Team Management

The pandemic catapulted the world's workforce into turbulent waters. Virtually overnight, enterprises made a digital transformation to a remote, hybrid, or distributed workforce model. This remote work revolution has utterly transformed the way businesses operate in the 21st century.

Technically, a distributed workforce is more than just a team of remote workers. A distributed team has no geographical limitations for employees and often operates with no physical office.

Instead, it comprises workers who perform their job from different physical locations and time zones. It also includes a core philosophy of many team members working towards a common goal via unified collaboration.

As a manager, how you approach your distributed work model is critical to your company's overall growth and success. In this article, we'll explore the distributed work model and how you can use its core values to your benefit.

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The distributed workforce model

What makes the distributed work model so unique?

The pandemic forced many businesses to quickly switch to a distributed or remote workforce. However, as regions began to ease up on restrictions, many companies continued operating under the distributed work model.

A distributed workforce is unique because it doesn't require a business to have a physical location or headquarters. Instead, employees can collaborate and work from all over the globe.

Distributed work environments have become a boon for managers and employees alike, and it's here to stay. According to our latest data report, The State of Employee Experience, from Here on Out, the ideal work arrangement for 75% of respondents is a hybrid model. And less than 10% of people would like to go back to the office full time.

Why is the distributed workforce so important?

The distributed workforce model allows for greater adaptability for organizations. No longer confined to any constraints of physical locations, a properly managed distributed team empowers employees to work with greater flexibility and in more ideal work environments that encourage them to put their very best work forward.

An advantage of the distributed workforce model is that it requires clear communications — be it via the methods of exchanges, time and frequency, types of feedback, or channels of collaboration — all to help establish clear expectations for everyone. With clear expectations, everyone is working towards the same common goal, plus they feel engaged in the work that they're doing!

Here at Officevibe, like many other organizations, the pandemic forced us to work remotely full-time. We have since become a remote-first company and have learned a thing or two about how to keep our remote employee engagement high. Not only do we create tools that strengthen team building, collaboration, goal-setting, and employee engagement — we practice what we preach.

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Are you interested in hearing more about our story? Here are 5 steps we took to improve employee engagement in our remote workforce.

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What's the difference between remote and distributed work?

You may hear people interchangeably use the terms "distributed work" and "remote work."

The main difference between remote and distributed work is that remote workers usually operate out of a local office in the same time zone but don't always need to be at the office, whereas distributed workers are by default in different geographical locations and are not constrained by time zones.

Here is how the two compare further.

Distributed team vs remote team

Remote and distributed workforces are similar: both operate independently, outside their company's central hub. However, there are fundamental differences:

Remote work

A team of remote workers consists of one or more employees that usually operate in the same state or time zone. Some remote employees will occasionally come into the company's main office and meet face-to-face for their workday.

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Example: Employees who work from home a few days a month—or even most of the year—who may also work in-person at company headquarters or satellite offices are remote workers.

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Distributed work

This model contains a geographically distributed workforce. Team members can collaborate from multiple locations: at home via video call, a satellite office, or even a local coffee shop.

The distributed workforce model also involves a new way of thinking about and operating a business. It consists of an entire team of remote workers aligned toward the same goal.

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Example: A company with no physical location but team members who work remotely around the globe from home offices or public spaces has distributed workers.

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Benefits of using the distributed workforce model

Implementing a distributed workforce model can help your business grow and succeed. Let's look at the primary benefits organizations can gain from using this model.

1. Better employee engagement

With a distributed workforce, employees are more likely to become engaged with their work. It offers workers greater autonomy and independence, resulting in happier people with a deeper connection to their work.

Today's advanced technology also gives a distributed team the tools to connect and engage with their leaders and coworkers.

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Example: Officevibe's employee engagement solution lets managers or HR (human resources) leaders measure and analyze employee engagement levels. It gives team members a safe space to express questions, concerns, ideas, or suggestions anonymously (if desired), helping them to feel understood and valued.

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2. Increased productivity

In our latest research report on employee experience, more than half of the respondents surveyed said they felt more productive when working from home. Remote employees also take fewer sick days and shorter breaks. This model increased not only productivity during working hours but the quality of work as well.

Remote working can create an environment where employees feel more fulfilled, less stressed, and have greater freedom. And happier, more engaged employees are highly productive. Fortunately, you have an arsenal of practical tools to help you accurately gauge employee productivity and engagement.

One valuable tool for distributed teams is Officevibe's one-on-one meeting software. It lets managers share meeting agendas, take centralized notes, and set actionable goals for employees. So even when your workforce doesn't meet in person, Officevibe promotes regular healthy, honest communication that keeps the conversation going.

3. Expanded talent pool

With a distributed work model, companies have access to talented applicants worldwide. So, managers can hire a remote worker with the ideal skill set rather than settling for a less qualified candidate just because they need to hire nearby.

Conversely, in traditional models and some remote work models, employees must live close to their company's physical office space. That geographical caveat puts restrictions on who can apply for the job.

Remember, just because team members live far from their coworkers doesn't mean they can't communicate with each other. A distributed team member can easily collaborate with coworkers via video conferencing, phone calls, or text messaging.

4. Flexible hours

Working remotely offers freedom and flexibility that traditional work models don't provide. In addition, employees who get to choose their hours often have better time management skills.

Remote work also eliminates the daily commute. With more time spent with family and friends, workers are happier and more productive. Plus, employees can choose the remote locations where they want to work, whether they prefer a coffee shop, kitchen table, or a beach with good wifi!

Flexible work schedules may also allow other activities that a traditional nine-to-five job does not.

5. A healthier work-life balance

Showing up in person for a 40-hour workweek makes it challenging for employees to juggle life's responsibilities. Fortunately, a distributed workforce model helps your staff manage a healthier balance between work and life obligations.

With more flexible hours and less time spent on commute, effectively managing time, work, family, and fun become easier for employees. In turn, this fosters greater satisfaction and fulfillment. As a result, your company will have happier, healthier team members.

6. Improved employee retention and loyalty

Retaining skilled and talented employees is one of the key drivers for companies in today's competitive work environment. One of the most effective ways organizations can improve loyalty and reduce turnover is by implementing a distributed workforce model. Why? Because employees are craving flexibility.

The ideal work arrangement is a hybrid model for 75% of respondents, and less than 10% would like to go back to the office full time

Officevibe survey data

Remote work instills trust in your employees and shows them that you care about them as a person - not just a job position to fill. By offering an environment where they can do their best work, remote work creates an exchange where the employee naturally wants to perform. It also answers some of the non-negotiables for today's employees, like better work-life balance. Employees can meet all their work and life obligations with greater ease, reducing turnover and increasing fulfillment.

7. Attain greater coverage

Are you an international organization with customers all over the globe? If so, a distributed workforce can benefit your organization tremendously. Companies with a distributed workforce can reach people in multiple locations and time zones virtually any time of day.

Providing global coverage when servicing customers lets your business grow and expand faster. Remote work can even create more hours in the day.

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Example: A Florida company can operate from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. without paying overtime by hiring employees in California.

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8. Reduce overhead costs

Employees who work in-person need office space to complete their work. Unfortunately, maintaining one or more office locations has prohibitive associated costs. A survey from Global Workplace Analytics found that employees who work at home just half the year can save a company $11,000 annually.

Companies with a distributed workforce can experience cost savings in many different ways, including:

• The initial cost of purchasing/leasing real estate
• Rent and overhead costs
• Energy and power bills
• Office furniture
• Office supplies (i.e., paper, pens, cups, toilet paper. etc.)
• Technology and electronics (computers, phones, tablets, etc.)
• Janitorial and cleaning services
• Travel expenses for business trips

9. Effortless growth and faster scaling

Faster scalability is a tremendous advantage for many companies. However, needing a physical office for employees severely limits the expansion of a traditional company. It's not a business model conducive to rapid growth or scaling.

In a distributed workforce model, businesses hire employees from different corners of the world. It doesn't require in-person interviews, either. Instead, holding a video conference is the new norm for collaborating in today's modern work environment. When it comes to remote onboarding, there are even HR solutions, like Softstart, tailored specifically for new employee needs.

10. Diversify your team

A traditional work model limits a manager's hiring capacity to a single geographical location and its people. In a distributed workforce model, employees can work from around the globe. A diverse team results in new ideas, more productivity, and richer company culture.

A diverse workforce also fosters more innovation and ingenuity in your team. With different minds, values, cultures, and experiences, distributed teams are highly skilled and excellent problem solvers.

Distributed teams with diverse backgrounds promote success and growth in an organization. When you stop limiting your hiring pool to one geographical area, your access to diversity grows.

Distributed workforce model FAQs

What is a fully distributed company?

A fully distributed company has no brick-and-mortar location where employees work face-to-face. Instead, regular team meetings and collaboration occurs using modern technology, like:

• Video conferences
• Phone calls
• Messaging apps
• Workflow software
• Business apps
• Cloud computing
• AI-powered programs

A distributed model also consists of employees aligned towards a common goal and working autonomously. It creates a diverse environment that stimulates fresh ideas, ingenuity, and effective communication among your team.

How do distributed companies keep in-house employees and remote workers connected?

A distributed company can use various tools to connect workers during their workday. For example, video calls are standard fare for team meetings and collaboration on daily tasks or other projects.

Feedback surveys are another valuable tool for maintaining employee connections and managing a distributed workforce. They allow managers to keep their thumb on the pulse of their team and measure overall satisfaction in their organization.

The ability for employees to connect easily is critical to a company's long-term success. According to Officevibe's Pulse Survey data, 31% of employees wish their manager communicated more frequently with them. With the ability to quickly connect with your team, you can ensure every member feels heard and valued.

