As with our previous session on Remote Onboarding so much valuable content emerged from the discussions that we’ve summarised the key points in this article. We’ve also included the links that were shared, our insight report on the remote management of junior staff and the recordings of both sessions.

Session 1 – Friday 10th July

Remote Management of Juniors part 1

Hazel Rogers from First Intuition discussed the content of our latest Employer Insight Report. The title of this is ‘Managing trainees remotely providing structure and feedback, building trust and giving support‘.

C-J Green of BraveGoose gave us a fascinating overview of 10 key areas that she thinks businesses should be focusing on at the moment, including;

• “When dealing with staff, it’s all about output, if you are still focusing on input then you are going to find the modern business environment increasingly difficult”. She advised replacing job descriptions (which are so quickly out of date) with ‘output agreements’ that are reviewed on a weekly and monthly basis.
• “Stop trying to replicate the office at home.” Younger staff are used to engaging with screens so embrace a world of work technologies that you might not even recognise.”
• Have virtual ‘think-out-loud’ sessions where you give staff the chance to verbalise their thinking about what they are up to for a few minutes, even if they don’t have any specific questions. Scheduled agenda-driven video calls tend not to allow this freedom of expression.
• “Communicating with junior staff can spark your inspiration as much as you spark theirs”, so don’t treat it as a ‘necessary evil’ that distracts you from your own work, but as a golden opportunity for development at all levels.
• “Death to employee surveys, long live town halls!”. Virtual technologies give you an amazing ability to be in front of your teams like never before, to talk personally to them and to invite questions.

Watch the video of her jam-packed session below for her full list of priorities.

Session 2 – Friday 17th July

Remote Management of Juniors part 2

Dyfrig Jenkins of YOU.DEVELOPMENT LTD joined us the following week to give his perspective on the environment we are now dealing with juniors in:

• He explained the increasingly VUCA environment we operate in:
  • Volatile
  • Uncertain
  • Complex
  • Ambiguous

and how this can overwhelm people and teams, and increase the chances of people making bad decisions.

• The factors that influence workplace engagement by junior staff include:
  • Clarity of their role
  • Freedom to have a say and make decisions
  • A sense of recognition
• His statistic that around 50% of home workers are experiencing physical pain due to poor home office set-ups shocked us all, as did the fact that 75% of business leaders plan to permanently adopt flexible and agile working. Any senior manager expecting to go back to how things were, needs to have a rethink.
• With junior staff, a process of “check-in rather than check-up” will ensure they feel supported and foster far greater trust. It will also “develop confidence as well as competence.”

We also heard some excellent advice from Anthony Clarke of the AAT, Mark Foley of CIMA, Sharon Critchlow of ACCA and Laura Barber of ICAEW. You can find the recording of the whole informative session below:

Further Information and Links

8 Tactics to get the most out of remote millennial workers

Remote working: key considerations for junior employees’ development

A Guide to Managing Your (Newly) Remote Workers

AAT – how to manage a virtual team

ACCA Wellbeing Hub

ICAEW – 4 skills remote managers should focus on

ICAEW – CABA’s 4 tips for managing remote teams

If you missed our previous session.

In our First Think Tank Friday Fortnight, we discussed the topic of remote onboarding. You can read the key points that emerged, watch the recordings and find all the links in this article.

To find out more about our programme for these sessions, click here.