The on-going Covid-19 pandemic has certainly given UK businesses many hurdles to overcome over the past couple of months. Now that things are starting to get back to normal, strong leadership is key to adhering to new social distancing measures and managing employees who are still working from home. Having confidence, reliable and highly skilled members of your team ready to adapt, enforce new measures and manage those who are still working remotely, will help your business thrive.
Let’s take a look at the changes UK companies are facing back in the office and how you can bring your team together, whether they’re two meters apart and social distancing or remote working.
Covid-19 Pandemic Has Transformed Office Environments
There is no doubt that the office environment has changed completely due to the on-going pandemic. In order to keep your team safe and their risk of infection low, you must ensure that you’re following government guidelines when it comes to social distancing. New social distancing measures for offices in the UK include:
Increase and encourage the frequency of hand washing and surface cleaning
Provide hand sanitizers and cleaning products to workers
Use screens or barriers to separate people from each other
Set up partnering or fixed teams to reduce social interactions at work
Stagger arrival and departure times at work to reduce crowding
Clearly mark entry and exit paths
Discourage non-essential trips
If possible, allow remote working
However, enforcing these social distancing measures can be tricky for companies that have small offices and a large number of employees, or those who rely on brainstorming and working collaboratively to meet client briefs or to bring ideas to life. In order to adapt and power through this difficult time, it will take strong leadership and careful management.
When we use the term ‘strong leadership’ this must never be construed with strict, rigid and negative management. In fact, strong leadership is the complete opposite. To guide your team when it comes to social distancing measures and working under unusual circumstances, it takes a leader that is respected for all the right reasons. Showing kindness, being approachable and demanding results without being intimidating are all important elements to management and make a great leader. When employees are managed by someone they respect and trust, they will follow rules, regulations and social distancing guidelines without effecting results.
How to Manage Employees While Remote Working
For businesses that are bringing some key employees back to work and allowing others to continue working remotely, the pandemic can be a difficult transition to manage. Keeping those back in the office following social distancing measures and ensuring remote workers are staying on track and hitting deadlines can be frustrating and time consuming. In order to manage employees who are working remotely, consider setting up weekly catch ups on both a group and individual basis. If possible, delegate and give a manager in your team the responsibility of checking in on your remote workers and setting up internal virtual meetings to ensure that everyone is on the same page.
There are a multitude of ways to push through during this challenging time but one of the best ways to manage is to employ strong leaders. If you’re struggling to hire talented leaders and managers for your business, our team is here to help. We understand how difficult the Covid-19 pandemic has been for business and we specialise in helping companies to find strong executives, managers and senior members of staff to help drive success and add value to your company and existing team.
For more information and to discuss your business recruitment needs, feel free to contact us.