It’s been a difficult time for many employees who are now being forced to work from home thanks Covid-19. It’s also been tough on companies many of whom have struggled to adapt to the new situation and regulations. Various SMEs have seen their productivity level drop due to the lack of online efficiency.
Women Love Tech talked to Didier Elzinga, CEO & Co-founder of Culture Amp, the world’s leading employee experience platform about the issues faced by employers and employees alike.
Didier discussed ways to efficiently manage employees from home and the launch of Amplify as a response to it.
What are the struggles managers may have faced during COVID?
“The coronavirus pandemic forced a mass migration to a distributed and remote workforce – accelerating years of gradual change related to flexible work into a six month window. As part of this transition, leaders needed insights to help them to create informed strategies and to support employees to not only perform and be successful but to combat burnout and anxiety in a completely new world of work.”
Do you think working from home is an issue when leading a company?
“Moments of crisis provide a true test of leadership and organisational culture. The culture you’re making happen in this crisis is your culture. As leaders, we must think about how we’re showing up for our teams, and how we’re remaining visible without the incidental interactions that typically happen in an office.
We are able to maintain our humanity and sense of belonging – even while we are dispersed
Remote work requires us to find new ways to engage, deepen connections and proactively build culture. By creating new rituals and opportunities to build connection, we are able to maintain our humanity and sense of belonging – even while we are dispersed.”
What are the tips you could give to a manager in order to successfully lead her/his team from home?
“Communication remains essential for leadership, and listening is a commonly overlooked element of communication. In a dispersed team it’s even easier for people to be forgotten or for their struggles to be invisible.
Building relationships, coaching and giving good feedback are all essential skills for effective managers.
Finding opportunities to check in with your team, to understand their fears and their concerns is critical. This information will help you to create strategies, actions and messages that will land with your team and provide the leadership that they need from you.
Regular 1-on-1 meetings provide an essential opportunity for intentional, thoughtful check-ins to address productivity, alignment, and professional growth. Building relationships, coaching and giving good feedback are all essential skills for effective managers.”
How is Culture Amp a part of this or a potential solution?
“Culture Amp has been a critical tool for many organisations in understanding how their employees and their culture are responding to these changes. The companies that have managed well have prioritized culture and found ways to intentionally build and maintain connections, engagement and wellbeing with their teams.”
What is Amplify and what is its benefit?
“Amplify gives managers access to new ways to develop their coaching skills, get better at delivering 1:1 feedback and have more valuable conversations with their team.
We know that managers today are stretched, so the Amplify capabilities focus on making micro-improvements on a daily basis, and it does this by integrating new learning opportunities into the daily workflow of managers. Amplify gives managers the tools they need to navigate today’s work environment, become better coaches and increase team effectiveness – without adding to their workload.
Playbooks combine expertise and best practices from Culture Amp’s 3,000 strong client base and leading partners to provide quick answers, expert advice and tools for being a great manager.
Skills Coach puts learning on autopilot by harnessing conversational micro-learning to give managers bite-sized activities in the flow of their work.
1-on-1 conversations gives managers a centralized space to hold and track one-on-ones with prompts for managers to talk about the issues beyond tactical updates.”
How do you envision the future workplace and how do you see Culture Amp fit into it?
“The challenge for organisations is to find ways to help the people in our organisation be successful. Mental wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, identity and belonging – these are all considerations for modern leaders.
We know that leading during uncertain times is hard and that managers, organisations and HR teams are challenged. Now more than ever, the world needs Culture First leaders. We need empathetic, agile, human leaders yet budgets are being cut and many teams continue to work remotely, making it harder to see results and patterns.
Managers matter when scaling culture: successful managers create successful teams. Minor improvements can add up to massive effects, allowing good habits and practices to scale throughout the business.
Making micro-improvements on a daily basis by integrating new learning opportunities into the daily workflow of managers is essential.
Culture Amp’s manager capabilities offer a space for conversation and connection. Making micro-improvements on a daily basis by integrating new learning opportunities into the daily workflow of managers is essential. This allows them to adapt as they go, but with the chance to dive deeper into learning with curated resources when required.
Culture is everyone’s responsibility: from senior leadership, to HR and every single employee.
It’s not just the responsibility of the leader to create and shape culture and create a positive work environment. Culture is everyone’s responsibility: from senior leadership, to HR and every single employee.
For more information, visit cultureamp.com/redefining-managers/amplify.