How business leaders can best manage a dispersed workforce

How business leaders can best manage a dispersed workforce

Even before the impact of Covid-19, 92 per cent of companies surveyed by McKinsey thought their business models would change because of digitisation. In other studies on flexible working, 67 per cent of business leaders associated an increase of at least 20 per cent in productivity to flexible working practices. CFOs were also getting excited, with 74 per cent planning

to shift some employees (up to one-fifth) to permanent home working, to reduce costs.

However, the thorny problem remains - how do leaders manage a dispersed workforce? There are after all considerable trials when the workforce is remote. One rubric relates to the people; in recent times these have been well-documented, but to recap some of these are: Anxiety caused by isolation from the team and the potential impact on motivation; domestic distractions due to school closures; and in some severe cases increased domestic violence, particularly faced by women, who might be spending more time at home. Hyper connectivity, an always-on culture, video meeting fatigue and the knock-on effect of digital burnout could also lead to bad health outcomes, caused by poor eating and sleeping habits.

As a leader, there are a couple of levers you can pull to help employees with