Telework Archives - CHCI

7 Ways to Reduce Friction Between Remote and Onsite Employees

admin — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 06:52:58 +0000

CHCI is honored to have Anne Loehr, Executive Vice President, mentioned in this article on reducing friction between onsite and remote employees that was published on SHRM. Thanks Arlene Hirsch for the excellent interview questions!

As organizations prepare for a post-pandemic world, many are embracing hybrid schedules that allow some employees to work remotely at least part of the time. As a result, friction is rising at some companies between remote employees and those required to work onsite who are jealous of their colleagues’ flexibility.

HR often is tasked with addressing that friction and guiding people managers who are caught in the middle. Here are seven strategies designed to minimize tension and foster cohesiveness between remote and onsite team members.

1. Identify the Cause of the Friction

“If you take the resentment [between remote and onsite employees] at face value, the obvious solution is to allow more people to work from home. However, that’s not always possible,” said Anne Loehr, executive vice president of the Center for Human Capital Innovation, a consulting firm in Alexandria, Va. “So to manage the situation effectively, you need to understand what’s at the core of this resentment. It’s important to have an open and honest conversation with employees to gain insight into what’s really going on.”

Loehr believes HR can and should take the lead in researching and gathering data that employers can use to determine the best approach. This may include scheduling focus group discussions, as well as fielding employee pulse surveys and employee engagement surveys, she said.

2. Be Transparent

“The decision about whether to allow employees to work remotely is based on a variety of factors, including organizational purpose, strategy, employee preferences and work styles,” said Daniel Davis, Ph.D., a senior researcher at Hassell International in New York City who studies future workplace trends. “What works for one may not work for another, so success depends on the leadership team’s ability to choose a path forward and communicate that vision.”

Jennifer Dennard, co-founder and COO of Range, a technology startup in Boulder, Colo., said internal communications and transparency are key to ensuring that everyone feels like they are on the same team, regardless of whether they work remotely or onsite.

“Create clear guidelines and be transparent about why some people cannot work remotely,” Dennard said. “Then apply as much flexibility as possible to level the playing field.”

3. Define What Flexibility Means

“Employers need to grant onsite workers the same flexibility as remote workers whenever possible,” said Jacob Zabkowicz, vice president and general manager for global RPO at Korn Ferry in Chicago. “If you hold onsite workers to a different standard, that’s when resentments occur.”

An equality of benefits and scheduling is key to reducing friction, agreed Ellen Ernst Kossek, a management professor at Purdue University and co-author of CEO of Me: Creating a Life That Works in the Flexible Job Age (FT Press, 2007). “Every job deserves some flexibility. Even if remote work isn’t always an option, organizations should offer flexibility to both office and front-line workers,” Kossek said. “It cannot be viewed as a scarce or privileged resource.”

Giving every employee the same scheduling options is key if you want flexibility to become a core part of your culture, said Anne Donovan, PwC’s former U.S. people experience leader. “Otherwise, some employees may feel left out.” But the global professional services firm also recognizes that, depending on the circumstances, “flexibility” can mean different things to different people. For some employees, it might mean starting the day earlier, taking an hour off at noon for a doctor’s appointment or leaving early to attend a child’s after-school activity.

“It’s not about working less. It’s about working differently,” Donovan said. “Flexibility is a two-way street. If there’s a deadline or work priority that requires extra hours, employees are expected to be flexible enough to meet the needs of the business.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, Sage North America, an 11,000-person accounting and business management software company based in Atlanta, sent everyone home to work remotely. As the company plans their return-to-office strategy, their top priority is the safety and well-being of their employees, said executive vice president Nancy Harris.

“In May, we rolled out our Flexible Human Work (FHW) plan under which each team is allowed to make their own decisions about how and where they want to work,” she said. “A team can manage the ebb and flow in and out of the office based on the work that needs to be done.

“There’s lots of appreciation for the change in mindset because everyone is given the same freedom,” Harris added. “It’s a way to level the playing field.”

4. Rethink What Roles Can Be Performed Remotely

Managers should be encouraged to rethink their assumptions about what roles can—and cannot—be done remotely, Loehr said. “It’s possible that you’ve overlooked other positions that would be fine as remote jobs, even for just part of the time.”

At Ford Motor Co., salaried employees are allowed to work remotely at least part of each day, while factory workers are required to be onsite. When an electrician, who is also a single mother, asked HR if she could work remotely part time, she was told that remote-work options were not available to hourly employees. Although the employee says she understands that a lot of her factory work can only be done in person, she believes she could be productive working remotely one to two days a week because her job requires extensive paperwork.

