The manager’s manual: Supporting flexible schedules

This story is part of an ongoing series to help managers navigate remote work during the Covid-19 crisis.

We spoke with a few of Slack’s most seasoned managers on why flexible schedules are essential and asked for their insights into how managers can make flexible work schedules a reality.

The case for flexible schedules

While telecommuting is no doubt an enormous privilege, it comes with its own set of burdens during a pandemic. Productivity pitfalls abound at home, and caregivers are suddenly juggling multiple obligations.

“If employees can’t meet their basic needs because their schedules are not flexible enough to allow them to do so, it’s going to have a massive impact on their productivity,” says Shannon Burns, an engineering manager at Slack.

A study by the University of Minnesota revealed that employees with flexible schedules suffered less emotional exhaustion, psychological distress and work-family conflict. Not only that, but employees seemed to get physically healthier too. And with a mental health crisis on the horizon, prioritizing well-being is more important than ever.

“When people feel their company has their best interests at heart, they are more engaged, which leads to better productivity during the times they are working,” Burns says.

Below are three tips to help your team thrive during the hours that work best for their circumstances.

1. Evaluate performance with results, not time

Remote management often requires a mindset shift from focusing on employees’ time (activity-based work) to focusing on outcomes (results-based work). The 9-to-5 workday is not one size fits all, and plenty of people are more productive at a certain time of day than another.

“Before the pandemic began, I encouraged my team to work the optimal hours for their productivity, with the flexibility to meet for difficult-to-schedule meetings,” Burns says.

Here are two ways to make the transition simpler:

Document everything

Results are easier to track with written records. Daily update standups don’t require meetings and serve as great reference points throughout the week. Get granular about tracking progress with detailed plans, so employees maintain a clear sense of structure. Katie Ryan O’Connor, senior director of Slack’s content marketing team, asks her team to set a plan for the week, execute on that plan, and then check back in at the end of the week to document the status of their work and surface any potential opportunities or blockers.

Up your asynchronous communication skills

Asynchronous communication is a fancy way of saying that you’re not expecting an immediate response, something we don’t often experience in the office. Developing this skill is crucial when working with international teams in different time zones or remote teams with different work hours.

Set the expectation that not every request needs an immediate response, and encourage your team to snooze notifications when they’re offline. If you have to send a message after work hours, Burns recommends letting your employees know that they don’t need to reply right away.

2. Communicate your schedule ahead of time (if possible)

Sharing schedules helps your team respect and support your working hours. As a manager, building transparency around your own schedule grows trust and encourages your team to be more intentional about communicating availability.

Encourage your employees to block their hours on their calendar as they change, and place any recurring obligations on a shared team calendar.

3. Have better meetings, much less often

If everyone on your team is working slightly varied hours, it’s a given that scheduling meetings will be much harder to do. However, you can use this as an opportunity to make your meetings more efficient and effective with some auditing techniques, Burns says. What’s more, she coaches healthy meeting habits, which we’ve listed below.

Audit your meetings

• Eliminate low value meetings. If attendance is low, people are distracted, or leaving meetings with ambiguity and questions, those are all symptoms of meetings that can be cut or reconsidered.
• Encourage every team member to propose cutting or revising recurring team meetings.
• Be willing to make mistakes. If you cut a meeting that was actually needed, it’ll find its way back into the calendar.
• Classify your meetings: Are they informational, or does decision-making take place? Informational meetings can largely be converted into Slack announcements or discussions in channel.

Healthy meeting habits

1. Plan ahead for when meetings are needed

   Identifying any blockers in a project early on can help nail down a meeting time in advance.

2. Set expectations that every meeting has a clear goal

   You can do this by setting an agenda and sharing it a day or two in advance so folks can come prepared to discuss.

3. Appoint a meeting facilitator

   A meeting facilitator keeps an eye on the time and ensures that all attendees are given the opportunity to contribute. Facilitators should feel comfortable interjecting, occasionally cutting off people who are derailing the conversation, and encouraging more soft-spoken individuals to share their perspective. Good facilitators are like shepherds keeping people focused on the task at hand by protecting the boundaries of the meeting.

4. End on time

   If time runs out, that’s OK. Schedule more time that works for the team, or try moving the conversation into a Slack channel. Ending on time helps your team respect one another’s time and supports individual working hours.

Pandemics don’t come with perfect playbooks and we’re all experiencing this learning curve together. We hope these guidelines can help your teammates bring their best selves to work, wherever they are, and whenever they can.