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Home » Telecommute
TELEWORK

6 tips to keep your hybrid team productive

9:03 pm by

As a medical office manager, you understand the importance of creating a productive work environment for your staff. With the rise of remote work in the last three years, it is more important than ever to create a hybrid work environment that balances the needs of both remote and on-site staff. Here are some tips to help you create a productive hybrid work environment for your medical office. Establish clear communication channels Clear and open communication is essential in any workplace, but it becomes even more critical when you have a hybrid team. To ensure that all staff members are on the same page, establish clear communication channels. This may include regular virtual meetings, email updates, or a shared workspace where everyone can access important information. Set clear expectations When… . . . read more.

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TELEWORK

The nomadic remote employee: Employee dream, employer nightmare

7:07 pm by

By Lynne Curry Question: Several of our employees regularly travel out of state. Before the pandemic, they took vacations for several days or weeks. They and we understood they were on vacation. The situation was clear cut. Our current team includes three employees who want to travel and stay for weeks or even months, in places like Hawaii and Thailand or with relatives. While they insist they can work and should receive full paychecks, this doesn’t seem fair to the rest of us who remain onsite and have to pick up the pieces when our “travelers” can’t be easily reached. We agree they can get some work done, but have no way of knowing if they’re putting in 40 hours a week. We tried to explain how messy this felt… . . . read more.

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REMOTE WORK

Digital presenteeism: Faking you care, faking you’re even there

12:04 pm by

By Lynne Curry A surprising number of employees, determined to hold on to their “work from home” status and aware that managers and others suspect remote employees of working less than their required hours, practice digital presenteeism. Digital presenteeism involves remote employees demonstrating they’re hard workers by responding to additional emails, attending additional meetings, and contributing comments in every meeting. According to a recent job trends report, the average remote employee works 67 additional minutes daily in an effort to convince managers they’re fully engaged in their jobs, https://www.flexjobs.com/remote-jobs/company/talentwise. The same report reveals that a record 85% of managers find it difficult to know for sure if their remote employees are productive. The problem—these actions erode morale and don’t equate with higher productivity. Said one mid-level manager who called me… . . . read more.

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TELECOMMUTING

Flexibility is the key to remote work practices

8:34 pm by

“The name of the game is flexibility,” says Carl Kutsmode, Senior Vice President at Talentrise, an executive search and talent management consulting firm, talking about the nature of remote work since the coronavirus pandemic. Kutsmode discusses how the pandemic has changed the workforce, likely for good. Additionally, his perspective provides tips to help employers adapt to new business and networking practices in a post-pandemic world. Pandemic’s push for career reevaluations The confinement of the pandemic enabled people to pause, reconnect with their families, and establish a work-life balance that had not existed to such an extent before 2020. As the world slowly moves away from the pandemic’s restrictions, employees are motivated by new, different factors than they once were and, as such, have different expectations of their employer. As the… . . . read more.

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TECHNOLOGY

Clocked out or connected: What you need to know about after-hours group chats

1:15 pm by

By Paul Edwards “Quick question…” Those two words have become increasingly popular as our near-constant attachment to communication devices blurs the line between work and personal time. Whether by phone, laptop, or tablet—via Slack, WhatsApp, or Google Chat—it’s easier than ever for teams to stay in contact after the workday is done. But employers need to be cautious about how they approach group conversations outside of the workplace. Not only will you need to ensure that your employees are clear on the standards for professional conduct within a group chat or text, but whether or not you have to pay employees for the time they spend messaging will depend on several factors, including the content of the messages, how much time is spent messaging, and whether the employees are classified… . . . read more.

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EMPLOYMENT LAW UPDATE

Harassment continues in era of remote work

8:51 pm by

By Mike O’Brien  In the early days of the pandemic, there was speculation that workplace harassment would decrease when so many workers shifted to remote work. Some recent surveys indicate that hasn’t been the case, and that incidents of harassment have been increasing. Possible reasons for this spike include the stress of the pandemic, the fact that remote workers may lack the kind of personal connections with colleagues that might otherwise hinder poor behavior and a more casual approach to conversations due to working in a more relaxed environment. Zoom meetings have also provided a whole new forum for trouble, with employees behaving badly (sometimes while thinking they are off-camera). The quick and unexpected shift to remote workforces may also have left many employers unprepared for the challenge. To combat… . . . read more.

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EMPLOYMENT LAW UPDATE

Are your remote employees moonlighting?

10:50 am by

By Mike O’Brien A movement trending among some remote workers advocates holding multiple remote jobs at the same time, while concealing the other jobs from the involved employers. This approach is sometimes referred to as “over employment,” a term coined by the website www.overemployed.com, which provides tips and sells coaching services for workers who want to try their hand at holding multiple remote jobs simultaneously. Proponents say that they work fewer than 40 hours total per week, for all jobs held. Employers should determine what limitations on outside employment are appropriate for their organization, and craft corresponding policies. Possible considerations include whether outside employment is for a competitor, creates a conflict of interest, uses company time or affects the worker’s ability to do the job during their expected work hours, uses… . . . read more.

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How you can lure your employees back to the office

10:28 am by

By Lynne Curry Question: Like many medical offices, we want our administrative and clerical staff to return to working on-site, but don’t want to force them to return and have many of them quit. We want our employees to want to return. How do we do that? Answer: A recent Wall Street Journal article said, “There is a magical land where the temperature is always 72 degrees, the Wi-Fi never goes down, and there is always someone to talk to.”1 Except—multiple surveys show few employees want to return full time to that magical land, their former workplace. Many employees want to work from home three or more days a week.1 If you’re an employer, how do you change that? Envoy/Wakefield’s August 2021 online survey of 1,000 U.S. employees2 and Leanin’s… . . . read more.

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MANAGING THE OFFICE

Fear of COVID-19, demand for flexibility dominate return to the office

3:35 pm by

As the Delta variant continues to proliferate, 42 percent of workers are worried about returning to the workplace for fear of contracting COVID-19. This marks a substantial jump to Sept. 1 from June 2021 when only 24 percent had that concern. “With headlines about the rise of the Delta variant, breakthrough cases among the vaccinated, and an overburdened healthcare system in much of the country, COVID-19 concerns that were subsiding just two months ago have risen,” said Rebecca Ray, PhD, Executive Vice President of Human Capital at The Conference Board. Conducted in August by The Conference Board, the new survey captured the thoughts of more than 2,400 US workers on topics including return-to-work anxiety, factors driving them to pursue new job opportunities, opinions about remote work, and more. The survey… . . . read more.

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MANAGING STAFF

Making hybrid work: Charting a new playbook for a future-ready workplace

6:47 pm by

By Lynne Curry Employers thought employees would want to come back to their offices, where they had easy access to equipment, coworkers, and managers. They were wrong. COVID-19 untethered us from our traditional workplaces and many employees don’t want to return. Employees enjoyed the flexibility and freedom, sometimes from micro-managing supervisors, they had when working from home. They discovered they could better balance home and work when they didn’t have to commute or leave home for eight hours daily. When the C-suite consulting firm McKinsey & Company surveyed more than 5,000 employees, it reported three-quarters of them want to work from home two or more days per weekly, with more than half of them wanting to work from home at least three days a week.1 Given this disconnect, if employers… . . . read more.

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