Options exist to help address this type of situation, Loehr said. For example, the physical therapy team at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, incorporated virtual platforms last year to help ensure the safety of staff and patients while maintaining continuity of care, even when employees needed to work remotely. They also cross-trained team members so that if therapists got sick or needed to take time off, there were enough physical therapists onsite to meet patient needs.

5. Address Distance Bias

Although the pandemic has reduced some of the stigma attached to remote work, it hasn’t disappeared altogether. “When companies have some employees working remotely and others working onsite, this can foster an ‘us versus them’ mentality,” said Liane Davey, co-founder of Toronto-based 3COZE Inc. and author of The Good Fight: Use Productive Conflict to Get Your Organization and Team Back on Track (Page Two, 2019). “People have a negativity bias. They often don’t pay attention to what they have in common.”

Managers can help onsite employees better understand and respect remote team members by sharing information about the sacrifices remote employees make to complete tasks, meet deadlines and accomplish their goals, said Zabkowicz at Korn Ferry. “Many employees who don’t have the option to work remotely still have the perception that, because you work remotely, you can do whatever you want.”

What in-office employees often don’t realize is that working from home has its own challenges, Loehr said. She advises managers to facilitate a discussion between remote and in-office workers “to let each discuss their personal challenges and dispel any myths they may have about each other.” This can be a town hall meeting or even a brown-bag lunch.

6. Build Trust

“Virtual teams often lack context because employees don’t have the opportunity to get to know each other,” Davey said. “The solution is for leaders to bake in opportunities to increase mutual knowledge and understanding.”

When addressing resentment from onsite workers about their remote colleagues, there are a few things at play. Beyond simply wanting to skip their commute and work in pajamas, onsite employees may think their managers don’t trust them, according to Loehr.

“Employees don’t always trust that managers have their best interests at heart,” she explained. “They see working from home as a privilege, and not being allowed to do so makes them feel that their manager doesn’t appreciate, value or trust them.”

“Many of the complaints stem from a lack of trust,” agreed Joseph Flahiff, president and CEO of Radar4ai, a Seattle-based management consulting company. “Employees who work in the office don’t trust that the remote people are really working.”

Flahiff suggests pairing remote and onsite team members so they can get to know each other better and understand the workload each carries. He also recommends that leaders embrace a culture where paired-up workers are in different locations to help “create opportunities for engagement” across the company.

At Sage, all employees meet together onsite four or five times a year as a way to strengthen the culture and ensure that everyone feels included, Harris said.

7. Show Appreciation for the People Who Show Up Every Day

Employees who are resentful that others work from home often feel unappreciated, because they believe that if they were appreciated, they’d be given the option to work remotely when necessary, Loehr said.

Managers can address this challenge with honest praise and feedback. “A sincere ‘thank you’ can go a long way toward making onsite employees feel like you really value and appreciate their contribution,” she added.

Arlene Hirsch is a career counselor and author based in Chicago.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Leverage Tech to Increase Telework Efficiency

admin — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 06:54:59 +0000

Working from home has proven to be a blessing or a curse depending on your situation. Whether you like it or not, you are more dependent on technology on a day to day basis than ever before; managing that on your own can be difficult. Struggles of teleworking include comfort, latency in communication and technical inefficiencies with everyday applications. To make your teleworking situation more comfortable and to leverage some of your everyday applications, use the following three areas of tips and suggestions for your home office setup and for navigating Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel.

1. Home Office

There are some simple things that can improve your work efficiency and comfort from your home office. First, ditch the track pad. Most, if not all, professional staff use company laptops, so translating this to a more agile desktop environment is key. Set up an external keyboard and wireless mouse to not only put some distance between you and your screen but increase computer navigation speeds and efficiency. Additionally, the rhythmic clicking of a mechanical keyboard can be oddly satisfying.

Second, sometimes more is better. Add another monitor or two. Being able to view multiple documents simultaneously or comparing two versions for edits without having to switch among tabs saves time and improves thought processes and organization. Multiple monitors allow you to dedicate screens to particular documents, increasing legibility and clarity. If you’re in a pinch for an additional monitor, turn an old personal laptop into an extra monitor for your company laptop.