What types of tools do you need to switch your company or team to a fully distributed work model?

Making the switch to a fully distributed company can be daunting. However, you have numerous tools at your disposal to help you begin. For example, workflow software, like Officevibe, is a great place to start.

Officevibe allows managers to organize information and connect with employees quickly and efficiently. Its innovative tools increase employee dedication and engagement across the board. You can also integrate Officevibe with your favorite apps to measure and analyze your team's feedback.

Is the distributed workforce model sustainable?

Yes, the distributed workforce model is sustainable. While distributed teams face unique challenges, the benefits outweigh the potential obstacles.

To begin, you'll need the right tools to keep your employees working remotely, connected, and engaged across various locations and even time zones. However, once you develop a remote working model, a distributed team is entirely sustainable for the long term.

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Ready to get started? Officevibe helps remote teams work closely even while apart. It's a single platform that helps team leaders tap into how their employees are really feeling and fosters action-oriented one-on-one conversations. Consider it the foundation of your tech toolbox for the future of remote work with a human touch.

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You can expect a lot from Officevibe in 2022! We'll partner up with some other great companies that offer solutions valuable to you and your organization as part of that. We're kicking it off strong with a partnership with Oyster.

With the pandemic came a historic shift towards distributed work and opening the door for organizations to hire internationally. But hiring across borders is not as simple as that. That's where Oyster comes in!

An end-to-end Distributed HR platform, Oyster, streamlines global employment across the entire remote employee lifecycle. It's a human-centric, best-in-class software like us at Officevibe. So we knew we'd get along well. Oyster builds solutions for people they serve like people operations teams, employees, and the global workforce. The platform makes it easy to get organized through hiring, paying, managing, and training anywhere in the world.

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We invite you to check them out. As part of the partnership, paying Officevibe customers get access to special offers.

See how Oyster unlocks a whole new world of talent for your business. 

You want to know how your team is feeling about their current work reality once and for all. Totally normal. All managers, like you, who deeply care about their people and their employee experience do.

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In this article, learn about:

• The top 10 research findings on distributed teams
• Ways to know how your distributed team is really doing
• How to take action with your distributed team

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While so many organizations shifted to remote work, leaders have been urging for ways to stay connected to their people in this new reality of working together while being apart.

A research quest

The shift to this new world of work has had many positive and negative impacts. And I spent the last quarter of 2021 conducting a lengthy research project to understand the challenges of distributed work. During this research, I had the privilege of hearing several real-life stories from team members and managers. During my interviews, they confided in me, sharing how they experienced the shift and its impact personally and professionally. It was by far the most touching, inspiring, and insightful research project I’ve conducted in the five years I’ve been with Officevibe.

My product team and I also needed to understand what makes a distributed work environment a successful one (and why) to help our clients succeed in this new work dynamic. And so, I combined my interviews with a literature review to find out all I needed to know. In all, I read up (for days on end!) on lessons from teams who had been working remotely way before the pandemic hit and on what several experts had to report from their studies on remote and distributed work.

My brain was full of insights and rich findings by mid-November. I was ready to report back to my team.

If I had to summarize our research findings in a tweet, I would say:

It’s that simple (well, not really, but I’ll break it down below). All in all, at the heart of my research findings, are our ties, bonds, and relationships with one another. These are the keys to solving most of the problems and challenges with distributed work.

Top 10 research findings on distributed teams

Here are the top 10 findings of my research:

1. We now bring our whole selves to work

"Your day is not your work day; your day is your life - and you work in between your life."

This quote is from one of my research participants. I think it says it all: the good old "work-life balance" saying is out the door.

In general, many of us are content with new freedoms to integrate work with our personal lives — some calling it “the best of both worlds, now having the flexibility to be true work nomads and to work how and when we work best.” For others, lines between work and personal life remain blurry even almost two years in. In all, this new flexibility can be both positive and negative.

As people navigated unprecedented stress these last two years, balanced childcare and homeschool, worked from living rooms, and quieted barking dogs and agitated children, something changed: work became more human. We stepped into each other’s personal spaces, and having people to talk to become a way to manage it all.

Did you know that one in five have met their colleagues’ pets or families virtually, and one in six have cried with a coworker?

2. Cross-team collaboration is hard

Connections within the immediate team are good, while connections and ties across teams aren’t so great. This is cause for concern for the future as relationships are among the most critical employee engagement factors.

3. Keeping a strong sense of belonging will be a key challenge for the future

The sense of belonging to the organization and its mission is simply not what it used to be, and we see the repercussions of that with the Great Resignation. My research interviews and literature review revealed that this would also be a long-term challenge of distributed/remote work. There’s a lack of process for building relationships and communication funnels within the organization remotely, severely affecting the sense of belonging to the organization and its mission.

4. The way we onboard new employees must change

Redesigning the onboarding process is key to succeeding in the distributed work model. Unsurprisingly, it must have a strong focus on building an internal network of organizational connections, within AND outside the immediate work team.

5. Human emotions are deluded by screens

Remote work has made people, their emotions, and work less visible. This affects relationships in the workplace and has a negative impact on well-being, employee engagement and performance, and opportunities for development and career advancement.

6. Generational clashes will feel stronger

We must be on the lookout for generations entering the workforce and for generational clashes ahead. Some younger workers are worried that senior staff will be reluctant to return to the office, leaving them without guidance and unable to build contacts and social capital.

7. Gender equality in the workforce might see some setbacks

One particular worry is that hybrid work patterns might intensify gender inequality. The fear is that it could reinforce existing disparities in the labor market. There is also a concern that women who chose remote work for the long run will pay a career penalty as old habits of presenteeism reassert themselves with a partial return to the office in the hybrid model.

8. Communication, communication, communication

Communication is the #1 problem for distributed teams: good communication is at the heart of collaboration and trust. Together, they form the essential elements of solid work relationships, one of the pillars of employee experience.

As such, defining clear and inclusive communication & collaboration principles is key for teams to succeed in this working reality.

9. Nothing will take the place of in-person interactions

One thing’s for sure: in-person human connections create ever-lasting bonds, and no number of virtual meetings, games, or conversations can ever replace that. That’s why thoughtfully investing in moments for teams to come together for in-person workshops, bonding experiences, and strategy sessions (when possible) will be a budget and coordination challenge for sure. However, they're critical in creating company ambassadors, driving engagement and performance, and mitigating employee attrition.

10. We're craving for connection

There’s a common thread through my research findings: Our internal network and these meaningful connections hold a heavy hand in solving some of the downsides of shifting to distributed/remote work.

We’re craving for connection.

With the drastic reduction of social interactions, spontaneous run-ins, and human touch, we all miss so much from our old in-office life; we’ve had to find ways to develop and nurture these connections while being apart. What’s encouraging, though, is that the team members and managers I spoke with during my research now feel very optimistic about the transition. They rose together from the challenges and succeeded in making it through the shift feeling stronger and more connected than ever before.

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Let’s remember this.

Many organizations and teams successfully worked remotely long before the pandemic hit. Distributed work has been proven to be possible and effective for many. The right conversations and rituals just need to be put in place for all of it to work. Ultimately, many of the same considerations that apply in an office work environment also apply to a remote setting, and it’s just a matter of implementation.

As a leader, you’ll for sure need to be deliberate in creating a remote-first culture. You can do this by asking your distributed team members for their input about what they need to be successful on a regular basis, and by sharing distributed work best practices for creating new rituals and habits.

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As I mentioned above, team/organizational principles are a success factor of distributed work – the action of collectively defining and communicating clear and inclusive communication & collaboration principles is a must in making remote teams work. Many of my research participants talked about how communication over Slack and emojis have in many ways become substitutes for in-person conversations. Never have they been more present and important! Discussing this as a team is vital to avoid misunderstandings and unnecessary stress.

Embodying the company culture and values is also a success factor – all of it needs to translate into concrete actions and behaviors, encouraged and practiced by managers and team members daily. Team members need to feel that they belong to a team and organization through rituals that combine face-to-face and virtual.

Last but not least, uncovering every team member’s strengths, ensuring members know who they can lean on for what, and creating a space to do this with courage and vulnerability is crucial to building a highly engaged and performing team. It was true before, and it’s even truer now as we work apart.

Now back to our burning question…

How’s your team doing? Has their employee experience improved with the shift to distributed work, stayed the same, or gotten worse?

Almost two years into remote working, how has your team culture evolved and adapted? What’s working, and what’s not?

What if it isn’t a black and white answer? It’s all in the details and nuances, and you’ll need to ask questions to pull these out.

So, how do we go about getting answers to these questions? Worry no more. I will give you my professional advice as an Employee Experience Expert that I hope brings your team to a glorious age of distributed work.

Ask questions. But how you ask will determine what you’ll uncover.

An idea was born after spending a few months conducting this research and presenting it internally to our Officevibe teams. How might we make it fast and straightforward for managers to get answers to all these questions?

Everything starts with knowing what and how to ask. To help, I’ve personally designed a custom survey template for distributed teams to help managers get the answers they need.

What is Officevibe? With our Pulse Survey results and anonymous feedback conversations, we provide signals by giving you visibility into what’s working well within the team and their employee experience, and what isn’t. It’s what our rotating 122 Pulse Survey questions are all about.

But the secret to real change is not to stop there. You’re just scratching the surface if you are.

What’s the purpose of measuring something if we don’t do anything with the results?

That’s what your next steps are about—making sense of the information you get from Officevibe with the help of your team by digging deeper to understand what’s behind these signals. And the very best way to do that is through your one-on-one and team discussions.

