Culture Management

For remote and hybrid work to be successful, experienced and effective supervisors are needed to maintain consistency and equity between units. Directors, managers, supervisors have the ability to revoke RHWAs if issues occur but have an obligation to provide consistent and clear feedback if the remote arrangement is not working. (Note: Manager, director, supervisor can be used interchangeably in small units. However, in larger organizations all of these roles may be separate. The goal is to have as many of these roles collaborating on these decisions as possible.) 

We must also collectively strive to maintain team interaction and cohesiveness, as well as facilitate remote employee attendance at our meetings. Remote workforce success depends upon workers being available to their managers, coworkers or other internal clients during standard campus operating hours. Many tools support this availability, including Zoom, MSTeams or Slack. Consistency in these areas will also assist in providing high-quality experiences for attendees in conference rooms, offices or in remote meetings. Meetings should be effective and not replace other, more efficient communications such as email or zoom calls, or used as a way to keep employee attendance. Furthermore, for the balance and partnership between in office and remote work to be successful, we all should model work-life balance and digital boundaries. 

Best Practices for Enabling the Remote & Hybrid Workplace 

Before an employee begins working remote or hybrid capacity, verify that they: 

  • Have reviewed and understand these guidelines;
  • Have established work hours—calendars need to be kept up to date with any changes to the work schedule;
  • Have necessary technology provided by department, program, center;
  • Have sufficient internet bandwidth;
  • Have set up necessary VPN access;
  • Understand how to set up, join, and run a Zoom and MSTeams meeting; and
  • Know how to adjust their calendars to reflect their remote work days and standard work hours.