Harvard Business Review: What employees need from their managers

Relearning how to manage people in this crisis is a significant challenge bosses face. Photo / Getty Images

Even during a pandemic, managers are under pressure to deliver results. They need to lead their teams and drive performance while also supporting the work-life needs of employees. Working parents, in particular, are struggling to balance their jobs with home schooling and child care.

Our research suggests that relearning how to manage people in this crisis is one of the most significant challenges bosses face today. It's also an enormous opportunity: If addressed wisely, it can boost a team's well-being, culture and performance. To achieve those outcomes, it helps to first understand the dilemma you're facing. You should also employ the right strategies — namely those that balance predictability and flexibility — for helping you and your employees succeed.

THE MANAGER'S DILEMMA

Consider what's currently being asked of managers. First, you can't ignore COVID-19 and the effect it's had on employees' lives. If you attempt to enforce rigid deadlines and frequent meetings, you're failing to acknowledge the additional anxieties and demands that people face. You can establish a norm of flexibility by offering to cover for workers, or make it acceptable for peers to do so. At the same time, you can't be too lenient. You can't act as if routines don't matter at all.

Managers must therefore embrace two strategies that on the surface might seem to conflict: predictability (that is, the structure of set schedules and routines) and "flexible flexibility" (that is, a willingness to shift working parents' tasks, reduce lower-priority work and incorporate planned slack time to buffer deadlines).

ADD ELEMENTS OF PREDICTABILITY INTO THE WORKDAY

First, consider how to make work as predictable as possible without unduly burdening parents. Research shows that employees prefer set or preplanned schedules because they can then better manage their nonwork lives. With COVID-19, schedules are often in flux, but managers can still try to block times for interaction and, when those don't work, employ backup systems. Some suggestions are below.

• OUTLINE "CORE HOURS": Managers can help create order by organizing core hours or "windows of availability." This involves gathering scheduling input from all team members. Depending on the group's structure and individuals' respective tasks, you might set the same core hours (for example, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) when everyone is available for collaboration. Teamwork conducted during this "collective time" should be focused with clear goals. For example, Microsoft has encouraged managers to shorten meetings to 30 minutes to ensure that people stay engaged.

• CREATE A BUDDY SYSTEM: Studies show that formalising backup coverage is an effective way to support employees who are dealing with shifting family needs. You can assign each team member a "COVID buddy," who will communicate key information when meetings are missed due to last-minute family conflicts.

Managers should initiate and oversee the pairing process but solicit employee input whenever possible. In essential-work organizations that typically require employees to be on-site, you might hire floater workers to rotate for people who unexpectedly need time off.

• SCHEDULE REGULAR ONE-ON-ONES: During this continuing crisis, it is even more essential for managers to connect with each employee. To start, set up recurring one-on-one meetings (by video conference or phone if you're not doing essential work on-site) with all your team members both to discuss their work priorities and to ask open-ended questions about how well they're balancing job and family demands. The latter is crucial: To reduce work-family conflict, you must specifically address any issues and figure out the resources people need to perform well both on and off the job.

LEARN TO BE FLEXIBLE ON FLEXIBILITY

Predictability works only up to a point. Inevitably, something unexpected will come up. An employee will need to skip his core hours to deal with a child who is sick, or a project will be pulled forward. Managers must therefore be "flexible on flexibility." Here are some strategies to consider.

• ENSURE SUSTAINABLE WORKLOADS AND HOURS: The concept of "flexible flexibility" started with a study of overworked professionals who negotiated reduced hours to enable more time for everything from family to other life interests. Managers partnered with these employees to create more sustainable workloads and checked in to make sure no one was logging more hours than was healthy. This approach can involve eliminating low-value work — for example, jettisoning a report no one reads anymore. Time-based flexibility can also help; consider split shifts, where parents work in the morning, help their children with school in the afternoon and early evening, and then go back to their jobs at night or on the weekend.

• BE A GOOD ROLE MODEL: You can take the lead in your team to remove social barriers to using work-life flexibility. Studies show that it's important to communicate to employees that work-life struggles are common and that everyone needs a reshuffle at times. Making changes to your own schedule, and talking about them openly, showcases flexibility as a solution.

• EXPERIMENT WITH POLICY RULES: In pre-pandemic times, managers often stuck to their organizations' flexible and remote work policies. But now is the time to experiment. For example, if your company used to have a mandate that employees had to live within 75 miles of the office, but now no one will be coming in for at least a year, you could certainly allow a young parent to work at their own parents' home in another state to take advantage of free and safe babysitting.

• INCREASE THE USABILITY OF LEAVE POLICIES: Only 17 per cent of US workers have access to paid family leave, and 24 per cent of workers still lack paid sick leave. But even people who have these benefits rarely use them to the full extent because of understaffing, the inability to get time off approved, the stigma of not always putting work first or fear of job loss. Especially now, managers must ensure that employees feel safe taking paid leave.

• PREEMPT PENALTIES: It is also important to ensure that there are no repercussions for employees who request flexibility during the pandemic. No one should be held back from raises or opportunities because they needed to modify their schedule. One solution is to adjust performance standards — for example, by giving parents extra time to meet certain criteria. And in service industries, some employers are offering unlimited sick leave for hourly workers.

These strategies can help you manage predictably and flexibly, and will help you and your employees overcome today's pressures. They should also help you build a stronger team that is able to perform well both during the pandemic and beyond.