Running remote one-on-one and team discussions like a pro

Common challenges of distributed teams are many. While some solutions make sense for most, nothing can ever replace the impact of involving your team in understanding the issues and committing to solutions together.

Here’s a framework you can use to dig into your Custom Survey results with your team members.

How to discuss the team’s remote work experience in a team meeting

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Discussing results around team culture and values:

• Take a moment to discuss what came out of the Custom survey and list what’s working well and what’s not, perhaps using a whiteboard tool like Miro.
• Then, move on to brainstorming: discuss what you need to continue doing and what you need to start doing moving forward to improve team culture and dynamics. Some areas may require more reflection and adaptation. You can put these in a “parking lot” section of your brainstorm board and discuss them in a later meeting as needed.
• Vote and commit to one to three things you want to do as a team to improve your culture. You can add these to your team principles or even make it a team goal in Officevibe!

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Discussing results around issues the team has experienced working within the team, across teams, or higher up within company guidelines, and work relationships.

• Discuss the issues and find common patterns with the team.
• Solicit your team’s advice about how they would address these issues.
• Commit to one concrete action you can take as a first step and assign a person responsible for making it happen (could be you as the manager or one of your team members)

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🌟 BONUS: If you are using my Custom Survey template, bring back some of the high-level findings from questions 2 and 3 (be careful in respecting anonymity) to get the conversation started.

Discuss your team rituals and tools at a quick round table. These questions can spark conversations:

• What would you change to improve our remote team experience?
• In what area do you think a new tool or software could help the team?
• What would you recommend if you had to choose our communication frequency/model?
• What are the best channels for communication?
• What are your expectations on response times?

How to discuss your team member’s remote work experience in a one-on-one meeting

How about dedicating your next one-on-one to discussing how your team members feel about the distributed work context?

Officevibe makes it super easy for you to plan and run your virtual one-on-one meetings. An added plus is that the meeting agenda is collaborative, so both you and your team member can add topics you’d like to cover in the one-on-one. What’s more, the agenda is shared, making it easy for both of you to prepare ahead of time.

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Here are some talking points to get you started. They’ll help you follow up on your Custom Survey results easily and in a conversation-like fashion.

• Tell me a bit about how you feel in our distributed work context.
• How do you feel personally about our team culture?
• What’s your advice for me when it comes to supporting you and the rest of the team in the work that needs to be done?
• Are you able to prioritize your work? If not, what’s getting in the way? How can I help?
• Do you ever feel that you need to work overtime to accomplish your work? Why?
• What practices do you think we follow that allows you/don’t allow you to disconnect guilt-free?

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A work in progress

I know I’ve covered a lot of ground in this article and that some may feel overwhelming to you. That’s OK. It’s very normal—our research on distributed work shows that the shift to distributed work has put a lot of weight on managers’ shoulders. Employees are feeling less connected to their peers and organization while remote. Now more than ever, the responsibility has fallen on the manager to bring a sense of community and belonging to each team member and drive and sustain culture. That’s a lot, on top of all your other gazillion responsibilities as a manager.

Remember this: no one expects you to be perfect. What matters most is staying connected to your team. Your best bet? Lead with empathy, care, and curiosity. The rest will come naturally!

At Officevibe, we like to see this new world of work as nothing more than a work in progress. Nothing needs to be perfect right at this moment. We’re all figuring it out as we go, and the beauty of it is that we’re doing it together.

Ask your team the right questions consistently and frequently. Dig deeper and work on solutions together. Embrace this process as you navigate the year and its different moments (busier times, more stressful months, holidays and celebration periods, changes in the organization, etc.). Implement a process that makes the work easy to generate positive shifts with your team. That’s the Officevibe method.

Despite the journey through some very uncertain times, one thing's for sure: the future of work is not tethered to an office. If you’ve been a member of the workforce during the past few years, you’ve almost definitely heard the terms “remote work”, and “distributed work”. They’ve become unavoidable in our vernacular since the 2019 pandemic hit. While the terms are often used interchangeably, there is a nuance to note. 

Whichever your company follows, the abrupt shift to dispersed workplaces required teams and companies to adapt, quickly.  In this article, we’ll explain the difference between remote and distributed teams as well as surface the advantages and limitations of our new way of work. Ultimately we’ll help team leaders grasp how to engage their people, no matter where they are.

Hint: the distributed workforce requires both a new technological and social contract.

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In this article, we cover the basics of distributed and remote teams

• What is a distributed team?
• What is a remote team?
• What are some challenges of distributed teams?
• How to engage employees on a distributed team?

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What is a distributed team? 

The distributed work model de-prioritizes location as a factor when it comes to hiring.

Distributed teams consist of multiple employees who work in a variety of different locations. They can consist of remote workers located anywhere geographically, but it can also refer to teams where some employees work in a head office and some are remote. It does not necessarily mean that everyone works remotely, and there is often a corporate HQ. 

At Officevibe we live and breathe the distributed work model. Our set of best practices for distributed teams will help leaders thrive in remote work environments.

What is a remote team? 

The concept of remote work means that there is somewhere to be remote from. Like distributed teams, remote teams are also composed of individuals who work apart from one another but it doesn’t mean that they are distributed around the world. The idea is that certain virtual team members work remotely away from the office and other remote team members. Companies might set up their remote teams by hiring employees who live within a close geographical distance that may decide to periodically meet at the office. Remote workers often benefit from some amount of flexibility in their day. 

A hybrid remote model is one where some team members work in the office while others work from either their respective homes, co-working spaces, or even coffee shops.

So, what’s the difference between remote and distributed teams? 

From a location perspective, a distributed team is typically spread out across time zones and geographical boundaries. More often than not, they don’t physically work together.

Remote teams on the other hand are in closer proximity to one another and tend to see each other more often at the office. But, they still have the option to work from home or elsewhere during the week. 

Even if the terms are sometimes used to describe different situations, the concepts of remote and distributed work are in fact complementary.

Remote work is a concept that is used on a singular or relational level. By definition, any employee working from home can be described as a remote worker. It can mean working from home for one day or a whole year. This can be an agreement between the employee and his manager.

On the other hand, the concept of distributed work applies itself to the whole organization. Alignment in the company is crucial to the success of distributed teams. Here's a quick sentence to highlight the link between the two concepts.

"A remote worker can be part of a distributed team"

What are the benefits of distributed teams? 

Employees have unanimously praised the distributed workforce model for many reasons, enough so that many offices have decided to go fully remote. We’ve collectively begun to realize that work is not about a “space”, it’s about people - wherever they may be. Here are some commonly cited benefits of working on a distributed team. 

Flexibility

Workers and leaders alike are enjoying greater flexibility in their schedules and more control over how they spend their days in a way that is most productive to them. Without the commute to work, remote employees are able to implement more meaningful morning and evening rituals that likewise offer a greater sense of work-life balance. 

More diversity in hiring

Not needing to hire from one place opens the doors to talent across geographical barriers. Bringing in workers from different backgrounds and cultures brings new perspectives to distributed teams, leading to greater innovation. 

Lower overhead

Without a brick-and-mortar location, distributed companies automatically save costs that can be allocated to things like team building, tools, as well as training and development opportunities for your team.

Employee retention: The distributed model gained a lot of popularity over the last two years. For many companies, distributed work is not a differentiating factor anymore. By offering more flexibility to your team members, you are improving the overall employee experience and contributing to retaining talent.

What are some challenges of distributed teams? 

While it’s clear that the majority of employees prefer the distributed and remote work models, there are likewise limitations that pop up. Some common distributed teams challenges include:

Less oversight over team engagement

Without the visual cues, it’s harder for managers to really understand how their distributed team members are feeling. Are they happy? Are they enjoying working remotely with their peers? Are they thinking of leaving? These things are tough to gauge through a screen. This is why the market for team engagement tools has seen extensive growth. It’s also our bread and butter.

how we can help…

Officevibe allows managers to have a real-time overview of their team’s “health” via pulse surveys. These surveys collect continuous data on workers’ sentiments across 10 metrics of employee engagement. Workers are also given the chance to submit anonymous feedback on various work-related topics, while managers are given the chance to take action on problems before people leave. 

Try Officevibe for free with your team!

Connection

The best teams run on trust, connection, and positive relationships, but nurturing this through a screen it’s not always easy. Without casual hallways run-ins and team lunches, the moments we have to connect in our new distributed realities are few and far between. Managers must make it a point to get “bonding” time on the books. This doesn’t mean icebreakers or formal team building, it just means intentionally setting aside time for the team to get to know one another outside of work-related meetings. 

Collaboration

While employees might now work individually vis-a-vis location, this doesn’t mean we want workers to work in silos. Companies need their people to collaborate well - to jive - because this is when innovation happens. But what once took place in white-board lined conference rooms, now occurs virtually. Integrating tools like Miro is a great start, but it must be coupled with setting a safe space for idea-sharing. 

How do you engage team members in a distributed team? 

Employee engagement is a critical component of distributed team success. To engage your distributed team, follow these three fundamental rules:

Trust them

Don’t micromanage. Trust that just because your team is out of sight it doesn’t mean that they stopped working. You hired them for a reason. Let them prove it to you. How do you demonstrate trust? Check in at the right moments, but don’t overdo it.  While your intentions might be good, “hovering” can be perceived as mistrust. 

Hold frequent 1-on-1 meetings

Get weekly 1-on-1s on the books to ensure that you and each individual employee have time to connect. There are two key elements to touch on in our 1on-1 meetings: relationship building and alignment on work. Before you get to the nitty-gritty of their work, remember to check in as people first. And then, of course, be sure to align on expectations! Employees without a clear sense of direction are like a car without a steering wheel. 