2. Power Point

Power Point presentations are the frontrunner when it comes to presenting from home. All presentations go through several iterations of edits and being able to edit your slides efficiently is crucial. Here are some tips to help you separate your presentations from the rest.

a. Rather than making edits directly to the slide, duplicate the slide you intend to edit beforehand and use the original version for an easy comparison to your new version. This is also helpful for copying slide formats and designs more easily.

b. Image alignment and consistency across a presentation can make or break the cleanliness of your presentation.

Ensuring that images are formatted with the same dimensions and at the same position across multiple slides is a painstaking task to eyeball. To help, right-click your image – Select Format Picture. Using the size and position inputs on the right-toolbar, you can ensure that all images have the same height, width, X and Y starting position or a seamless transition of images.

c. Use everything that is at your disposal. One of the extremely underutilized yet hidden gems of Power Point is the Office Add-ins.

Incorporate outside tools and software into your presentation to increase functionality and engage your audience. Popular Add-ins such as Poll Everywhere allow you to receive live responses from your audience and display the results in real time. To check out all the Office Add-ins, select Insert> Add-Ins>Get Add-ins on the top toolbar.

3. Excel

These Excel tips come from personal experience as the most commonly unused tools of frequent Excel users. Everyone should have some basic insight into simple actions you can take to extract the data you want without requiring an analyst.

a. Custom List Order. Use a custom list to order your data in a specific fashion that is not alphabetical or numerical. Often for the purpose of presentation and story you want things to appear in the order you want, rather than the alphabetical defaults. To create a custom list, Select Data > Sort > Order > Custom List on the top toolbar. Above we can see an example where a custom list was created to order the rank of ‘Gold’, ‘Silver’ and ‘Bronze’ in order of place rather than alphabetical.

b. Filtering Data. Often you need to get a quick view of data that meets a certain criterion. Old habits might have you using Crtl + F to narrow down your result.

Instead use the filter tool in the Data pane to filter your data by any and/or all criteria.

After you’ve selected the filter tool, use the dropdown arrows at the right of each column header to select the rows you want to view.

c. Transpose Table. Want to swing your table around for a different view? Easily transpose your column headers to rows using one of the many Paste options. Highlight your table including the headers and copy it to your clipboard. In a blank cell on the same or new sheet, right click > Paste Special > Transpose.

Example:

In today’s working environment, we interface with our computers more than ever so working in a user-friendly environment and leveraging technology tools will help you when working remotely. Use these tips to improve your work environment and leverage your everyday tools. Have any tips up your own sleeve? Share them below!

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How to Onboard Employees Virtually

admin — Tue, 05 May 2020 09:38:03 +0000

The COVID-19 quarantine changed how we do business. Onboarding a new employee is just one example; since we can no longer welcome a new employee in person at the office, we must rethink how to create the new employee experience virtually. Our company had the opportunity to virtually onboard employees multiple times in the past few weeks, using a 3-step process.

Step 1: Pre-Onboard

It’s best to plan ahead for logistics and communications when virtually onboarding. If your entire office is working from home, communicate the plan one week ahead of time to all employees with this type of message and action step:

Maria is joining the team. Her first day is on Monday, April 20th. As usual with onboarding, Maria’s first few days will be consumed with meetings and greetings. Her current schedule for Monday and Tuesday is:

Monday, 10am: Organizational onboarding with team lead
Monday, 11am: Meet the President / CEO
Monday, 1pm – 4pm: On an individual basis, meet each team member (15-30 minutes each)
Tuesday: Connect with the IT department for allocation of computer system
Tuesday 2pm: Weekly project meeting

TAKE ACTION: Please set up a 30-minute Zoom session with Maria on Monday between 1 – 4 pm.

For uniformity of information, please use the below agenda during your meeting to help Maria to digest all the information she is receiving:

Introduce yourself
- Role in the project
- Assignments and interest outside of the project
- How long you have been with the organization
Three interesting things about the project, team &/or the organization
Ask questions
- Show interest in her background
- Answer work questions

Step 2: Onboard

The actual onboarding call is similar to an in-person onboarding meeting. You will cover the same material, just via video or phone. A possible agenda could include:

Organization History
Organization Structure
Administrative

Step 3: Post-Onboard

This step is the most challenging in a virtual situation. Once the new employee meets everyone and understands team roles, how do you ensure the employee feels challenged and engaged? If you can no longer chat over lunch or coffee in the office, how do you stay connected with the person, to answer any questions they may have?

Our team texts new employees daily at first, to ask about what support they may need. In addition, we do video coffee chats and regular calls, to let them know we’re available to answer any questions. Also, the HR team discusses new employees weekly, to ensure all leaders are aware of any new employee challenges and/or success stories.

