Managing remote and hybrid workers is not totally different from managing those who are in the same physical location as you. However, it can have different challenges and requirements, and there are some specific aspects that you need to consider. Good people management becomes even more important when you work remotely some or all of the time.  

Relevant manager behaviours

Taking the time to build and sustain good relationships is vital, as is bringing an authentic, caring, compassionate attitude to underpin your management approach. Exercise 5 offers advice on developing this behaviour.

When managing remote and hybrid workers, it is particularly important to be aware of and show care for your team members’ physical and psychological wellbeing and safety. All the aspects of manager behaviour covered by the support materials are pertinent to employee health and wellbeing, so they are all relevant in the context of managing remote and hybrid workers. Other essential aspects of managing remote workers include taking a consistent approach, empowering people, building trust, and ensuring clarity of communications. 

Relevant manager behaviours

Looking after your own wellbeing and managing your own emotions and stress levels will also be essential, so that you are able to manage other people and role-model healthy approaches. This is part of being open, fair and consistent and Exercise 2 can be used to develop this area of behaviour.

Employers are responsible for an employee’s health, safety and wellbeing, both when working in the employer’s premises and when working from home or elsewhere. Remote working therefore has a range of implications, from risk assessment and legal requirements to broader absence management, health and wellbeing. 

You or someone from your organisation should usually conduct risk assessments of all the work activities carried out by employees, including those working from home or elsewhere, looking at risks posed by the psychological and social environment in which people are working as well as their physical work environment. Check your organisation’s guidance or policy on risk assessments.  

Physical risk assessments of each employee’s home may not be feasible. If the risks of working from home have been deemed lower than being at work, you may decide that homeworking risk assessments (particularly for short periods of homeworking) can be conducted using electronic risk assessment questions and providing employees with guidance to follow at home. Bear in mind that not everyone’s workspace is set up according to good health and safety practice, so it is important to help people arrange their physical work environment to be as conducive as possible to healthy ergonomics, including posture, screen positioning, and device usage.  

This will include areas such as demands, control/autonomy, levels of support, relationships, the individual’s role and how change is managed. It is important to find ways of minimising and mitigating risks to psychological health and wellbeing. 

You need to make sure that remote workers are knowledgeable about health and safety and comply with your organisation’s health and safety policy. Health and safety legislation puts some responsibility on homeworkers to ensure that they and members of the household are not endangered by work activities undertaken at home. 

Remind employees that they should continue to comply with your organisation’s sickness absence policy and report to you (or through whatever arrangements are in place) when they are sick and unable to work. It is important to discourage presenteeism: if a team member is unwell, encourage them to take time off and handover on urgent work. As a manager, you should model this behaviour yourself. 

To maintain good health and wellbeing, it is important for you and your team to create boundaries: be clear about when the working day begins and ends, take breaks and know when to step away from your desk. When work is over, it is important to switch off to avoid burnout. Having some team ‘rules’ about communication can be helpful. You may need to help people create boundaries between work and non-work time. It is also essential to cultivate healthy habits such as taking exercise, eating healthily and getting fresh air every day, as well as good social contact and support. Again, as a manager, you should model this behaviour.

Relevant manager behaviours

This relates closely to the behavioural area Being open, fair and consistent. Look at Exercise 2 for advice on how to develop this area.

Remind staff of any existing health and wellbeing benefits and how to access these when working remotely or in a hybrid way.

Recent research has shown that those who are in better contact with their line manager have better wellbeing. The way you manage your team can make a real difference to team members’ health and wellbeing.

Relevant manager behaviours

In order for your behaviour to come across as authentic and supportive, you will need to have an attitude of genuine care and concern for the team’s wellbeing and an interest in each individual. Exercise 5 will help in developing your behaviour in this area.

In addition to health and safety, remote working has many other practical and legal implications. You may already have a homeworking or remote working policy, which can be relied upon if a temporary period of homeworking becomes necessary and for putting in place arrangements for longer-term remote working. Your policy may set out guidance on how to communicate with employees and how performance will be monitored. 

If your organisation has such a policy, it is worth checking what it says about the practical and legal aspects of managing remote workers. If there is no policy, you may want to discuss with your employer (or HR team) how to handle key legal and contractual issues. Other policy aspects to consider are highlighted below. 

Remote workers must be treated the same as employees on a work premises, with equal access to development and promotion opportunities and support services. Whether a remote or hybrid worker has a contractual right to work remotely will depend on the specific terms of their employment contract. Some organisations allow remote or hybrid work on an informal basis where others make it part of the contractual arrangements. If you are not sure of your organisation’s approach, you may wish to check this. If remote or hybrid work opportunities are formalised in the contract, they cannot be unilaterally changed.