Keep team culture alive

Culture may have been splashed over the walls of your office, but how are you keeping it alive across your distributed team? Take the time to set new team values and determine together how you will live them in your day-to-day. For example, one of our distributed team values is “prioritize wellbeing”, and to live this, we encourage one another to leave the house and take a walk during lunch hour. 

Before you go, don’t forget…

Officevibe is a hybrid work software built for leaders with distributed teams. Automate understanding how your team is feeling on both a social and professional level so you can master team engagement without adding to the work pile. Try it with your distributed team for free!

Is maintaining a schedule of virtual one-on-one meetings the first thing that gets dropped when your calendar starts to fill up? We get it. But we’re here to share why remote one-on-one meetings should be at the top of your priority list.

To start, ongoing communication between managers and employees leads to better team alignment, stronger employee performance, and higher job satisfaction for the people on their team.

When you’re working remotely, it’s easy to feel disconnected. The disconnect can be even more prominent in the manager-employee relationship and is a key reason to prioritize virtual one-on-one meetings. Without these regular syncs, managers can feel like they’re not keeping up with their direct reports, while employees may start to feel unseen.

In the era of Zoom fatigue and opting for more asynchronous communication, any recurring meeting risks starting to feel redundant. But don’t let remote one-on-ones fall to the wayside! With a little bit of effort, you can make these critical meetings as productive and impactful as they were at the office—maybe even more so.

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• The important role of one-on-ones for distributed teams
• In-person vs. virtual one-on-ones: what’s the difference?
• Running effective one-on-one meetings with remote employees
• 5 Tips for better virtual one-on-one meetings
• Ideas to make remote one-on-ones more energizing

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The important role of one-on-one meetings for remote and distributed teams

Our research into the distributed workforce has taught us that the thing remote and hybrid teams struggle most with is connection.

Remote workers often start to feel disconnected from their work, team, manager, and company mission. Maintaining regular one-on-one meetings can help with this.

Remote managers’ meetings with individual team members help them stay up-to-date with everyone’s workload, goal progression, and any challenges they’re facing. And for employees, one-on-ones help them keep their manager informed and drive their career development.

But beyond all the practical benefits of one-on-one meetings, there is the human benefit. When managers and employees talk regularly, they maintain their personal connection. From maintaining trust to spotting signs of disengagement or dissatisfaction, this dedicated time is essential for managers to support their direct reports properly.

In-person vs. virtual one-on-ones: what’s the difference?

There are a few key differences between virtual one-on-ones and in-person meetings. These factors can pose challenges for making remote meetings feel authentic and productive. Here’s an overview:

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In person one-on-ones

• Easier to pick up on nonverbal cues like body language
• Can be done in a more casual setting, like at a coffee shop
• Going back-and-forth is easier and conversation flows
• Casual check ins feel more natural

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Virtual one-on-one meetings

• A video call can be a barrier to complete communication
• Usually happen from a workstation, at home or the office
• Each person takes turns speaking so as not to interrupt
• Small talk may feel stilted

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Once you acknowledge some of these differences, they’re easier to account for. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with tips and ideas to make every one-on-one meeting better, no matter how it happens.

Running effective one-on-one meetings with remote employees

To make the most out of your time together, it’s important to run your one-on-ones effectively. Some of the best practices for virtual one-on-ones are the same as in-person meetings, but they’re worth keeping in mind.

Before your remote one-on-one

Ahead of your virtual one-on-one meeting, make sure to set some talking points and create a shared meeting agenda. A shared agenda helps both a manager and their direct report know what they’ll be discussing. It’s easier to arrive prepared!

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Select from dozens of one-on-one meeting agenda templates in Officevibe.

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During your one-on-one virtual call

A meeting check-in is always a great way to start video calls. Getting a sense of how both people are coming into the meeting helps you start things off on the right foot. Ask questions, cover your talking points, and remember to take meeting notes.

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Not sure what to ask? Select from our 40 one-on-one questions for busy managers.

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After your one-on-one meeting

No matter what you discuss in your one-on-one meeting, it’s always important to follow up. Send a quick recap of the key takeaways and any next steps from your meeting, and set any agenda items to revisit next time.

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Pro tip: At the end of every one-on-one, send a calendar invite for your next meeting and set some discussion points you’d like to follow up on.

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The power of virtual one-on-one meeting software

Did you know you can use a one-on-one software like Officevibe to plan, carry out, and keep track of every meeting? Having productive conversations is easy with a collaborative meeting agenda where managers and employees can add talking points. And it’s easy to stay organized and keep track of what you discussed in past meetings when your notes are all stored in one place.

5 Tips for better virtual one-on-one meetings

These 5 one-on-one meeting tips help you have more productive and impactful remote one-on-ones.

1. Share feedback, and ask for it. It’s always a good idea for managers and their direct reports to exchange constructive feedback. The more people make a point of it, the more it becomes second nature.
2. Opt for video calls whenever possible. Sure, phone calls can be a nice break from back-to-back remote meetings. But to have effective one-on-ones, it’s worth it to have that face-to-face communication.
3. Discuss career progression. Career conversations are essential for employee engagement, personal growth, and long-term retention. Make a point of setting and tracking goals and focusing on development.
4. Practice active listening. When managers ask one-on-one questions, they should strive to really listen to what their direct report shares. Turn off notifications and your second screen, and focus on what’s happening in the virtual meeting room.
5. Save status updates for team meetings. Everyone on your remote team can benefit from a project update, so use your time together for these discussions. A one-on-one meeting should focus on the individuals’ needs, goals, and challenges.

Ideas to make remote one-on-ones more energizing

Like all remote meetings, virtual one-on-ones can start to feel draining when it’s just another meeting time booked in your calendar. But it doesn’t have to be this way! Here are some ideas to make your remote one-on-ones more energizing and engaging.

• Switch up your remote work environment. Try taking your video call from a different room, or step outside.
• Establish a new ritual. Reserve your first 5 minutes for making a cup of tea or coffee together while you check in.
• Make it a walk and talk. Switch off your video and take a walk around the block while you chat on the phone.

Keep virtual one-on-one meetings refreshing and productive

Every time a manager meets with a direct report, they have the chance to understand each other better and drive team member performance, engagement, and success. Remote work doesn’t have to be a barrier to making these recurring meetings count. Make the most of every remote one-on-one with the tips, best practices, and fresh ideas outlined in this article.

Fact: the modern workforce is filled with more dispersed teams than ever before.

The people have spoken.

Flexibility, increased wellbeing, and time saved without a commute are the most commonly cited advantages for remote workers. But with these 'perks' also comes the responsibility of employers to take a deeper look at the day-to-day distributed team challenges.

They might seem benign on the surface, but if not proactively addressed, they can hinder performance, engagement, and even drive turnover. There are new rules (and tools) that employers need to get on board with if they want to keep their distributed teams intact and attract top talent in this ever-competitive hiring landscape.

We look at the most pressing issues of distributed teams in today’s workforce, along with proven solutions that dispersed teams can put in place for a successful year ahead.

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6 Common challenges for distributed teams, and how to fix them:

• 1. Feelings of disconnect among the team
• 2. Productivity issues
• 3. Difficulty maintaining culture
• 4. Decreased oversight & communication
• 5. Less creativity & innovation
• 6. The loneliness epidemic

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6 common distributed team challenges (and how to fix them)

1. Feelings of disconnect among new and existing team members

Challenge: A common distributed team challenge is the “connection gap”. The ability to build and maintain genuine connection with people in the workplace from behind a screen.

There’s nothing like showing up to the office building on Monday morning and chit chatting about the weekend over a morning coffee, or lunching with colleagues from other departments, engaging in inspiring conversations that spark new ideas.

These moments of sporadic connection enhance team dynamics, humanize work, build a sense of belonging, and create collaborative bridges from one team to another. On the flip side, working remotely can create silos: we often lunch alone, and we rarely “see” team members from other departments.

Solution: Leaders must be mindful of this “connection gap” and be intentional about virtually simulating scenarios where people can interact genuinely. Thoughtfully investing in moments for virtual teams to come together for in-person workshops, bonding experiences, and strategy sessions can be a budget and coordination challenge. But, these moments are critical in creating company ambassadors, driving engagement and performance, and mitigating employee attrition.

What can’t be done in person, should take place virtually. Ultimately though, it’s a mindset. Do not neglect to prioritize human connection, because the work will always prove to be better and more innovative when connection and trust is at its base.

2. Productivity issues

Challenge: Productivity issues don’t necessarily refer to your employees’ inability to manage their time. In fact, many employees report feeling more productive working remotely! Where productivity issues creep in are at the process level.

When there’s no unified “code of conduct” for how to work remotely, teams risk working in different ways across different tools. These norms and tools ensure that every team works from the same baseline. And this cuts out any unnecessary confusion, so employees can focus on delivering great work.

Read more on Officevibe's distributed teams best practices and what makes the way we work unique.

Solution: Take the time to set meaningful norms and choose your tools for working remotely. Working norms refers to guidelines for how to work best together. For example, we determined that meetings can only be held between 10am - 4pm to leave time for focus work at the beginning and end of the day.

When it comes to tools, here’s what we use internally:

1. Slack for daily communication tool
2. Jira as one of our main project management tools
3. Microsoft Teams for internal video meetings
4. Zoom for external video meetings
5. Confluence and SharePoint to save documents and record learnings
6. Miro as an asynchronous collaboration tool
7. Officevibe for effective distributed team management

3. Difficulty maintaining team and company culture

Challenge: For companies that shifted from working in the office to remote work, it’s important to recognize that your culture will not automatically transfer. Effort needs to be made to keep it alive and reflected in your remote team and company’s new work reality.

