Mentorship plays a key role in shaping a positive company culture. The pandemic has forced many companies to switch to remote work. Despite this, mentorship programs shouldn’t stop. Mentoring is crucial for employee well-being during these challenging times. The UK faces rising mental health issues, along with safety and security concerns.
Fortunately, you can still guide your employees remotely. This is vital, as limited career growth and learning opportunities often lead employees to leave. By mentoring, you show your appreciation for each employee’s value, especially now. Effective mentorship stems from genuine care and respect.
Here are some tips for mentoring your employees during these difficult times.
Establish Expectations Together
Adapting to remote work is challenging, especially for companies new to this setup. Even companies used to remote work struggle amidst the pandemic’s disruptions. Setting clear expectations early on is crucial. Understand that adjustment takes time. Be aware of how the social climate affects your employees and their workloads.
Finding success as a remote team – especially in these trying times – depends largely on the amount of trust generated between you and your employees. Building this trust comes from providing them with a realistic expectation of what’s to come. Digital marketing agency Ayima emphasises the importance of utilising data to make sound choices and drive your campaigns. Look back on the data your business generated in the past months and go from there. Current circumstances have changed the way nearly all industries operate, so be realistic with your team about what this means for them. Will this mean that they will have to take on more responsibilities as you shift to fully remote operations? Will some of their old tasks be made (temporarily) obsolete? Be upfront about the changes you foresee could happen and set those expectations together.
Encourage Open Communication
Aside from establishing expectations through trust, encouraging open communication is also crucial to the success of remote teams. Although this is something that is easily practised even in a traditional office setting, it can get a little tricky in a remote setup due to the lack of face-to-face interactions, body language and social cues. To facilitate mentorship programs, you have to create a healthy online environment where employees can freely share their ideas or ask questions without worrying about judgment.
Actively listen and fully immerse yourself in the conversations you are having with your employees. If you are on a video call, avoid spacing out, doing other activities or tinkering with your phone – instead, listen intently to what your mentee is sharing. As emphasised in our post ‘6 Simple Guidelines to Help You Truly Listen’, listening will allow you to understand where they’re coming from and aid you in discovering the best ways to work with them. Open communication enables your employees to step out of their comfort zone and, ultimately, help them reach their full potential.
Help Them Build a Routine
Being an efficient mentor also means helping them strengthen their character outside the office. With most of their time now spent inside their homes, it’s easy for your employees to become idle or feel disengaged with their work. You can still maintain healthy boundaries and bring out the best version of yourself by creating more structure in your life.
One way to do this is by recommending a lifestyle change that positively affects both their personal and work life. For instance, the Independent notes that it’s best to work on high-priority projects first thing in the morning so that more energy and effort is invested in the work. In this regard, you can schedule your employees’ tasks based on their difficulty levels to help them properly manage their time.
The bottom line is that your employees need guidance now more than ever. As we’ve mentioned time and again, these certainly are some exceptionally trying times. It’s in your best interest as their mentor to at least try to make it easier for them by providing ample support and direction.