Managing the performance of telecommuters Tutorial

Are you curious about enhancing the performance of telecommuters? In 'Managing the Performance of Telecommuters', discover how to foster productivity through autonomy, clear objectives, and trust. Learn innovative management practices that empower employees, adapt to change, and redefine success in a remote work environment. Unleash the potential of agility and transformation today!

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the Directorate General for Enterprise,

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telecommuting allows for an increase in production

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and productivity of between 5 and 30%.

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This is confirmed by remote workers.

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In fact,

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the study conducted by Workopollis states

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that 90% of workers believe that telecommuting

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allows them to be more productive.

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Yet

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reduced productivity and lower performance of telecommuters

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remains a fear among remote managers.

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As previously mentioned,

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remote managers have little information on

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the work efficiency of their telecommuters.

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This forces the manager

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to let go of old fashioned control and dare to give more autonomy.

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Focus on defining clear objectives

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and motivating telecommuters to achieve them.

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A just performance monitoring methods.

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Letting go

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is what many companies had to do

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by daring to decentralize decision making.

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Faced with the widespread confinement,

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managers and their teams had to devise

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their own organizational and collaborative methods.

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As a result,

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everyone's productivity was more effective than companies had imagined.

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Hence,

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the telecommuting agreements that followed.

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Under normal circumstances,

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the implementation of extensive telecommuting would have been

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prepared over a long period of time,

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then tested on a pilot team,

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readjusted,

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and finally the change would be rolled out across the

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board with a large number of rules and procedures.

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Thanks to the crisis,

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everything was turned upside down.

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We first had to change,

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then make adjustments based on practical experiences,

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and finally draw up the rules and best

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practices to keep performance at the highest level,

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and able to predict,

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structure,

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manage,

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or control,

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we had to embrace change.

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And in our new VUCA

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volatile,

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uncertain,

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complex,

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and ambiguous world,

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a world of rapid transformation and fast-paced technology,

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this method of quickly embracing change will inevitably

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be repeated on a small and medium scale.

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Test and learn,

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or rather

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dive and learn.

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This way of doing things based on hands-on experiences

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puts employees back on the front line of change,

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moving their experience-based feedbacks,

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difficulties,

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best practices

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closer to the decision making process.

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Rather than applying standardized solutions proposed by the company,

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managers have adapted heroically,

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I would say,

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to each situation

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so as to be able to act at the right time and in the right way.

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They made it easier for teams to adapt to change

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and helped them learn from it for appropriate adjustment.

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Some managers have had the courage to decentralize

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decision making to their teams during the pandemic

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by sharing their leadership with them.

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Given that the employees were in the best position to

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know what was good for them and the company,

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they were allowed to make decisions freely at their level

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without hierarchical validation,

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provided that they had sought the opinion and obtained the

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agreement of the actors concerned with the solution or idea.

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In short,

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companies,

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managers,

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and employees all jumped as best they could into the world of agility.

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And this agility requires a lot of trust

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and a lot of letting go.

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Management used to be about forecasting and managing,

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but now it's more about facilitating and letting go,

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as Francis Boyer says on his wonderful managerial innovations blog,

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unable to observe the execution of work,

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many managers have been forced to let go

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and to offer more freedom in the organization of work.

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This empowerment has made it possible.

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For employees to be more responsible for their own development and performance.

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Facilitating and letting go

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means breaking away from micromanagement

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in favor of more freedom

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in the workplace,

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more freedom in the pace of work,

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and on the work methods.

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It is to switch from directive management to facilitation management,

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from centralized authority to shared authority,

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from predictive planning to experimentation and adaptation,

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from work measurement based on hours and volume of work

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to value and impact based work measurement.

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Companies such as Semco in Brazil and Sol in Finland now allow

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their employees to come to work when and how they want,

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as long as the results are achieved.

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WL Gore offer their new recruits the opportunity

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to choose the project they would like.

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To work on

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at Favy and Chroniflex,

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the teams are free to work as they see fit,

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as long as it is beneficial to the company and consistent with its vision and values.

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Let's return to the initial question of performance management.

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How do we ensure performance?

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Once a manager has made sure that objectives decided together are smart,

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specific,

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measurable,

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agreed on,

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realistic,

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and time bound.

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And that the employees have the means and resources to meet these objectives,

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the time,

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the money,

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a conducive work environment,

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the skills,

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etc.

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then productivity is assured.

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The manager is responsible

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for simplifying,

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facilitating and making the telecommuter's work more fluid

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through communication,

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support,

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team collaboration,

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vision and trust,

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simplifying the provision of the

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necessary technological tools for communication,

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collaboration,

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project management and reporting.

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Being attentive to the needs of employees,

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what they need to be efficient,

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each telecommuter is unique.

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Some will require more training

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and to acquire more competencies.

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Others will need help with organization and time management.

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Some will need more communication and feedback.

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Now

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let's talk about motivation.

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Distance can easily lower the motivation of the

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remote employee and impact his or her performance.

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It's up to the manager to be very vigilant on this point

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and to know the main drivers of motivation for the telecommuter.

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Is it to learn and grow,

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to have projects in line with their personality and interests,

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the need for more autonomy,

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or to know the vision and feel that the goals are shared?

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Remote management requires focusing on people,

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their competencies,

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their motivation,

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and their development and results.

