Personality Reveals How To Achieve Remote Working Success

COVID-19 was the catalyst that accelerated the shift to remote working for the majority of businesses in the north east. With remote working set to be longer-term for many employers we won't "bounce back" to pre-COVID ways of working. Remote working is here to stay because, under the circumstances, it has worked rather well.

There's a universal acknowledgement from our clients that remote working reduces the associated costs of expensive office space; saves time and energy as commuting and business travel are reduced and opens up talent sourcing beyond local geographic limits.

The Perspectives on Working from Home report produced by Space Solutions, illustrates that workers have also appreciated this time of working from home to cope better with work / life challenges and to perform focused work without office-based distractions.

While we can appreciate the benefits, we recognise why a complete transition to remote working may be viewed with trepidation. In the Perspectives on Working from Home report individuals also felt disconnected from the wider organisation, missed access to colleagues for collaboration and of course, face to face client meetings were disrupted.

On balance, what we'll probably experience is a rise in partial remote working – more time working from home and correspondingly less time in the office. And this transition is going to take a lot of adaptation and learning.

Of course, physical environment and enabling tech are required for productive remote working, but the most important thing is learning about your people, knowing their personality.

I'm not talking about knowing their likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. I'm talking about understanding their personality deeply enough to know how to get the best from them when they are working alone, without easy access to peers and collaborative office banter.

During lockdown the Canadian government nailed it when their guidance to employees was "You are not working from home, you are at your home, during a crisis, trying to work." As we begin to emerge from the crisis, expectations will evolve and employers will focus on working smarter – no matter where that work is done.

Learning how to best manage, engage and motivate the individuals in your business isn't just a short-term fix, it's something that will deliver benefits for the longer term. It will develop your managers by enhancing their communication skills, listening skills, empathy and emotional intelligence. And by communicating and supporting your employees in a way that suits their personality best they will be more engaged, motivated and productive.

We use psychometric assessment (Personal Profile Analysis) as a recruitment tool, to evaluate a candidate's behavioural fit for certain job roles – something you just won't find on a CV. But this assessment is also so valuable because it reveals an individual's preference for communicating with others and the type of support they need when working remotely.

For example, the personality of some employees may mean they will require regular check in calls, while others will enjoy the autonomy of working alone but will gain much from impromptu catch-ups.

Using the information from the psychometric assessment, managers won't act according to their preferred style, or assumptions. They'll know how to act according to what the employee needs and this will minimise feelings of isolation, even loneliness, support good mental health and enhance productivity.

It's time to grab this underutilised information and build a plan for longer term resilience in your team.

Contact Amanda to discuss how to support your remote working employees with Personal Profile Analysis: amcculloch@tmmrecruitment.com T01224 327 016.