With the lockdown being withdrawn gradually, may believe that they will go back to work. However, a substantial part of the workforce would continue to work from home and will gradually increase. To manage the remote team, managers cannot afford to ignore the underperformance of employees.
Managing an employee remotely would be challenging but you may be more effective in handling the situation as you have to plan and structure your interactions. Some of the things you can do to help the underperformers improve their work.
Revisit your expectations.
Take the opportunity to revisit what you expect from the employee and why you are not getting it. review the recent directives and your communications for clarity and consistency. Ensure your statements are unambiguous. Separate the reason for dissatisfaction - with the work they do or the way they present it.
If style or approach is the problem, check if you are expecting them to work the way you do. If it is so, let go of these expectations and assess their real strengths and contributions to the teamwork.
If the employee's difficulties are due to his inexperience, specific skill deficits, or lack of acumen, consider if they need additional training or partner with an experienced colleague.
Learn more about them
Ask them about their goal, what they care about as these change over some time. Also, you do not have the benefit of in-person contact to pick up details of his family, hobbies, past successes. Then modify the management to suit their needs.
If you are not aware of their remote schedules, ask. Some may prefer strict deadlines to work and some may benefit from flexible work schedules to help them deal with the additional pressures from home. Take their constraints and accord them the same respect as your work schedules.
Level with them, be specific
Even though, you are not in the same room, providing feedback is still a requirement. many employees would have the vague feeling that they are not doing well, but may not know what exactly is going wrong. Telling them you should be a "better listener" may not be understood as they do not know what is going wrong but telling them "not to turn away in a video meeting when someone else is talking" is important and others will lose confidence in the person. this type of specific feedback will help identify and rectify the flaws and improve his performance.
Help them learn how to improve their performance
Use questions to encourage them to self diagnose, and to project into their future. Encourage them to reach their conclusions, rather than telling them what you have observed, which doesn't trigger the same acceptance as self-discovery does.
Stay in close enough contact
Ensure that you stay in regular touch and keep them in the loop. After you have given candid feedback to the employee, and they don't hear from you they may start worrying that you are ignoring them and their performance would go down further. Schedule regular meetings with them to talk about their progress.
If you have asked them to keep you updated about the progress, make it clear how you want them to do it. Don't rely only on video meetings as it may not provide the correct clue, mix it up with phone calls, and listen to the tone carefully. The tone in many instances gives you an idea of what needs intervention.
It is not easy to work with a nonperforming employee especially when you can't sit together, and talk. But using specific, tested techniques to help them will strengthen not only their performance but also your interactions with them.
5 Tips for Managing an Underperformer — Remotely
by Liz Kislik HBR July 22, 2020
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