You may need to specify hours of work. For example, your employee may need to be available for work during strict office hours or work a specified set number of hours per day. It may be possible to be more flexible about working hours in a working from home or remote working arrangement.

A positive and caring people management approach will go a long way to establishing effective ways of working together remotely, but there are a few things to consider when establishing new remote or hybrid working arrangements, for example: 

• Make sure every team member is clear about how you will work together remotely, how you will keep each other updated, and how frequently.
• Remind your team how their work fits into the big picture.
• Clarify everyone’s roles, including your own.
• Make sure expectations are really clear around team members’ goals, responsibilities and performance indicators. It is easy for misunderstandings to arise, so take time to check that each person has fully understood what you are expecting of them – and what they can expect of you. 
• Set clear objectives and goals regularly, and review and update as needed, taking into account the role, and the needs of the team and wider organisation. Effective goals with clear measures are key to successful remote and hybrid work. Every employee should understand how their performance will be assessed and measured.
• Different motivation techniques may be needed for remote and hybrid workers as compared with those working in the office and different individuals will need different approaches. It is important to find out what will motivate each team member and work with them to maintain their motivation and enthusiasm.

Even when teams have been working remotely for some time, it can be helpful to do a refresh of ways of working, checking that they are still effective and fully understood by everyone. 

Relevant manager behaviours

To establish effective ways of working, you need to Provide knowledge, clarity and guidance and Build and sustain relationships. Exercise 4 and Exercise 5 in the support materials provide advice in these areas.

Once you have set clear expectations, it is important not to micromanage your team. When managing remote workers, trust is more important than control. Focus on results rather than activity. Working relationships can deteriorate quickly without trust, and wellbeing will suffer. 

While it is important for your team to know that they can call on you for support when they need it, it is also vital that they feel empowered to get on with their job in an autonomous way, and take decisions independently. Remote working requires time management skills, the ability to work without close supervision, self-motivation and flexibility; you may need to support your team to develop and build these skills, especially if someone joins your team who has not worked remotely before.  

Relevant manager behaviours

By taking a consistent approach, being reliable and showing your competence, you can help your team to trust you. Exercise 1, Exercise 4 and Exercise 5 offer advice on developing these areas.

Virtual teams encounter more challenges than face-to-face teams because they must rely more on electronic communications, and may have less overlap of working hours. 

You can build team cohesion and trust through: 

• synchronising work schedules
• investing in team-building sessions
• providing tools for co-ordination (for example file-sharing systems, messaging) and ensuring everyone knows how to use them
• helping people understand one another, giving time and space for different perspectives – including role-modelling a genuine interest in learning to see beyond your own ‘world view’
• finding ways to help people work together – for example, joint projects, mentoring or buddying arrangements
• protecting the team from negative behaviour – from within or outside the team
• maximising time spent together, such as when a hybrid team comes into the office – co-ordinate working days wherever possible
• building effective communications and relationships (see more below). 

When working remotely, there is an increased risk of misunderstanding of messages and the potential for conflict. It is important that you prevent this where possible, by:

• establishing good communication systems;
• being alert to the early signs of conflict;
• having clear, agreed approaches for managing conflict;
• dealing with any conflicts as early as possible, impartially and supportively.

Relevant manager behaviours

You may find it helpful to think through your capacity to Handle conflict and people management issues. Exercise 3 offers advice on developing this area of behaviour.

For team members working remotely, there is a risk of isolation, loneliness and disengagement. Clear and effective communication channels are therefore vital, as is keeping in touch with colleagues. Team members must be able to communicate easily with you, other colleagues and the organisation.

Setting clear expectations about how and when communication will happen can help things run smoothly. For example: 

• A daily virtual huddle: This can help everyone keep connected as a team, check in on each other’s wellbeing, keep workflow on track and discuss any additional support they need.
• Regular one-to-ones and team meetings: This maintains a sense of continuity and can help combat isolation and stress. Longer one-to-ones allow time for discussion of remote working challenges and for non-work catch-up.
• Establish when and how team members can contact you: this will help them feel that you are there to support them. Keeping your calendar visible and maintaining a virtual open door is also helpful.
• Minimise communication stress: Set clear expectations about the way employees should deliver and receive communications throughout the working day.

Think through the content of communications between you and your team members, or within the team: 

• Share information and encourage your team to do the same: Without physical ‘watercooler conversations’, opportunities to pick up information in passing are more limited. Share appropriate updates or learnings from other meetings and projects and invite your team to do the same.
• Communicate regularly, not just when things go wrong: While it is important to provide feedback and be clear when something isn’t working, it is also vital that you communicate positive, appreciative messages and more general information. Ongoing, consistent and regular feedback is important. When something isn’t working well, avoid blaming and find ways to problem-solve collaboratively.
• Foster relationships: Make time for non-work chats and use video calling to maintain face-to-face contact. This increases rapport and eases communication between people. It also reduces feelings of isolation. Bringing the whole team together periodically is also important to build connections.  