If we were operating in an office environment, new employees would have the opportunity to listen to and participate in informal office discussions about the work, accelerating their situational awareness. Since many organizations don’t currently operate in a face to face environment, consider inviting the new hires to participate in your phone calls and Zoom calls, as schedules permit, even in those areas that may not be their primary areas of responsibility. This will allow them to gain background context.

That’s our employer perspective. What do our virtually onboarded employees say? Here’s what one new employee wrote about her virtual onboarding experience.

I met all employees virtually and completed the onboarding process via numerous Zoom meetings in my first week. The President already had two Zoom calls with me prior to onboarding, which increased my employee engagement prior to joining the company.

I have had the best experience as a new employee so far. The importance of working from home and its success lies in the management of work via the remote desktop and accessing shared files. I was provided with the login for this remote desktop and could access all important information to start my work. I did face some technological glitches in the functioning of remote desktop, but they were quickly resolved.

Managers you’ve read about the employer and employee experience with virtual onboarding. Now we want to hear from you! Tell us about your experience with virtual onboarding. What worked and didn’t work for you and your new hires? What has been the role of HR and individual employees in this process?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send us an email, or find us on Twitter.

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Online Learning Increases Employee Engagement: Seven Learning Styles

admin — Tue, 14 Apr 2020 08:17:30 +0000

“On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction,” concludes a report by the Department of Education (DOE). In fact, in the DOE’s report “Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online learning,” students doing at least some of their course online ranked in the 59th percentile compared to wholly in-classroom taught students, who scored in the 50th percentile. This performance was found to be statistically significant, meaning these results are not due to random error or chance.

If this is the case, why aren’t more organizations using online learning to improve training, increase retention, reduce travel costs and minimize time away from the office?

Perhaps organizations don’t know why online learning matters, what it is, or how to execute it. Let’s start with why it matters.

WHY DOES ONLINE LEARNING MATTER?

Adults learn in different ways. The more learning ways that a training program includes, the higher chance of knowledge retention. In other words, using a variety of learning styles in a training program will help the trainee remember the new skills longer and deeper. Online learning offers the best chance to incorporate many learning styles at once.

Seven Learning Styles For Designing Training Materials

1. Spatial Learners

Interconnected ideas rather than linear, sequential processes are easier to digest for spatial learners. Bulleted lists don’t do it for this crowd. This learning style leans heavily on patterns and visual pictures to explain a concept.

Here are three examples of designing for spatial learners:

a) Image-based Power Point

Sometimes it’s hard to get away from presentations, but they can still be fashioned for visual learners. Presentation Zen is one of my favorite books. If you browse through Ted.com, you’ll also find fantastic examples of effective, visual Power Points.

When using tools as communication aids, it’s important to understand their purpose and role. Visuals make it easier for spatial learners to recall or apply a concept. Powerful visuals can help your audience remember your content, which is at the core of knowledge transfer.

b) Game Simulations

Timed exams can make spatial learners extremely anxious as the pressure of translating their mental images into words can take longer for them than others, which creates a stressful situation for them. Game simulations make it easier for visual learners to create a link and memory, to better absorb the information.

The Use of Computer Simulations and Gaming to Enhance Authentic Learning from zollnera

c) Mind Mapping

Mind mapping is an increasingly popular tool to visualize ideas and brainstorm ideas effectively. Though this might be more difficult to do in a traditional setting, there are lots of online tools which help facilitate the creation of mind maps, providing an easy way for a group to brainstorm together, versus the traditional outline model. Mind mapping can be incorporated in a variety of ways to assist in planning presentations. Mind Tools has a great article explaining how to use mind maps effectively.

2. Linguistic Learners

Written words best explain a concept to these individuals, so activities involving reading and writing appeal the most. Spoken word can also be effective with this crowd.

These learners respond best to reading and writing assignments, so think of how to incorporate blogging, articles, white papers or online discussion boards into the training. These learners also like to debate, so assignments that look at two sides of an argument can be an effective way for these individuals to apply knowledge and increase engagement.

3. Intrapersonal Learners

Using auditory information, and then allowing the participant a time of internal reflection, best helps these learners retain information.