Here’s the thing: culture will happen no matter what, so it’s important to be intentional about it if you want to get it right.

Modern employees expect that the values a company preaches are brought to life in their organizations day-to-day operations and the way they're managed. But the shift to distributed teams has in many instances let culture fall through the cracks.

Solution: Take stock of how you were living your values while in the office. Ensure that whatever was not transferable to a distributed workplace is re-imagined to function in a remote reality.

Leaders and team managers need to ideate on how values will be lived and experienced across their remote teams in a way that feels genuine. Don’t be afraid to set up new traditions, reflect on whether your current values are still relevant, and even ask your employees for input. It’s the glue that will hold your distributed team together.

4. Decreased team oversight and communication

Challenge: No more water cooler chat, hallway banter, or a quick “pop in” to your manager’s office. All communications in a distributed workforce are now planned ones, meaning there risks being less of them. This poses a “threat” to the oversight managers have on their team’s wellbeing and engagement. Informal communication opportunities like those sporadic check-ins were a helpful lens onto how people were doing, and what they needed.

Solution: With the shift to distributed work, the benefits of pulse survey and feedback tools have become a remote work essential (if not saving grace) for team and company leaders. Officevibe lets leaders collect real-time data on how their people are doing, and what they really need to be successful and happy in their roles. Basically, it allows problems to surface before they become big issues, and also gives a safe space for employees to communicate their feedback whenever they have something on their minds.

It’s the virtual version of “my door’s always open,” leaving communication lines widely accessible.

The shift to distributed work comes with a handful of new communication challenges. Use an employee experience tool like Officevibe to give your team members a safe space to share their thoughts and feedback!

5. Less creativity and innovation in brainstorms

Challenge: There’s nothing like an in-person brainstorm. Post-its flying every which way with innovative ideas that spur creative discussions. This was when greatness happened. While we’ve been able to bring brainstorms from the whiteboard to a Miro board, the tool itself (while fantastic for facilitating these sessions) is not enough. The missing link to innovation is the inspiring human dynamic, which distributed teams need to foster, even between screens.

Solution: Jumping from one video session to another throughout the day can be an inspiration killer and a drain on your creative juices. If you’re hosting a team brainstorm, we suggest taking a moment before getting started. People share the most when they feel they’re in a safe space with trusted individuals. If you want to unearth the wacky ideas that lead to innovation, set the tone. Get human.

Icebreaker questions to loosen up the team:

1. What colour would best describe your mood today?
2. If you were to write a book, what would the theme be?
3. What’s something you think your team does really well together?

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Our favourite creative prompt to get you thinking out of the box:

“Imagine you're Michelle Obama or you work for her, what would your idea be or what would you pitch to her?” Have each team member take a spin at this exercise.

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Expand your mind and take it to unexpected places:

Select a random object (could be anything from an apple to a paperclip) and ask the team to brainstorm on the different ways this object can be used. It might start off practical, but the longer you spend on this the more creative the ideas will get.

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6. The loneliness epidemic

Challenge: We’ve spoken a lot about connection in this article. The importance of scheduling time for virtual teams to connect on a personal level can't be overstated. It ensures that team dynamics and collaboration are optimized. In the same vein, leaders need to have the awareness that people’s lives have changed outside of the workplace.

Many people relied on the socialization they had in the office.

While the bulk of people prefer remote work, many still do not. Without being able to see people at the office, it’s hard to know how people are feeling holistically. It’s hard to determine work-life balance, and how people are faring working from home full time.

Solution: The best tool for checking in on your people in a meaningful way is one-on-one meetings. These meetings should occur weekly, and allow a safe space for employees to get real. While one-on-ones are important for discussions around performance and development, checking in on a human level should always take precedence. The great thing is that these transparent, vulnerable moments help build great trust between leaders and their team members. The power of asking “how are you?” can go a long way.

Officevibe’s one-on-one feature allows both managers and employees to share their talking points ahead of time. It even prompts managers with great questions to ask their team members to check in. Below are a few questions from our software that we think might be helpful for you.

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Officevibe 1-on-1 prompts to check in on your people:

1. How are you feeling today?
2. How have you been feeling over the last couple of weeks?
3. Are you feeling overworked or overwhelmed with work?
4. What can I help you with?
5. What’s your current state of mind?

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The distributed workforce model is the new normal, meaning it’s time for leaders to get on board with the new norms of virtual teams and remote work. To thrive as an organization in the modern workforce, adapting your communication technology, approach to culture and methods of collaboration are essential to remain competitive.

Have you ever wondered whether you treat employees differently, or if you come across to your team as having favourites? Part of being a great manager is adopting a fair and consistent leadership style, but this is often easier said than done.

Managing a team fairly is more nuanced than treating everyone the same way. It takes interpersonal skills, and will look different depending on who’s on your team and what they’re working on.

That’s why we spoke with a real manager, Judy Sheriff, VP of Demand at Refine Labs, about how she demonstrates fairness in leadership, and the experiences that have shaped what being a fair manager means to her.

Meet Judy Sheriff, VP of Demand at Refine Labs

Judy has been working in the digital marketing space for a little over a decade, and in people management roles for most of her career. From her first role, she was responsible for hiring, coaching, and managing a team.

Working with people and supporting them in their development and career progression is what she loves most about management. “I love getting to know people, really understanding what motivates them and what doesn't motivate them," she says.

What does it mean to be a fair manager?

According to Judy, fairness is at the heart of what it means to be a good manager. She says some of the core management skills, like transparency, active listening, and being direct with feedback, are founded in being fair. And like so many aspects of being a great manager, being fair starts with leading by example.

It's not fair to ask my team to do something and have a certain standard, and then not uphold myself to that.

Additionally, being a fair manager is about learning more about each person on your team. When you understand how they like to be managed, what their goals are, and how they do their best work, you can adjust your management style to suit that. Judy does this by building relationships with employees.

Why is fair management so important?

One of the greatest risks of not being fair, according to Judy, is that it can demotivate your team members, which will ultimately impact their engagement and performance. When managers play favorites, other people on their team can feel less valued. If they don’t feel they’re being recognized or appreciated, they might question if it’s worth it to put in the extra effort at work, and start to mentally clock out.

On top of the impact to employee engagement and team success, being unfair can also affect your success as a manager, Judy says. When people don’t feel that you’re being fair, you can end up losing your team’s trust. And this can quickly spiral into people questioning your leadership, or doubting your commitment and efforts.

Everyone gets an equal voice in Officevibe

Connect with your team members through employee Pulse Surveys and Anonymous Feedback in Officevibe. Give everyone a chance to share their honest thoughts with you in a safe and secure setting.

How to be a fair manager: 5 tips from Judy

So how do you put fairness into practice as a manager? These are some of the stand-out tips from our talk with Judy.

1. Check in with yourself and with your team

Set aside some time to consciously check in with yourself about your team. You can run through a list of your direct reports and note any commitments you need to follow up on for them or questions you need to ask. This will help you make sure you’re not leaving anyone hanging. You can also use this time to reach out to everyone directly, like Judy does.

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Check in together: You can also check in with your team when you’re all together. Start off team meetings with a meeting check-in prompt, to give everyone a chance to share how they’re doing.

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2. Use time as a way to measure fairness

Every manager’s time is precious. If you’re looking for a way to measure how fair you’re being to your team members, Judy says, you can start by checking your calendar. Of course, your schedule can fluctuate and depend on the needs of different employees, but it’s something to consider when you’re planning your week.

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Time management tip: Make sure you’re giving everyone dedicated time in one-on-one meetings. You can schedule recurring time slots with each employee on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, so you always have a moment to catch up and touch base.

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3. Know the difference between equity and equality

Fairness doesn’t really look like treating every employee the same. Instead, you want to be an equitable leader, and adapt yourself to the different needs of each employee so that everyone can succeed. For Judy, this might mean giving star performers a bit more autonomy, and making an effort to coach and develop other team members who need more support.

4. Give recognition to every team member

Another concrete way Judy strives to act fairly for her team is keeping track of who she’s giving recognition to, and how often. Giving employee recognition is really important to keeping up engagement, motivation, and a sense of purpose at work—all of which contribute to happier, higher-performing employees and teams. And showing appreciation doesn’t have to be reserved for your star performers.

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Recognition idea: Judy does a ‘shout out of the week’ during her team’s Monday meetings. She makes a point of choosing different people to shout out each week, to give everyone the chance to have their hard work celebrated.

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5. Share who you are and build relationships

Sometimes, a feeling of unfairness can happen when managers and employees have friendships. Other team members might feel left out or like the employee who’s friends with their manager gets special treatment. This is why Judy strives to foster personal relationships with everyone on her team, and find things in common they can connect over.

Being fair shows that you care

Fairness is a key trait every leader should demonstrate. And when you’re leading a team, it becomes especially important. Employees want to know that their manager has their back, and keeps their best interest at heart. Showing that fairness is a part of your management style gains their trust, and helps you build a stronger team.

Most experienced managers understand just how important fostering trust, connection, and collaboration is if they want to run a high-performing team. For many remote teams, meetings are a chance for employees to nurture those important human connections. Unfortunately, our increasingly busy schedules make it tempting to dive right into business, skipping over the casual conversation we might have once had when face-to-face.

