left and you can ask your colleague a question," says Prof. Halinski. "Now you have to set up an appointment with somebody to speak with them."

Prof. Halinski recommends supervisors schedule regular, brief check-ins with their team. "Even if there's nothing to update, just have a quick five-minute touch point just to say how things are going, what you're doing, what you might need help on moving forward," he says.
Asking for employee feedback should be the first step for supervisors, according to Prof. Halinski. It's something of which he thinks companies aren't doing enough.

"I recommend managers actually survey their employees to figure out how engaged they are," he says. "Ask them, 'What do you need in order to work from home?' Managers are afraid of asking because they're afraid of receiving an answer and then needing to act on it. But by not asking, you're accepting the state of the work that they're performing."