These individuals like to control their environment and take in new information at their own speed, which allows them time to process and think about a matter deeply. Two examples that best demonstrate this style are:

a) Podcasts

Radio shows have received a comeback through the form of Podcasts. One of my favorite podcasts is This American Life which distills 2-3 short stories with common themes and presents them to listeners in an hour-long podcast. These engaging podcasts allow listeners to absorb the information while also prompting them to think deeper as the show continues.

b) Lectures

Sometimes traditional lectures are essential to get your point across; however they can still be peppered with the other learning styles mentioned here. Make sure you insert questions and other activities throughout lectures in order to keep listeners engaged. TED talks are full of excellent presentations for this crowd.

4. Interpersonal Learners

Using group dynamics to explain a concept is most effective for this group of learners.

Dynamic conversations can be a fantastic way of explaining concepts, especially when dealing with sensitive topics. Discussions can integrate other engaging activities, such as role play or games to get the discussion going. Planning ahead is necessary to achieve the desired learning outcomes. Do you want participants to remember and understand a concept, apply and analyze on a deeper level or evaluate and create something new? One tip is to ask open-ended questions that prompt, justify, clarify, extend, redirect and help guide group discussion.

5. Musical Learners

Using music as the trigger to remember new knowledge is powerful for this group of learners.

Playing The Who’s song, Talkin’ Bout My Generation, during a presentation to Baby Boomers helps this group of learners remember that time in their lives. This then evokes a powerful memory which keeps them engaged during the training.

6. Bodily-Kinesthetic Learners

Using the bodily senses to describe and ‘feel’ a concept help this learner remember new knowledge.

Do you exhibit at conferences? If so, let the conference attendees touch your product so they can physically experience the product features. If this type of in-person exchange isn’t possible, think of how you can demo your product and use the web to relay this in-person sensory concept.

7. Logical-Mathematical Learners

Using mathematics to describe a concept allows this group of learners to effectively learn new information.

Graphs and data can really bring it home for some learners, as they are both visual and applicable. One of my favorite presenters is Hans Rosling who brings statistics to life!

As I said earlier, the more learning methodologies that a learning program includes, the more the trainee will remember. Why? Whether they realize it or not, people have preferred learning styles. Think about it; when you have to learn something new, do you prefer to hear it, read it or touch it physically? Do you naturally make up songs about things? Do you see the patterns in something new? Or do you learn best when you can discuss it with someone?

Whatever your answer, that’s your preferred learning style; most people have two to three preferred styles. So if a training program offers one or two of your preferred learning styles, you’ll likely remember the content better. If a training program incorporates six to seven learning style approaches, then the chance of everyone in the class retaining the knowledge increases even more.

In the classic face-to-face, live, organizational training, the course participants sit for 3-6 hours, listening to the ‘teacher’. Some classes include videos, role-plays, interactive theater or games to increase retention. However, it’s difficult to do this on a regular basis. Technology makes it much easier.

If I create an online course, I can easily add in video links, podcast links and simulation games, which covers two learning styles. Then I add PDFs of white papers that explain the patterns and academic context, covering another learning styles. I can also add in real-time ‘Journals’ allowing participants to post their homework for the rest of the course to see, which then allows others to comment and start an online conversation, covering another learning style. Finally, to ensure group dynamics stay strong, I could create group phone calls or some face-to-face sessions, covering more learning styles.

So you can see that it makes sense why the DOE found higher retention with online learning. In my next post I’ll talk more about the relationship between online learning and the seven learning styles.

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Nine Unconventional Ways Freelancers Landed Gigs

admin — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 09:37:08 +0000

According to a recent study by Upwork and the Freelancers Union, the most common places for freelancers to pick up work are friends and family (36%), professional contacts (35%), and online job platforms (29%) like Upwork, Freelancer.com, Guru, and even Craigslist.

This breakdown spells trouble for some. American workers looking for projects on online marketplaces, for instance, are often competing with workers who live in countries where the dollar is strong. That means many foreign workers can accept far lower rates. If you can hire someone to transcribe an interview for $3 an hour, you aren’t giving that contract to a freelancer charging $15.

So where else can freelancers find work? Just ask these ten people, who picked up gigs in some unexpected places.

1. TAP YOUR DATING LIFE

Joy Yap found freelance work by unintentionally mixing business with pleasure. She went on a Tinder date with an entrepreneur who was just about to launch a company.

They didn’t hit it off romantically, Yap recalls. But, remembering her line of work, the entrepreneur reached out a couple months later with an offer to do some freelance marketing for his startup. “I agreed!” she says. “I’ve been doing freelance work for him off and on for about a year now, and saw the company grow from inception into a million dollar company today.”