Cue in the meeting check-in! A meeting check-in is an intentional practice of “checking in” before a meeting begins, rather than just jumping into your agenda points. Meeting check-ins have become such a prominent part of our new virtual world, and we want to help you make them meaningful and efficient, to help balance your team's human and professional priorities.

What is a meeting check-in?

A meeting check-in is a chance to casually touch base at the start of a meeting, and get a sense of how everyone is joining the call. There are several different ways you can check-in, including:

• Mindful minutes (pausing for a few deep breaths before beginning)
• Asking funny questions to build rapport between colleagues
• Providing status updates on how people are feeling

Checking in before a team meeting or 1-on-1 meeting invites people into the conversation, and gives them the opportunity to switch their focus onto the present moment. This is important, as many of us run from meeting to meeting all day without taking time to pause.

Check-ins can be done by anyone on the team. If you’re managing the team, you can lead them, or, delegate a new person each week to lead the check-ins.

Why you should have check-ins

Starting a meeting off with a quick check-in helps set the tone and gives everyone a chance to connect. In a remote environment, meeting check-ins can be an effective way to balance our need to socialize.

While you might be tempted to dive right into business, taking the time to check in and see how people are doing signals safety to your employees. It opens the floor to share and gives everyone in the room permission to speak up right from the start. And teams who experience a higher degree of psychological safety reap the benefits of productivity, innovation, and trust.

By skipping over the check-in, you may inadvertently indicate to your team that there is no time or space for personal connection at work. Leaving time to connect at the human level creates the opportunity to reinforce and nurture that psychological safety your team might be missing, as they don’t currently have the opportunity to engage in coffee or water cooler chat.

6 Effective meeting check-in tips

Check-ins, when planned well, can bring value to a team’s dynamics and build connections, rather than feel like time wasted. These tips will help you have better meeting check-ins with your team.

1. Make it personal

You’ll want to find the sweet spot when it comes to personalizing your check-ins. Questions like “How are you doing” can get tiring and feel inauthentic. When surface-level check-ins are happening multiple times a day, it can start to feel like it’s taking away from precious collaboration and work time, hindering productivity.

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Aim for thoughtful, open-ended questions and mindfulness prompts:

• What’s one thing you’re grateful for today and why?
• Name one remarkable thing that you did today.
• What’s something nice you’re doing for yourself this week?
• Share one thing that helps you feel grounded during the day.

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2. Have some fun

Check-ins with clear, engaging questions can be both fun and effective. If you want to take your personalized questions a step further, get into more ice-breaker-style questions that give your employees space to have fun and think about non-work-related topics.

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Try some outside-of-the-box questions or check-in prompts:

• Name 3 itemsyou always keep close to your desk and share why.
• Would you rather be able to read minds or see the future?

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3. Keep it time-bound

A great question can spark great conversation. While you don’t want to interrupt a fun discussion, it’s also necessary to keep your meetings on track. As a rule of thumb, you can try to keep your check-ins to 5 minutes. Based on how many people you have on your team, you can let employees know ahead of time how long they will each have to answer.

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One-liners to stick to a timeframe:

• “Let’s go around and answer the following question. Everyone will get 30 seconds each to share.”
• “Thanks so much for sharing! In the spirit of getting through our agenda, let’s move on to the next person.”

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4. Decide your cadence

If you meet with your team 3 times a day, starting off each meeting with a fun question might seem like overkill. Set a cadence of when you want to have meeting check-ins that makes sense for your team's context. Be sure to share this with your team so everyone is on the same page.

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Good moments to have a meeting check-in:

• The first team meeting of the week
• Retrospective meetings
• 1-on-1 meetings
• Meetings with teams or employees you don’t work with often

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5. Try it async

If your team is scattered in different time zones and live meetings are scarce, you can make your check-ins asynchronous. Get in the habit of posting a 'Question of the day' on Slack, and ask everyone on your team to answer the question as they log in and start their days. This provides an opportunity for people to connect personally, wherever they are.

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Asynchronous check-ins for distributed teams:

• When and where do you do your best work?
• Where do you most want to travel?
• What does utopia look like for you?

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6. Focus on psychological safety

Remember to make this a safe space for your employees, and make every meeting check-in completely optional. Whether people don't have an answer, don't want to be put on the spot, or simply don't feel like participating that day, they should be able to simply say 'pass' without further explanation. Remind your team that these questions are in no way mandatory to answer should they prefer not to participate.

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A safe space for meeting check-ins looks like:

• Not passing judgment or criticism on anyone's answer.
• Never forcing someone to answer.
• Not making it too personal or crossing personal boundaries.

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Meeting check-in questions and prompts

We compiled some of our favourite meeting check-in questions and prompts, that you can easily save for future use. Drag to your desktop or right-click and save, and/or send them to your email.

Make every meeting check-in meaningful

Checking in with your employees is a crucial part of building trust, connection, and creating a comfortable rapport on the team. While it may be tempting to skip over this step and jump right into business, building check-ins as a regular practice will help contribute to a team culture of psychological safety, human connection, and fun! What check-ins will you be trying out in your next meeting?

Get more meeting check-in ideas from our 1-on-1 meeting templates.

Eventually in your career as a manager, you'll have to sit down and have a candid conversation with an employee who's frustrated or unhappy. They might be upset with a colleague, disappointed about a performance review, or misaligned with the team or company direction. Whatever the case, approaching these difficult conversations is never easy, even for the most experienced manager.

When you have to deal with a difficult employee, one of the first things you should do is schedule a one-on-one meeting with them to talk things through. Having direct, honest conversations with your team members is a part of the job and crucial when challenges arise.

With a little bit of planning, you can make a one-on-one meeting with a difficult employee constructive, and lead this difficult discussion to a productive outcome.

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What's in this article

• How to manage a difficult employee in a one-on-one meeting
• All managers will eventually have a one-on-one with a difficult employee

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How to manage a difficult employee in a one-on-one meeting

Whether there's been a misunderstanding, conflicts between employees, or you sense something is off with one of your direct reports, you want to address it directly. A one-on-one meeting is the best place to deal with an unhappy employee because it's in a private setting, and you've created a dedicated time and space to address the situation.

These pointers on managing a difficult employee in a one-on-one meeting help you show up prepared and carry out the conversation more effectively.

Schedule the one-on-one meeting

First and foremost, you have to book a time to meet with your employee. Schedule your meeting time with enough notice that both of you can prepare, but don't delay difficult conversations with employees. The best timeframe is somewhere between a few hours and one business day in advance. Any more than that, it could cause anxiety or frustration to build. Any less, and they could feel like they're being put on the spot.

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Tip: Send the meeting invite out during the first half of the business day. If someone sees an invitation come through right before they log off, it could weigh on their mind through the evening. But if they get it in the morning, they have time to process it through the day and reach out to you with any questions.

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Set a meeting agenda

Send your employee a clear meeting agenda with the talking points you want to discuss. Even if you both know what the conversation's about, having it written down will help ease their nerves and let them prepare. Establish it as a two-way conversation from the start by letting them know that there will be time for them to bring up their own talking points or questions.

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Tip: If you're unsure how to structure this type of discussion, a one-on-one meeting template for difficult conversations could help.

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Enter the conversation with an open mind

It's unlikely that a tough conversation will turn productive if you enter it with the mindset that you're dealing with a toxic employee. Try to avoid making assumptions about what's made a person unhappy or why they're acting a certain way. You never know what might be going on behind the scenes or in someone's personal life. A positive approach makes a big difference in where the conversation will go, so work to break down your preconceived notions before you start a tough talk and make understanding your goal for the one-on-one meeting.

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Tip: Even the most positive people have bad days, so give your employee the space to vent or decompress if they need to. While you might want to move the conversation into the next steps, sometimes people need to lay everything out before they can start to action plan.

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Figure out why your employee is frustrated

When you're having a difficult conversation at work, it's good to start by trying to understand the other person's perspective. Ask your employee to share their experience and view of the situation. As you listen, try to understand what's behind their bad attitude or frustration. When you approach the discussion with empathy and understanding, the other person will be more open to sharing how they really feel.

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Tip: Try asking an open-ended one-on-one meeting question like 'What's been causing you stress lately at work?' or 'How are you feeling right now on the team?'. Avoid asking a direct question that could seem confrontational, like 'Why do you think I called this meeting today?'

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Acknowledge what they share with you

Whether or not you see things in the same light as your employee, you want to let them know that you've heard them and understood what they've said. Acknowledging someone's perspective doesn't have to mean agreeing with it. A simple 'I hear you' before you respond lets your team member know that you're really listening, and not just waiting for your turn to talk.

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Tip: Sometimes, it can be helpful to echo back what you've heard from the other person. But be mindful of when you choose to do this. If someone is agitated, they might take this as you reframing their perspective in a negative light or putting words in their mouth.

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Focus on performance, not personality

Whether or not it's an official performance review meeting, focusing the conversation on employee performance helps you keep it grounded in facts. When you slip into subjective opinions on how work should be done — or worse, take a judgmental approach — it's difficult to have a productive, meaningful conversation that leads anywhere. So try to ground a conversation with an underperforming employee in something concrete. Discuss their goals, deadlines, and other objective measures of performance.

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Tip: If an employee is on a performance improvement plan, aim to support their performance development more than monitor their progress. A manager's role is to empower and help an underperforming employee, not micromanage them.

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Give constructive, direct feedback

Sometimes managing a challenging employee means delivering negative feedback on something they've worked on or their behaviors. When you give tough feedback, you want to make sure that you're honest, direct, and most importantly, kind. Especially when you're giving behavioral feedback, it's important to be sensitive and avoid letting your frustration get in the way of being constructive. Your words have a real impact on people, so choose them mindfully.