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Focus on people

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and results rather than activity or hours worked.

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Bruno Mettling,

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former HR director at Orange,

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describes a new management approach,

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delivery-based management.

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It differs from the old command and control performance management.

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Delivery based management proposes a new type of relationship

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between managers and employees

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based more on trust and responsibility,

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since the commitment is to deliver a service within a certain time frame.

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This is the ongoing transformation of management

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and not only remote management.

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We have discussed smart objectives,

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specific,

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measurable,

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agreed on,

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realistic,

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and time bound.

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Thus formulated,

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these objectives can be easily monitored even from a distance.

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The M in the smart acronym

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that is the measurability of the achievement of objectives is

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one of the key elements of management by objectives.

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How will I know that I have attained my objective?

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How can the manager confirm that their employees,

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who are moreover at a distance,

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have attained their objectives?

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How can I measure performance?

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Many companies say row,

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results only work environment.

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Companies whose work environments are focused solely on results,

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they measure performance by setting KPIs,

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key performance indicators or OKR.

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and results.

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The OR is a management system that sets objectives

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and then breaks them down into key results.

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Several companies such as Intel,

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Twitter,

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Spotify,

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and Google define OKRs with all their employees.

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The objectives provide the qualitative goal to

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be achieved within a given time frame.

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Overall objectives are often established first by management,

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subsequently descending and becoming clearer down the pyramid.

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Here is an example of an annual objective

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Increase the number of stores by 20%.

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Key results are measurable indicators of the achievement of the objective

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and answer the question how.

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Do we achieve the objective.

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In this example,

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select 40 potential new franchisees by March,

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train 30 by June,

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sign contracts for 25 by September,

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Open 20 stores by December.

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It's common practice to define 3 to 5

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key quarterly results per objective.

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Another example of a quarterly objective

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is improve customer satisfaction with 5 key results.

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Have an NPS,

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a net promoter score greater than 8.

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Get 1000 responses to our annual satisfaction survey.

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Conduct 50 telephone interviews with the best customers.

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Conduct 15 telephone interviews with our recent clients.

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Present an action plan of 10 improvements for the next quarter.

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The objectives are public,

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ambitious,

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and determined at all hierarchical levels.

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Each department will have its own OKRs.

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Likewise,

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each individual will have their quarterly OKRs.

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Google workers name the OR's stretch targets.

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These objectives or targets should take employees out of their

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comfort zone and push them to accomplish things they haven't before

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or didn't even imagine possible

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to do.

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The standard to be achieved in this context is 70% of the target.

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If 100% is regularly achieved,

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it may be these targets aren't ambitious enough.

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In any case,

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once they have achieved their OK Rs,

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Google workers can spend 20% of their time on projects of their choice,

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including personal initiatives.

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This means they are strictly speaking,

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not paid by the hours worked.

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Employees and managers monitor the OKRs regularly,

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not just quarterly,

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and readjust them if necessary.

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Let us go one step further past OR's.

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Maurice Lefeve in his blog Go Pirate details the steps involved in

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moving from an organizational model based on volume and hours of work

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to an impact and value-based model.

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Step one.

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Measure hours involved.

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Clock the hours.

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The important thing is that you do your hours.

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Step 2.

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Measure not only the hours worked but also the work load.

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Most companies operate on this model.

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There is therefore the pressure to do more and to deliver

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more regardless sometimes of whether these tasks really add value.

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These hours are sometimes spent on bureaucratic tasks.

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Step 3,

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measure the impact of the time invested.

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It is no longer enough to simply be present or accumulate tasks.

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Concrete results must be demonstrated.

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Delivery management,

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management by objectives takes on its full importance.

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This is where we find companies operating in the field of sales,

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customer conversion,

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or consulting services.

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ROWE companies

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that work with OKRs such as Slack,

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Eventbrite,

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Netflix,

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often operate on this level.

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In the last step,

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value and impact drive organizations.

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All the company's actors are invested in the idea of generating tangible

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value in alignment with the company's

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short and long-term objectives and priorities.

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Employees are seen as experts rather than implementers.

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Managers no longer act as supervisors of execution

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and become custodians of value.

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Ensuring that everyone's efforts produce consistent and consumable value

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that is directly linked to the objectives and priorities.

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Here is an example from Maurice Lefevere.

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A task oriented boss asks his employee redo the website.

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The employee obeys,

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changes the user interface,

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the design,

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plays with the colors,

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modernizes the appearance.

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A value oriented boss would ask,

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I would like our website to convert at least 15% more visitors.

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The employee will act differently.

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Maybe he or she will change the user experience

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or even the entire design.

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They might change the SEO and ergonomics.

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They may also explore improving the synergy

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between the marketing efforts and the site's presentation

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to facilitate customer conversion.

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Two requests with the same direction redo the website task oriented objective,

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and

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I would like our website to convert at least 15% more visitors,

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a value oriented objective.

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But two incredibly different results.

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The second request brings significantly more value and impact than the first.

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As remote management forces you to let go of command and control,

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it may be worth giving your employees more room for decision and action.

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Define objectives with them,

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if possible,

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value oriented.

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Then indicators or key results and finally monitoring methods.

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Then rely on their experience,

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their intelligence and creativity to determine what to do and how to do it.

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You will be amazed at the resulting performance.

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