Hybrid Working Environments; Share Your Tips to Success!

#1

We interviewed our Director of Talent Acquisition, Soni Cottman, who shared her tips to building an engaged culture while employees may be working from home, the office, or a hybrid of the two! Here’s the video on LinkedIn

We’d love to know your thoughts on the following:

  • If you are a people manager, how do you ensure a successful working environment when your employees may be located in different areas (and offices) throughout the country?

  • If you are NOT a manager, what do you expect out of your manager to facilitate an engaged culture while you may be working from home (or a different location than that manager)?

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#2

Love Soni’s thoughts! I am not a manager, but I love how seamless communication is with my team between messages, emails, and team meetings.

#3

I completely agree with all of what Soni said! My team works hard to keep the work day enjoyable and fun so all of us enjoy coming in and being as productive as possible.

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#4

I totally agree! It took some getting used to for me when the pandemic hit since I was 100% in office prior to that, but once you get in a groove of communicating virtually, it’s easy peasy!

#5

I schedule my team’s work from home days so that we are all in the office at the same time. To keep my team on track when working from home, I also assign team members tasks through Office 365’s Planner software.

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#6

For me it is about leveling the playing field and staying on the same level with everyone so my site and vision doesn’t overshadow the hard work and effort they put in and always being aware of what their responsibilities entail. We were all their once and have to remember that daily.

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#8

Love Soni’s tips! I appreciate the marketing team I work with now because we are all remote and our VP does an amazing job of supporting us and promoting transparent communication so we can support her, the rest of our teams and the company in our roles.

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#9

I am about to implement 5:15s with my team so I can keep a pulse on what they are working on! I trust them, but as my team grows, I struggle to keep up with everyone!

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#10

Helping keep things fun and open for communication is the biggest thing that any manager can do to help keep employees happy and hardworking

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#11

I agree as well! communication is so much easier !

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#12

Keeping everyone in the loop communication is the biggest thing.

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#13

Communication with the team is key!

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#14

Communicating clear and direct expectations helps everyone stay on target and working towards a common goal.
Leading by example also makes a big difference to team moral and productivity

#15

Communication with the team is key!

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#16

Communication is the key to achieving goals

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#17

I plan in advance the pending tasks that my team must carry out and communicate in advance in order to achieve the objectives

#18

At the beginning of the pandemic it was to adapt my team to virtual communication. But over time it has become a great tool that makes work more efficient.

#19

Communication is key and checking in to make sure folks know they’re still part of the team.

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#20

Unfortunately, or fortunately (not sure), we did not and could not really adopt a work-from-home structure. With the exception of very early on in the pandemic, it was expected that everyone would be in the office. During the early days of the pandemic, whether this is sad or a learning experience, we saw a major shift to company-wide communication policies that unfortunately did not exist prior. Those policies are still in place to a smaller degree together. Which I think is progress and appreciated by many employees. Transparency, being in the know of what’s going on and constant communication from the management team helps everyone feel appreciated in their position.

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#21

That is such a good point, Matt! I used to work with dealerships at my previous position at Dealer Inspire and I remember talking to my points of contact asking how the transition was from in-person, to at-home, and then in-person again. Dealerships had so many uncertainties (as did other industries) and I think that improved communication was a priority across the board. Companies needed a better way to disperse information whether employees were in office or at home. It was a learning curve for everyone, Hopefully you’ve continued to see improvements in Auto!