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3 things managers can do to keep employees calm, cool, and connected while working remotely during times of crisis
3 things managers can do to keep employees calm, cool, and connected while working remotely during times of crisis
Gillian BrassilApr 6, 2020, 22:14 IST
Buffer; Flexjobs; Samantha Lee/Business InsiderBusiness Insider spoke with Joel Gascoigne, the CEO of Buffer, and Carol Cochran, the vice president of people and culture at FlexJobs, for the second episode of our Business Insider Spotlight Digital Live Event series.
If you're new to leading a remote team, there are three crucial things you must do to ensure employee happiness and productivity - especially during a time of crisis like the COVID-19 outbreak.
It's crucial to drive home the mission and to be transparent about what's going on at each level of the company.
Keep company culture alive with virtual parties and celebrations, and help new hires along the way by using a buddy system.
Business Insider spoke with Carol Cochran, the vice president of people and culture at FlexJobs, and Joel Gascoigne, the CEO of Buffer, for the second episode of our Business Insider Spotlight Digital Live Event series.
Nothing is normal about coping with a crisis like the one we're in right now. The novel coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the way we live, work, and think, inhibiting in-person connectivity and causing emotional distress for many.
Carol CochranCochran, the vice president of people and culture at FlexJobs.
In times like these especially, newly remote employees look up to their managers for guidance, clarity, and support. And there are several ways leaders of work-from-home forces can ensure their employees are happy, healthy, and productive.
Take it from two business leaders who've fostered remote companies for years: Carol Cochran, the vice president of people and culture at FlexJobs - a platform that supports work-from-home freelancers and employees - and Joel Gascoigne, the CEO of the social-media management tool Buffer. Both of their teams have been largely remote since their companies' inception.
BufferGascoigne, the CEO of Buffer.
Business Insider interviewed Cochran and Gascoigne about the best ways to lead successful workers who are scattered across the globe during times like this. These were their three main tips to making sure your newly remote team stayed focus and safe.
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Both FlexJobs and Buffer have strong, unique missions that were instilled from the get-go. Though you can't go back in time and reset your company mission, you can make it a focus moving forward. Providing a clear mission gives employees something to move toward while the rest of their world might be a bit upside down.
Gascoigne wrote down Buffer's core values when the company was just a fledgling group of 10 people, and he still relies on them to this day. He said this helped ground employees and provide clarity right from the start.
"I think the key thing is that without doing that, what happens is that kind of becomes more of a vibe," he said. "And that's just where that type of approach is really ripe to bias and discrimination, and then with diagnostic challenges and things which really have a negative impact on the whole company, on the products who build all of that as well."
Cochran agreed, saying it helped center FlexJobs on aiding clients.
"We were very mission-driven right from the beginning," Cochran said. "The whole reason that the company was created was with an aim to help people who had a need or a desire for this type of work. And it really drives every decision that we make, is that goal of helping more people."
2. Encourage transparency by showing it yourself
In times of crisis, clarity provides continuity. That's why Cochran and Gascoigne try to make what's happening on the management level visible to employees.
Doing so also encourages workers to be transparent about what struggles they're facing and how leaders can support them. This especially helps when employees are on edge given economic instability and fears of illness amid the pandemic.
"People have to be willing to be very proactive and upfront with where they're at and what they need, and then have a very deep sense of integrity in everything that we do — that we're looking to do the right thing," Cochran said.
Similarly, Buffer makes much of their information front-facing, helping keep clients and the public in the loop as well.
"So we set down transparency as one of our core values very early, and we actually phrased it as 'default to transparency,' which forced us to really aim to make everything transparent unless there's a very good reason otherwise" Gascoigne said.
3. Celebrate company culture beyond the office
Treating your employees as people first is always important, but it is especially so when they're balancing a more difficult work-from-home situation. Not only may they be unaccustomed to being out of office, but they also might be working with kids running around, taking care of loved ones, or preparing for unexpected circumstances.
Fostering trust and connectivity through virtual happy hours and celebrations can help ease tension and keep employees happy amid these unprecedented times. Both Buffer and FlexJobs have video gatherings and messaging groups dedicated to building connection with nonwork activities — from birthdays to cocktails.
"We've also done virtual pizza parties to celebrate achievements on teams where we will arrange to have pizzas delivered to everybody's house within a time frame so that they can all enjoy their pizza together on a Zoom meeting," Cochran added.
This is also crucial when onboarding new team members. At Buffer, Gascoigne encourages a buddy system to get people to ingratiate themselves in the company culture. New hires have a "role buddy" on their team to learn the ropes and a "culture buddy" who's not on their team to see how the company works as one.
"That's already creating that bond with other areas, and that person is specifically tasked with helping with all the questions, and just helping that person to understand some of the unique elements of how the culture works in practice within the company," he said.