Relevant manager behaviours

This relates closely to the behaviour area Being open, respectful, fair and consistent. Look at Exercise 1 for advice on how to develop this area.

It is not just about what is communicated, but also about how it is communicated: 

• Be clear: Remote conversations can easily be misinterpreted as it’s harder to read body language, tone of voice and other visual and audio cues. Stay particularly mindful of this when delivering difficult messages or feedback.
• Tailor your feedback and communications: People can be more sensitive if they’re feeling isolated or anxious, so take this into account. Get to know team members individually so that you understand what they need.
• Listen closely and read between the lines: Not being in the same room means you don’t have extra information from body language or tone to get the sense of what people are thinking or feeling, particularly in more difficult conversations. Hone in on what’s not being said and listen deeply to understand what is going on for people below what they are making explicit. Don’t make assumptions, though; ask questions to clarify your interpretation and be open to different perspectives.
• Develop your empathy and compassion: In order to support people in the best way possible, it will be helpful for you to be empathetic, allow people to express their emotions, understand what they are feeling without getting overwhelmed, and be motivated to help. If you need support in developing these capacities, the support materials can provide ideas and inspiration; your HR or L&D team may also be able to help.
• In a hybrid team, consider what forms of communication will be better undertaken in person, and schedule these for in-person working days.  

Relevant manager behaviours

Thinking about your attitude and approach to communication will be helped by Building and sustaining relationships. Use Exercise 5 to outline how you can develop this behavioural area.

Taking one approach and applying it to everyone is unlikely to work. If you haven’t already done so, you will need to build a relationship with each team member, take an interest in them as an individual and find out what is most likely to work for them in terms of communication, as well as ways of working and motivators. 

• Encourage cameras on for video calls. Being present and seeing each other is an important part of keeping connected. Be mindful however of employee’s personal situations at home. 
• Use headsets or earphones: This will give better sound quality.
• Establish etiquette guidelines: Agree that you and everyone on the call won’t hide away or do other work during the meeting. Agree a system to give everyone a voice.
• Speak clearly and steadily: This will help ensure everyone can understand you.
• Use names and give context: When responding to chat comments, repeat the relevant remarks and make clear who you’re responding to.
• Engage participants regularly: It’s hard to simply listen online for a long time. Invite participants to give comments or ask questions, and use tools like chat or polls for interaction.
• Be explicit about actions and summarise: Spell out clearly any actions that need to be taken and by whom. Summarise meeting takeaways and circulate notes promptly.
• Keep slides simple and visual: If anyone is using slides, keep to a single thought per slide to help participants understand and focus on what’s being discussed.
• Repeat the question: The chair/facilitator/presenter should repeat questions – the questions they ask of participants or the question they have been asked – before answering it, to ensure all participants are aware of the original question. Repeating the question in writing within a chat box can provide additional clarity.

If you manage a team with a mix of hybrid, remote or in-person employees, it is essential that you avoid creating a situation where there is resentment between those working in a certain way, especially if those opportunities might not be available to everyone. It will not always be possible for everyone to work remotely or flexibly. This can be a difficult issue that requires sensitive handling. Ensure that you are transparent with people about their flexible working opportunities depending on their specific job role. If roles cannot be undertaken in a remote way, consider what other opportunities for flexibility might exist. Engage the team in a discussion to ensure that communication and collaboration remains effective for everyone.  

Relevant manager behaviours

Developing your capacity to Handle conflict and people management issues will allow you to step in appropriately when needed. Refer to Exercise 3 for advice on developing this area.

• LinkedIn Learning’s remote working course includes insight from entrepreneur Arianna Huffington and can be completed in bite-sized chunks.
• The crowdsourced Remote Work Survival Kit will arm you with the tools you need to achieve a happy and balanced remote working set-up.
• HR-inform has easy-to-use, downloadable templates to help you establish your own flexi-time, homeworking, and flexible working policies.
• Acas has produced a comprehensive guide that includes real-life case studies and advice on meeting homeworking legal requirements as well as health and safety standards.
• The Health and Safety Executive has created a guide for UK employers about protecting homeworkers that includes advice on managing stress and mental health.
• Wordpress co-founder Matt Mullenweg considers how homeworking impacts office dynamics in his four-minute TED Talk.
• A blog from Rescue Time looks at ways to build community among teams who work thousands of miles apart: many of the key takeaways also apply to remote workers in closer proximity.
• ‘How to collaborate effectively if your team is remote’ is a short read from Harvard Business Review to help your business tackle remote collaboration and perform at the highest levels.
• Get Lighthouse takes an in-depth look at remote working with 11 essential tips on managing remote workers.