Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 9 work" is seen as valuable, says Golden. " T he telecommuter who does additional work outside of normal work hours and exhibits great dedication and effort, that helps overcome some of the stigma because now the manager sees [ t h e e m p l o y e e ] m ay w a n t t o telecommute, but you know they're putting forth that extra effort," he says. "They're doing what I need, they're doing it at different hours of the day, they're not limiting themselves. In fact, they may be even working more than they might in the office and, therefore, that person may be just as deserving for a promotion as someone who has worked completely within the office." Working from home does not mean the employees slack off, according to Sookman. "Remote workers tend to work longer than face-to-face workers. The stat that I'm most familiar with is four hours a week longer than their face-to-face counterparts. Beyond that, they're also checking their email well past [when] their workday is over." HR guidelines It's about having clear guidelines — both with HR and leadership — that set out makes judgments about promotions." But that stigma depends upon the organization, says Berube. "In certain roles, telecommuting totally makes sense, and particularly when you're not necessarily in a leadership role, you're very much putting a deliverable forward and you don't need a lot of team interaction in order to make that happen in those sor ts of roles, then telecommuting is fine because you're really not impacting anyone else. And as long as you get your work done, it's fine." The position held by the remote worker also plays a part in how that person is perceived, she says. "In leadership roles, it's not ideal because you need to have that face-to- face, more-hands-on interaction with your teams. They need to know you're there and a big part of leadership is you leading by example and it's really hard to do if you're not around. In those scenarios, if you had a leader who was telecommuting a lot, that probably wouldn't sit well with everyone." Changing perceptions To overcome the downsides of poor perceptions, doing "supplemental the expectations of remote workers and when they should be available, says Berube. For example, if there's an emergency meeting, how do they reach the person? "[It's about] working through some of those logistic things, just to make sure that it's really clear and that policy is in place so that employees are educated and then held accountable," she says. A separate telecommuting agreement might be needed to document the employer's expectations, according to Golden. " T his agreement is impor tant because it lays out those mutual expec tations so that people are c o m m u n i c a t i n g e ff e c t i v e l y a n d avoiding those understandings that sometimes pop up, inadvertently, not out of malice [because] sometimes we don't do the best job even when we're in the office." Training is critical so that employees and employers make the best use of available tools and working from home is seamless, says Sookman. "It's so important that leaders get trained, it's important that your team members get trained," she says. "This "We're going through coronavirus and we don't want to be caught in a crisis again where businesses can be severely impacted." Claire Sookman, Virtual Team Builders Photo credit: nortonrsx iStock. was a reality years ago: We went through 9/11, we went through SARS, we went through Ebola and now we're going through coronavirus and we don't want to be caught in a crisis again where businesses can be severely impacted. This is an opportunity to learn how to gain the skills that everybody needs, and people really need to get up to speed." CHRR

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