Updated: 21 January 2025 – There’s ben plenty of debate (and anger) over Lord Rose’s comments about working from home. The former boss of Marks and Spencer and Asda, believes home working is contributing to a decline in the UK economy and in individual’ productivity, according to the BBC. In fact, companies such as Amazon, Boots and JP Morgan have abandoned remote and hybrid working and their staff now have to be in their workplace every day. So it looks like even hybrid working may not last forever, especially as more and more young people at the beginning of their careers join the workforce and want the human interaction that was once taken for granted. However, this hybrid or digital workforce is clearly here to stay for a while longer so maybe leaders need to rethink their management techniques.
No matter where you are working, we are all mostly dependent on digital tools to facilitate our work. However, we can find ourselves a bit lost without face-to-face leadership. After all, how does one motivate, encourage, criticise, support a remote, digital workforce?How do you show compassion or understanding to your digital team?
We asked a number of leaders for their advice from the digital marketing world, including SEO consultancy firm Ditto Digital, the human resources world, and business mentoring experts at Eric Land Mentoring. Their views were all broadly similar so we have compiled them into 6 leadership tips for you to incorporate in your digital workforce management.
1. You Need to Let Go of Traditional Methods
Many of us are sticklers for our routines and our way of doing things. Unfortunately, this digital transformation cannot let us do that. So you need to get out of your routine and adapt to new ways of doing things.
Moreover, The rise of the Millennials has made the digital workforce common. So, you need to keep up as well and adapt to the tools of mobility. Today, young employees care less about their work titles and parking space, but they are more interested in flexibility and how they can be more invested in the company and have a voice in the important decision-making process.
2. Make a Digital Workforce Management Strategy
When working in a digital or hybrid working environment, you need to first have a strategy. This strategy needs to highlight the goals, scope, vision, tools, roadmap, etc. for your team. The only different thing is, it needs to incorporate the understanding that your team will be working in a digital environment. This environment may be a permanent remote/hybrid setup or a temporary setup where project teams are brought together in a physical location for an extended project assignment.
You need to be very clear in communicating to your team what tools will they be using, how will they be progressing and report updates, etc. You can use various software tools for this purpose. Also, various software companies in UK are offering services like forming your digital workforce strategy for your company, provide training workshops with new digital working tools for your team. Useful to know if your current strategy is not working.
3. Adapt To the New Technology and Be Flexible
Adapting to the new ways of working is the biggest challenge for any company. As a leader, you need to talk to your employees, make them understand why it is important, how the change will happen? What benefits will they get with this new way of working?
When a significant change occurs in the working environment, large companies may have a change management team or department that takes care of all these details but, if you are a small company, you will need to see to it yourself.
Another thing you need to take care of as a leader is that you need to be flexible. You cannot dwell on how much time your employees took on their lunch break; instead, focus on whether your employees can complete their work on time, if they are facing any difficulties, or need support. Consider team-building activities to motivate the whole team.
4. Choose A Tools You Are Comfortable Working With
Laptops and mobile phones will facilitate online working but hey will need to be fully installed with the software and apps that people require to be productive. And those tools will need regular updates so make sure a plan is in place to do that – don’t expect team members to update versions themselves – this may be something they won’t be comfortable doing. Productivity rates are higher for employees if they are comfortable with the tools they are working with.
5. Ensure Effective Communication
Communication remains a key factor for effective leadership. So do not lose your leadership style in the way of this digital transformation. Your employees and team need your confidence and your guidance now more than ever.
Why? Because change is difficult, and everyone is afraid of change. This is where, as a leader, you need to tell your company you‘ve got this! And inspire that changing will only benefit the employees more than before.
6. Hire Flexible and Fast Learners
A lot of employers at the time of the interview ask this question, “Are you a fast learner? Give us an example!“ There is a reason why companies look for this trait in the employees they are hiring. And the reason is when the time comes for changes, will the employees be able to adapt as quickly and efficiently as possible, or will you have to face employees resisting the change.
A lot of employees who couldn‘t adapt to the digital transformation in the covid times were let go! This is the truth of this world; with it constantly evolving and coming up with new tools and gadgets every day, we need to adapt to new ways to make the most of it.
Summary
If you have read the hint that we listed down above, you are good to go and lead your team in the best possible way. Just one more suggestion, being human and understanding is the key to leading successful team projects.
Leadership is not an easy task; it is not just giving orders and bossing around. It is making sure your employees are working well towards their goals and are being productive. It is also to ensure they are happy and well assimilated in this new digital workforce management. Because only if your employees are happy will they lead your company towards success.
