How to resolve the challenges of working from home.
When the UK, and much of the world, entered lockdown in the early part of 2020, whole swathes of the world’s economy went from being office-based to working from home almost overnight. Aside from the terrible health issues associated with the virus, the period has presented significant challenges to businesses and organisations, not least in how teams work together. In this article, our team have looked at the challenges that many businesses may have noticed within their organisation or teams, during the COVID period, and identified how to resolve these challenges.
1. FRACTURED TEAMWORK:
During a conversation with one business leader and owner recently, he told us that because everything has gone virtual, and no one has physically been together for so long, a number of inter-personal relationship issues have arisen among team members.
He said that this had since become an issue for the HR department.
How do you identify this issue and resolve it?
If you can correctly profile each member of a team in order to understand their characteristics and how they interact and communicate with others, you will identify which team members they are more likely to gel and clash with.
From a management point of view, it would also allow you to notice any gaps that are missing in your teams and plug them where necessary.
In the case mentioned above, after each member of the team used the Perfect Teams profiling tool we provided them with a framework for them to use for their team, and held a virtual workshop involving everyone so that they could have a have a conversation about, and implement, that framework to strengthen their team.
2. THE INCREASING IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT:
While every member of an organisation’s teams may have experienced the same scenario of working from home, with limited interaction, some members may react differently to others.
While an employee pulse check from May 2020 highlighted that there was an increased demand for more flexible working in the future, one of the key themes to come out of the survey was that employee engagement is now more important than ever.
How do you identify this issue and resolve it?
According to the research, carried out by Peachy Mondays, “results demonstrate that employees appreciate employers who are going the extra mile to stay connected and support them.”
This shows that it’s now more important than ever to understand the personalities and characteristics of team members, and the way they interact and communicate.
By profiling each member of a team, you will be able to diagnose how they will likely react to these issues.
As an example, if a team is made up of green characters it’s likely that the lockdown and associated working from home will not have affected them. Likewise, if they are mainly blue characters they will have got on with it.
However, if a team is made up of red characters it’s highly likely that the organisation will have had problems keeping them engaged during this period or, in some instances, may have had problems keeping them within the team.
With an understanding of a team’s characteristics and motivations, organisations will be able to better manage each individual and have a more informed management approach.
Nobody is perfect, but your team can be. Individually we all have strengths and weaknesses and understanding these is important.
When we speak to business owners and leaders looking to understand what’s going on with their teams, they actually want to make a difference and plug the gaps where possible. They want to build perfect teams. Which is why we’re expanding the Perfect Teams profiling tool.
If you’d like to find out how we can support your consulting business by adding the Perfect Teams profiling tool to your offering, please click here.
Article by: