If holding 1-on-1 meetings with your direct reports was “best practice” pre-Covid-19, in our current remote work environment those meetings have been elevated to an almost “mission-critical” status. How you use your 1-on-1 time with your direct reports can make or break their desire to deliver the results you expect from them. Are you spending all your time reviewing your employees’ to-do lists...
As the famous Staples commercial with parents dancing down the store aisles as they shop for school supplies so brilliantly reflected, most parents welcome their children’s return to school thanks to the additional free time and structure it normally provides them. Of course, nothing is “normal” this year. As the summer quickly winds down and we head into September, working parents of school-aged...
As reported in a recent issue of the Harvard Business Review (7/15/2020), Microsoft leveraged the company’s sudden switch from in-person to remote work, resulting from the COVID-19 crisis, to conduct a study of the effects of remote work on the behaviors and productivity of its 350-person Modern Workplace Transformation team, based largely in the U.S. Microsoft looked for trends in areas such as...
When is HR allowed to say “POOP???” When we are doing everything we can to fight a pandemic, that’s when. If you think that non-hand-washers are the rare and few exceptions among us, guess again. Employees, with increasing frequency, approach their managers and HR to report that some colleagues do not wash their hands after having used the bathroom. At that point, HR owns the unsavory task...
On June 25, 2020, a New York State travel advisory went into effect for anyone traveling to states that have a significant degree of community-wide spread of COVID-19. Specifically, the advisory requires individuals returning from travel to these “restricted” states to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arriving in New York State. The advisory applies equally to New York residents and non-resident...
I’ve been asking fellow business owners about the business lessons that they are learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those that have been through multiple economic downturns overwhelmingly say that business owners must be decisive and cut costs as quickly as possible, including payroll. With businesses now on the cusp of reopening, employers are bringing back workers at a reduced capacity. Those...
In the COVID-19 era, engaging with your employees matters more than ever. Though we do not know when the COVID-19 crisis will end, we are preparing to resume business operations while fully recognizing that it will not be “business as usual.” As you are thinking through your return to work strategies, you need to make some decisions about what the new “normal” will (or should) be. This is...
It took a pandemic to force most of us to experience a different way of working – i.e., working remotely. 66% of US employees are now working remotely part-time or more due to COVID-191 Out of 25,000 respondents in an April 2020 IBM study, 40% strongly believed that their employer should allow them the choice to work from home most would like to continue working remotely The numbers point to...
As working remote becomes the new normal, it is essential for businesses to ensure that employees are remaining alert and safe online. Networks in companies of all sizes are under siege by a growing number of increasingly sophisticated attacks from cyber criminals. These attacks can happen at any time, both to your business or to you personally on your own private networks. There are a few key points...
In response to the COVID-19 crisis, many companies have been required to close their physical doors and move to remote operations by having their employees “telework” from home. For some of these employers, managing a remote workforce is an unfamiliar challenge that they have not had to face in the past. However, even for those employers who normally allow some or all of their employees to work...