Anyone who’s used an app like Tinder knows that modern dating often involves a little harmless cyber-stalking to gather extra intel on the person you’ve just met or are planning to meet. “One funny way I got a client on Fiverr,” says Alex Genadinik, referring to the gig marketplace, “was from a girl I was dating about a year ago. Early on during our dating, she and her friends decided to Google my name, which is very unique, and my Fiverr profile was one of the things that came up in their search.”

The woman and her friends shared Genadinik’s Fiverr profile with someone they knew who was looking for his line of freelance work, and the two ended up striking a deal. “All along I thought he was just a regular client that randomly found me on the internet,” says Genadinik. It was only months later that the woman let him know she’d played professional matchmaker. “[It] was pretty embarrassing for me because everyone was clued in except me,” Genadinik says, but hey—he got the work.

2. ADVERTISE IN REAL TIME

If you’re a freelancer, chances are you’ve sat at coffee shops with your nose in your laptop. So why not let passersby know exactly what you’re doing and that you’re available for hire?

Shayla Price says she landed a gig by creating and placing a makeshift placard saying “freelance writer” in front of her computer while working at Starbucks and other public places. Price says she’s received a few inquiries every time she whips out the placard.

3. EMAIL THE CEO DIRECTLY

“I’ve been obsessed with a large, multinational hair care brand for many years now,” says Termeh Mazhari, “so when I became a freelancer, I decided to just email the CEO directly.”

Going straight to the source may sound like a waste of time—execs usually aren’t the ones hiring contractors. But in Mazhari’s case, it paid off. “I told her about myself and the value I could bring to the company, and to my great surprise her assistant wrote me back and arranged a meeting with the CEO at their posh Manhattan office!”

What’s more, Mazhari landed more than just a tiny one-off project this way. “I ended up getting a year-long consulting gig with the brand, even though they already had a large internal PR team as well as multiple external agencies working with them.”

4. HUSTLE FOR FACEBOOK SHOUT-OUTS

After Stephanie Moore got laid off, she decided freelance full time and turned to Facebook to market her services.

“It started with one client . . . that I met through Facebook. She was very popular with a national brand,” Moore recalls, so she decided to attend one of the client’s networking events. There, Moore told her she wanted to “shift my focus from marketing and design to PR,” and the client “agreed to be my guinea pig.”

Their bargain went like this: “After each big accomplishment,” Moore says, “she would shout me out on Facebook as her publicist. Every time she tagged me, there was a guaranteed client on the way. All of her friends and potential clients began to reach out and ask for press releases, designs, etc. The more work I did, the more tagging I would get.” By tapping into one happy client with the influence to amplify Moore’s work, offers began piling up. “People would post my designs tagging me in the post, almost bragging that Stephanie Moore did it.”

Like another “solopreneur” who recently shared her method with Fast Company, Moore never thought Facebook could drive so much of her business—95% of which she now estimates comes from the social network.

5. OWN YOUR OUT-OF-THE-BOX THINKING

If you want to freelance, you have to be willing to share your ideas, even if you’re not sure they will be well received. Don’t wait for the perfect, full-proof pitch to go out and get your gig.

Just look at Chris Post. He held steadfast to his out-of-the-box thinking when he was building his freelance business. He says,

“At the time, just about every local property management company was trying to hold onto and gain tenants by offering them one or more months of free rent.

I had previously worked as a commercial real estate agent, and made a pitch to a property management company I was friendly with from that time: Instead of offering free rent to tenants, offer marketing assistance in the form of a free website in exchange for signing a year lease. They would spend less paying me to build a website than they would lose by deducting a month’s worth of rent.”

Post’s freelance career has now become a full-blown web development and marketing company called Post Modern Marketing.

6. NETWORK ON INSTAGRAM

Mallory Musante is one of the co-founders of Bold & Pop, a collective of social media, branding and web design freelancers. While they mainly find new clients from referrals, they occasionally use freelancing sites to find work. In this case, they sent a proposal to a client, researched the company a little further, and decided to follow all of their social media accounts. Musante never heard back so assumed the company had gone with another freelancer.

But wait—Instagram to the rescue. She says, “we were surprised when we received an email through our website requesting more information on our social media marketing services. While they didn’t remember us submitting a proposal on the freelancing site, we were able to catch their eye on Instagram by occasionally networking with them.”