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Tip: Before you give honest feedback, ask yourself: What is my intention with this feedback? What outcome do I hope to come from sharing it? How could the other person apply this feedback in the future?

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Get to know their career goals

Often, employees become dissatisfied when they don't see a future for themselves in their job. As a manager, you should be the go-to person for your team member when they feel uncertain or misaligned in their roles. But if you don't have a strong understanding of their career goals, it's hard for you to play that role and coach employees towards success. Excellent managers find the overlap between business needs and employee ambitions and set their team members up to move both the team and their career forward.

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Tip: Every 3-6 months, sit down with your direct reports and talk about their career development. Discuss how they might make strides towards this bigger picture in their current job and how you can coach them in your one-on-one meetings to get there.

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Take meeting notes throughout

You want to keep track of the one-on-one conversations you have with employees, especially when there's tension or you address any problematic or bad behavior. Having a clear record of what you've discussed helps you follow up in your next conversation. And if ever you need to address a pattern of behavior with an employee, you'll have concrete examples to draw from. Ideally, you'll be able to work through things together in your one-on-ones. But if you ever need to consult with your current HR managers, it's important to have meeting notes.

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Tip: A one-on-one software like Officevibe can help you centralize your meeting notes so you have a record of your conversations with each employee on your team. You can create shared one-on-one agendas and action items and keep private meeting notes in the app that only you can see.

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Close out with a conversation recap

Finally, the best way to end any one-on-one meeting with an employee is to recap the key talking points you went over. Save 5-10 minutes at the end of your discussion to share your takeaways and ask them to do the same. Based on this, you might set an action item or discuss a corrective action that your employee (or you) can take to address the situation. Either way, be sure to align and take a breather together so you both walk away feeling more on the same page and ready for the future.

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Tip: Follow up the conversation by sending your employee some bullet-point notes of what you shared and what you heard them share during the meeting. Include subjects to check in on in your next one-on-one and ask your employee if there's anything you missed.

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All managers will eventually have a one-on-one with a difficult employee

You're not alone in this, and you may not get it perfect. The most important thing is to adopt the right mindset and approach a difficult discussion with the intention of walking away with a little more understanding. When you treat your employees with respect, they'll do the same. And this makes even the most challenging conversations a little bit easier.

We had the pleasure to interview Anh Phillips, Global CEO Program Research Director at Deloitte, about her new book Work Better Together. In this book, she and her co-author Jen Fisher discuss the critical importance of nurturing relationships at work. A subject that affects all managers around a world where telecommuting and digital communication are becoming the norm for human interactions.

We talked to Anh about what motivated them to write Work Better Together, how it plays an important role in today's world, the challenges managers are experiencing today, and why it is that she and Jen describe relationships as crucial.

This interview is full of tips, advice, and solutions for managers who are looking to thrive in the digital era. Learn from Anh's expert advice on some of the most important questions managers have today about collaboration and technology.

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A little bit about the book: Work Better Together

As described on Work Better Together's site, Anh and Jen "discuss why human skills, like relationship-building, empathy, and emotional intelligence, will be essential to the future of work. Remote work and our 'always on' society is increasing isolation and burnout." These phenomenons are negatively impacting employees' levels of happiness and engagement.

Anh and Jen's focus on relationships comes from what research has proven again and again. "Authentic, trust-based relationships increase job satisfaction, leading to greater engagement, higher productivity, longer employee retention, and even decreased health care costs."

Our interview with Anh Phillips

Q

Welcome, Anh! Could you start by telling us a little bit about your background and what you've been working on recently?

A

My background is actually in Management Consulting. I started off my career by helping companies think about ways in which they could better connect with their customers. A lot of it was around implementing technology. But for the past 10 years, I've been doing research around disruption. Basically, how to thrive in a constantly changing and unpredictable world. A lot of that means focusing on the potential of people.

"I think that sometimes we get too caught up in the process of developing and implementing technology. And we tend to forget that, behind any tech product, at the beginning and at the end, there is a human being."

Q

I'm curious to know, when you started writing Work Better together, was it before the pandemic hit and the whole world changed, or did you write the book because the entire world changed?

A

We had the idea to write the book about one year before the pandemic hit. But we actually started writing the book when the pandemic hit. It actually helped us emphasize even more the need and the importance of the things we were planning to write about.

We were already seeing the beginning of what we called The Big Disconnect. People were already missing the human connection, even in small scenarios like having a random conversation with a stranger at a store. That was always at the basis of Work Better Together.

The idea is that we all need that deep human connection, especially in the workplace, where we spend a third to half of our waking hours in any given week. It’s a great opportunity to have real connections.

Q

As a senior consultant and researcher, how did your experience help you write a book during a changing world full of unprecedented protocols?

A

In my many years of experience as a consultant, everyone was having the same issues. Struggling with people motivation, unwillingness to take risks, struggles to change the culture of their organization…

Basically, people-related things. It wasn’t the work that was the barrier. It’s usually something on a personal level. We're at a point in time where the place and the work people do are changing. All of it is shifting. So, we have to find a way to shift it, intentionally, in the right way.

My experience allowed me to explore the question: how do we pair the best human capabilities with the best technology to create a world that is better for employees, for products, and for our customers? This question became even more relevant during the pandemic.

Q

In your opinion, what's the biggest challenge managers and leaders experience when building remote relationships versus in-person relationships? Moving from in-person to a digital context.

A

When you're in person, a lot of things are built into your environment. There are many unplanned opportunities to talk to people. But when you’re working remotely, you can’t rely on the serendipity of talking to a person who happens to be walking down the hall.

You now have to create those moments and be more intentional about them. It becomes a proactive act rather than passive participation.

"At the core, it's about reflecting. If I'm no longer meeting someone accidentally, how can I think about connecting more? That can be something as simple as saying, let’s take a minute to talk about really how you’re doing, really."

Q

And on the flip side, do you see any opportunities in remote and hybrid workplaces when it comes to building relationships?

A

We’ve seen relationships strengthen in the virtual environment. For example, some of our meetings have become more casual. Some people have told me things like: 'I didn't know so much about my coworkers' life outside of work before remote video calls!' We get to see people's kids, pets, spouses, and we get a sense of what their home life is like. And that was a big lesson about all of this. How can we share more about who we are as human beings?

Q

There's a lot of information about how to improve wellbeing in the workplace. Stress, burnout, you name it. You and Jen chose to focus on relationships, why is that?

A

Most people don’t think about relationships as being so critical to wellbeing. But they are. There's a Harvard study I'm particularly fascinated by about adult development. It is the longest longitudinal study that has ever been conducted. They found out that the strength of personal relationships is what contributes the most to a long, happy life. And yet, nobody is talking about this.

Q

When we talk to managers, many of them express a common concern in that some relationships come more naturally than others. We get along better with some people than with others, and that’s normal. Do you have any advice for managers who want to stay as fair as possible?

A

We shouldn’t try to create artificial relationships. We’re not advocating that you become best friends with everyone in your organization. That is simply not possible or practical.

The key for managers is: one, figure out how you can take a step back and be objective about being fair. Reflect on whether any of the decisions you make are influenced by the relationships you might have. Keep that self-awareness. And two, think about those team members you aren't creating a closer relationship with, and figure out how to deepen that relationship. How can you build more trust and full respect for who they are?

It’s really about wanting the best for all your team members, and in that way doing your best to be fair with all of them. If you come into every relationship with the understanding that you have a big role to play in terms of people's development and success in the team, and you care about them, you’ll end up in a better place.

Q

In Work Better Together, you mentioned the importance of a proper tech stack. In your experience, where do you think managers should start? Communication tools, project management tools, feedback tools, engagement tools...?

A

I would start by understanding what are your team's pain points. So, what are people struggling with? Is it communication, for example? Do they feel like there are too many meetings? Then, maybe you should start with a collaboration platform.

Managers need to know that it's not all about the choice of which specific technology they decide to implement, but rather how people choose to use that technology. For example, we can all choose email as our primary tool of communication. But if everyone in the team chooses to use it differently and inconsistently, that could lead to some people sending 100 emails a day to let everyone know what's happening, and others sending one long summary. These inconsistencies can generate frustration and resistance to adopt the technology.

It's very important that you sit down with your team and talk about, at a tactical level, what are the behavioural guidelines and practices you want to put in place as a team. And as people start seeing the benefit of using the tool, implementation will be so much easier.

One last thing. Don't be afraid to test it and see if it works. Keep a continuous evolution and take the time to learn how to better use the tool as your way of working evolves.

Officevibe is an employee survey and feedback tool. You can find out what the pains in your team are and gather feedback on the quality of their collaboration, relationships, working setup, resources, and overall happiness! Keep an eye on the things that are working for your team and tackle the areas where they need help right away, all while automating the technical work.

No need to guess, theorize or overthink. Know exactly what your team needs by asking them the right questions. You can sign up for free and learn more here.

Q

What's one thing you would want people to take from reading the book?

A

That relationships and human connections are critically important. You need to take the time to prioritize and nurture them. They won't grow on their own. With some small behavioural adjustments, you can find ways to continue to nurture relationships and grow them.

Dismiss these ideas that work is not a place for friendships. You can have human connections at work, and they can really help you and your coworkers.

Work Better Together is a modern guide for today's managers

Even though our world has changed a lot, many of our challenges remain the same at the core. And that is, the way we connect and interact with each other. At the center of everything, there are people. If we want to thrive in the digital world, we need to study how we relate to one another.