7. PARTICIPATE IN YOUR COMMUNITY

Abandoning the traditional workplace can feel isolating, participating in your local community can be a remedy, as well as a fantastic place to drum up freelance work. Photographer Tammy Lamoureux shares a great example of community involvement leading to jobs.

“Wanting to get more product photography gigs, we started hitting up our local craft fairs and farmer’s markets. We get a room full of small businesses who will most likely need professional photos of their merchandise at some point or another. So, go around from booth to booth and chat with the vendors. Take some photos of their products and make sure to get their contact info so you can send them the shots later. They will appreciate the free photos, and you’ll be top of mind the next time they are in need of some product photos. We did this at one craft fair, and ended up with five new clients for about 2 hours worth of work.”

8. GO WITH YOUR GUT

Kelly Boyer Sagert’s usually picks freelance work based on the right amount of income attached to it. But sometimes, she decides to go with a gut feeling to see what happens. She explains how one of those gut-driven exceptions landed her unexpectedly great work:

“A few years ago, a nonprofit agency asked me to take their research about the first woman to solo hike the Appalachian Trail and turn it into an ebook. I did — and then they asked for it to also be written as a first person storytelling performance, so I did. Concurrently, the agency was having some of their video footage turned into a mini-documentary and discovered that they couldn’t get the grant funding they wanted/needed unless a play was written on the subject. So, I wrote a play script and we talked to a theater that had produced some of my work in the past, and they put on the play. So, the funding was secured, the documentary was created and, since my play was used as the foundation, I got writing credits — and the documentary was picked up by PBS: Trail Magic: the Grandma Gatewood Story.”

9. TELL PROSPECTS WHAT THEIR COMPETITORS ARE UP TO

If one company is looking for services, then their competitors are probably looking, too—or will want to as soon as they learn of it.

“I had one company contact me for a strategic marketing plan for the upcoming year,” recalls freelancer Stephen Twomey. He saw that as not just one potential opportunity but several. “I knew they were looking at other consultants as well.”

“So, since I knew company A was looking for something, I contacted companies B, C, [and] D and mentioned that one of their main competitors was looking for strategic marketing consulting”—without mentioning which one. Twomey says “Company A ended up going with a different [contractor], but company C actually bought a consulting package.”

The services you offer may not belong in a creative field, but it still often takes ingenuity to land those gigs in the first place. For just about every freelancer, thinking outside the box can really pay off.

Have you landed freelance gigs in an unusual way? Share your story in the comments below, on Twitter, or send me an email.

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Four Tips to Navigate Working from Home

admin — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 09:31:32 +0000

I talk for a living, whether it’s through keynotes, employee trainings, executive coaching, human capital consulting, writing articles or just a chat with a client. I’m lucky enough to have clients from a variety of industries and sectors, giving me a wide view of how organizations are handling similar situations. This week alone I had the honor to chat with people from large consulting firms, start-ups, Federal government, tech firms, mid-size companies, biopharma organizations, large school systems, manufacturing firms, real estate industry leaders, and HR professionals. I learned a lot of best practices for navigating the Covid-19 work from home (WFH) situation and I’d like to share those with you here.

Schedule daily white space

Someone said to me, “It’s just telework. It’s not a big deal.” Wrong. It’s not just telework and it is a big deal. Why? Because the old paradigm of telework was that you worked from home 1-2 days/week, usually while others in your home were at work and/or school. Now everyone is working and learning under one roof, which adds complexity to the situation. I have it fairly easy; our high school daughter can self-manage her day. However, I have one client who has 3 children under the age of 5 at home while both he and his wife are trying to work. Ouch! That’s a tough situation!

So what are organizations doing to manage this? One best practice is to create intentional white space and schedule set times for team calls. One firm only holds calls from 8:30am-noon and then 2-5pm, local time. This allows people to have a midday break to attend to their own personal needs or the needs of those who live with them.

Learn together

It’s easy to disengage on employee development right now. I’ve heard “Training and development is a non-essential, so we’re cutting the live employee training we had planned”. I get it; financial stability and cash flow is vital right now. However, don’t forget about your teams who want to feel a sense of normalcy. So instead of offering a live employee development training, conduct a 60-minute virtual ‘lunch and learn’ on living through change or a 45-minute webinar about stress management instead. It’s easy to do and shows the teams that you are still there for them.

Lempathy

It’s easy to lose focus when WFH, so set clear focus on short term goals and how the goals align with the organizational mission. Create a 2-minute podcast or video to remind your team what you’re working on and use shared docs to create accountability.