Your choice of technologies, working methodologies, communication approach, and all of the decisions that affect your day-to-day will become less of a barrier if you actively focus on the relationships you build at work and with your team. Even in a digital-first world, people are still at the heart of your company. Your ability to connect with people will define your levels of success in managing a happy, productive team.

Work Better Together is a book that brings modern managers and today's teams together — no matter where or how they choose to work.

Let's start by asking our teams how things are really going, and take it from there.

As a manager, you always want to lead your team to new heights. In many aspects, management and coaching can be pretty similar. Because of this, managers can benefit from using a coaching approach with their team members. But before you can lead your team to a championship, you have to learn about your players. What are their goals? What are their strengths? Where can they grow? As the great coach Phil Jackson once said:

“The strength of the team is each individual member.”

Just like a coach, you have a roster of different players who probably have very different skill sets. If you want to take your team to the next level, you have to guide your employees to achieve both their individual and collective goals.

Luckily, scientific models like the GROW model exist to help managers like you to coach employees to success. Similar to private coaching sessions, one-on-ones are a great way to build solid relationships with your team members. To effectively coach employees in one-on-one meetings, you need to ask the right questions.

Use the GROW coaching questions from this article to build championship DNA within your team.

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What is the GROW coaching model?

The GROW coaching model helps managers make one-on-one conversations effective and impactful. By asking the right question at the right time, you can guide your team members to uncover their own solutions, and drive their own development.

The GROW coaching model

• Goals: What are the goals of the conversation?
• Reality: What is the reality or context of the situation?
• Options: What are the options for moving forward?
• What’s next: How do you want to proceed?

Keep this framework in mind when you structure your meeting agenda. Use the GROW coaching questions outlined below to coach employees through these four steps and toward setting action items.

Examples of GROW coaching model questions

Here are questions examples for each category of the GROW coaching model. Feel free to add these to your next one-on-one meeting agenda.

Questions for your team member about goals

Start by making sure you and your team member want the same thing out of the meeting. This can vary depending on a number of factors, so always check-in at the start of the conversation. Employees might need guidance, a sounding board, clarification, or something else. Use these questions to establish a common objective.

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1. What do we want to get out of this meeting?
2. I’ve noticed [issue to address], would you be open to working through this together today?
3. What exactly is the issue you’re trying to resolve?
4. Why is it important to resolve this situation?
5. What’s at stake if we don’t resolve it?
6. How would you measure success for this initiative?
7. How long do you feel it will take to resolve this issue?

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Examples of questions to understand the reality

Once you’ve set your shared intention for the conversation, your employee can fill you in on the details you’ll need to give feedback effectively. To coach your team member correctly, you need to understand their current reality. If someone is struggling to manage their work-life balance, there might be things going on in their personal life that you’re not aware of or you might not have a clear picture of their full workload. Asking open-ended questions, and a few more specific questions when needed, will help you have the right context to work through the situation together.

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1. What is working well right now?
2. What do you think is blocking you?
3. Have you already taken any steps towards your goal? Describe what you did.
4. If you haven't taken steps yet, how could you act on this issue?
5. What is happening now (what, who, when, and how often)? What is the effect or result of this?
6. Are you the only person affected by this current situation?
7. Are you the only person responsible for solving this issue?

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Questions to explore options with your team member

With a solid foundation for understanding, you can begin weighing different options for how to proceed with your team member. For example, if someone is disagreeing with a colleague on how to tackle a problem, you can discuss how they might speak with their coworker directly, or bring in other team members to make it a group decision. The effective questions outlined below will help you explore various approaches to the current situation during your one-on-one meeting.

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1. What have you already tried? What else could you try? What have you not tried yet?
2. What are the usual solutions available to you?
3. How would you approach the current situation if you had unlimited time or resources?
4. If you could start from scratch, how would you approach the situation differently?
5. Which of the options you have do you feel will help you accomplish your goal?
6. How could you do things differently?
7. How could you simplify the solution even further?
8. Who can help you succeed and how?

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Questions to decide what’s next

Successful meetings end with establishing next steps and setting action items that you can follow up on in your next one-on-one. It might be tempting to give your team members next steps when you have ideas for them, but coaching means guiding your employees to learn and find the answers on their own. These questions can help you clarify the output of your discussion, so you can both walk away feeling that you’re going in the right direction. You can use them to build an action plan that will help your employee to succeed with their goals.

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1. If you could do only one thing right now, what would it be?
2. Out of all your options, which one do you think is the best choice?
3. What do you choose to do in relation to the situation?
4. When? Why?
5. Do you feel confident with this choice? Why?
6. What will be your main challenge?
7. What else do you need to succeed?
8. What follow-up should be done to ensure you succeed?

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Managers need some coaching, too

Managers don't need to have perfect coaching skills to be able to lead their employees to success. By using the GROW framework, you can ask the right questions during your one-on-one meetings to take employee development to the next level, and keep every team member engaged.

Sometimes, it's all it takes to turn a team into a dynasty.

Have you ever had a great mentor who helped you advance toward your career goals, develop your skill set, and excel in your role? If you have, you know how impactful it is to have someone supporting your development. We spoke about employee mentorship with Camille, Client Experience Consultant at Elo Mentoring, a software that simplifies workplace mentoring.

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"Our professional lives aren't linear, they're filled with different pathways and obstacles. When we face a new role, a new challenge, or a new project, a mentor can accompany us. They accompany us not just in our professional development but also our psycho-social development. A mentor helps us to develop soft skills and relational intelligence."

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Wondering how to mentor an employee to help them grow and shine? Keep reading to learn from experiences of real mentors and mentees.

Why is professional mentorship important?

Employees want to grow, learn, and continuously develop through their work. They want to expand and level up in their skill sets, and for their role and responsibilities to evolve with them. But employees can't be expected to get there on their own, which is where a mentorship relationship can have a real impact. And the workforce needs more mentors.

Having a workplace mentor can help us feel like we're getting somewhere, and like we have further to go. This not only strengthens employee engagement but also impacts employee retention and can help reduce employee turnover. It's a win-win for any organization and the people who work for it.

How to mentor an employee: 7 techniques from real people

First and foremost, "a mentoring relationship should be voluntary, sincere, and structured," says Camille. Both people should want to have a mentoring partnership, and they should clearly establish what they want to come from it. From there, meeting regularly in one-on-ones is a great way to continually touch base, address challenges, and track progress.

We spoke with real people about their experience of mentorship, and drew from their stories to bring you their most impactful techniques. Some have been mentors, others have had mentors, and some have been on both sides of the mentor mentee relationship.

1. Make space for failure and learning

Learning is often a product of failure, and employees need the space to have their efforts flop sometimes if they're going to grow. An effective mentor can help them uncover the learnings from their mistakes and see them as opportunities to build.

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"I try to use the strengths people already have and help build their confidence and encourage them to challenge themselves. The best quality that my mentors have had is allowing me to be myself and fail without consequence."

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2. Respect who your employee is

As a mentor, you need to drop any preconceived notions about what the employee should do, how they should work, or what their career path should be. People want to be lifted up for who they are, and not moulded into the image their mentor has for them.

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"I had a mentor who struggled with the fact that I'm not very structured, or I'm not a 'type A' person like they are. And it made me feel like my personality wasn't enough to be successful. You don't want your mentee to feel like they need to change something about themself to get to where they want to get."

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3. Have your mentee explain things to you

Just like in math class, employees should understand not just what they're doing, but why they're doing it. Ask your mentee to explain their reasoning or how they came to their conclusions. Talking it through will help them strengthen their certainty and in turn, their confidence.

"I had my mentee share her screen with me and walk through the code she'd written. Sometimes when you're learning you copy and paste snippets but you won't necessarily understand line-by-line what you're doing."

4. Work to dismantle a sense of hierarchy

Make it clear that you and your mentee are on equal footing. Time and again, people expressed that a mentoring relationship is a give and take from both sides. If someone has more seniority, if one of you has been at the company or in the role for longer, or if there's an age gap between you, it doesn't mean that you can't learn from each other.

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"I often feel unqualified and like an imposter, especially in an environment where I'm on the younger end coaching people who are older than me."

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5. Empower your mentee to take risks

Calculated risk taking helps us learn quickly and grow to trust ourselves. But we need to have someone backing us up, and pushing us forward. A good mentor can help an employee take a leap of faith, and then either celebrate a win or learn from failure.

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"We had one of the most high-performing articles on our blog, and the website traffic we were getting from it was dropping. Updating it was a risk because we didn't want to lose even more traffic. My mentor asked me, 'are you scared?' and I was like, 'yeah, I am.'"

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6. Ask questions to help guide them

Asking your employee coaching questions is a powerful way to help them find answers on their own. Guiding people towards their own solutions empowers them to be more proactive going forward. It helps them see that they knew what they needed to do all along.

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"Reflect on questions like what happened, what had they hoped would happen, and what got them away from their desired result? And then again, the power of questions for moving forward. What would make them happy, what does an ideal outcome look like, and how can they get there?"

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7. Take an active approach to being a mentor

Rather than simply checking in on how employees are progressing towards the goals you set together, great mentors take an active role in finding opportunities for employees to grow. This shows your personal investment in your employees' career development and being a part of their journey.

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"Looking at things I wasn't good at and making sure she was helping me grow in those. And then making a point of bringing up things that she admired in me. But always being active in it. It wasn't just saying 'good work,' or 'you made a mistake, fix it,' but analyzing what my strengths and weaknesses were and building on them."

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A final word from our mentorship expert

Mentoring employees is such a special role to take on in your career and will leave a lasting impact on those you mentor.

We all have something to learn, and having someone to encourage us, back us up, and give us a push when we need it makes all the difference.