It’s also easy to tilt toward excessive empathy, such as “It’s OK that Biva didn’t achieve his tasks today. He has 4 kids at home.” Giving a pass every once in awhile shows flexibility; excessive empathy breeds missed deadlines. Souse ‘both/and’ instead; in other words, try “Wow! Having four kids at home while working is hard. How can you achieve the biggest deadline today and have the kids home? What’s the first step? Second step?” Bottom line: show you care AND that goals still need to be completed. One of my coaching clients calls this “lempathy”: leading with empathy. It works for him; see if it works for you.

Focus on self-care

Stress manifests in different ways, for different reasons. In general, there are three pillars of health: physical, mental and emotional. Take a self-assessment and ask yourself how you’re doing on:

Physical: Maintaining the nutrition, sleep and exercise that your body needs

Mental: Focusing on the task at hand

Emotional: Self-regulating your emotions appropriately with those around you

Whatever you do to manage your WFH situation, remember to keep it fun! People want to feel connected; they are looking for the water cooler experience, where they can just have a fun chat for a few minutes with each other. So set this up with virtual coffee chats, happy hours, walks, exercise classes and even hobby times (knitting anyone?). One company in Boston creates daily entertainment videos for the employee’s children to watch while the parent is working. Another organization spreads smiles via Skype. What will work for you?

Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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Five Tools to Successfully Work from Home

admin — Tue, 24 Mar 2020 07:43:15 +0000

Coronavirus is causing organizations to shift toward telework. Though telework is not new, employees now are working remotely more often, which changes team dynamics. There are tools available that can help organizations streamline remote employee management, enhance professional skills and collaborate successfully.

Some of the most popular tools for remote teams are:

Project management: Asana
Video conferencing: Skype and Zoom
Team communication: Slack
Cloud storage and file sharing: Dropbox

Let’s learn more about each tool, to help you better identify the best one for your team.

Project Management: Asana

Skype is a popular voice communication service. People can share instant messages, hold video calls and share screens, as well as call Skype numbers and landline/mobile numbers.

Asana’s key features include project management, task management and file sharing. Asana has numerous features to manage complex projects, so build in time to master the learning curve and eventually manage projects more efficiently.

Want to learn about similar tools? Check out Trello, Proofhub, ProjectManager.com and Workzone.

Video Conferencing: Skype

Asana is an online management tool that helps teams stay focused on daily tasks, goals and projects. It’s known for its simple functionality, clean design and elegant usability.

This tool offers cross-platform support and is an excellent instant messaging tool, which is important for document collaboration.

Some of the alternatives for Skype include WhatsApp, Telegram and Viber.

Video Conferencing: Zoom

Zoom is a video communication tool. Widely used for virtual meetings, webinars and virtual conferences, it’s a great way of connecting via video when team members and clients are unable to meet in person.

The tool’s key features include video meetings, voice calls, hosted webinars, messaging and file sharing. Some users have had issues with unpredictable video quality so check your bandwidth before you begin working.

Some excellent alternates to Zoom include GoToMeeting, Webex and Adobe Connect.

Team Communication: Slack

Slack is a popular communication tool that brings remote teams together by having all communication in one place. It can also be used for instant messaging and collaboration.

The key features include instant messaging, file sharing, voice and video calls, as well as screen sharing. Some people find Slack hard to search so check it out for yourself.

A few of the alternatives for Slack include Microsoft Teams, Rocket Chat and Flock.

Cloud Storage and File Sharing: Dropbox

Dropbox, popularly known for online file sharing and storage, helps teams working remotely and saves time tracking down files. It is a modern workspace where all files can be stored together in one place and remote workers can easily sync and share documents.

In general, Dropbox is better for casual files; you may not want to store sensitive files here. Some of the alternatives for Dropbox include Google Drive, OneDrive and Box.com.

Technology helps us keep up with the changing times, where telecommuting and remote work is more of a need and requirement. These collaboration tools make it easier to achieve business goals by providing platforms to work more efficiently, regardless of where the employees are located. Once you pick your tool, you may want some tips on how to best present yourself on video. Check out this blog, from our speaker coach, Jezra Kaye.

Want to develop your remote-based employees, but don’t know how? We can help! We’ve designed and delivered interactive webinars for over a decade on a range of management and leadership topics.

I’d love to hear from you. How are you coping in these stressful times? What tools are you working with and what has been your experience? Let’s share experiences. Leave a comment below, send me an email, or find me on Twitter.

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