IT sectors thrive even in this COVID-19 outbreak because they are largely dependent on technology. You may wonder that one needs clients to buy its products and services to grow in this crisis. The customers will be willing to come to you if you use the right strategy i.e. if you help them out. Offer your products for free for a stipulated time, or allow them to use your product or service and pay after they win the war against the novel coronavirus. What else can be done? You can use your team to complete the long-pending works which you had pushed to ‘later,’ as you had other priorities in the past.

Even the best managers are not trained for this new age of remote working. Besides, the traits of true leadership are redefined. The managers should be given proper training to get the best out of the entire remote workforce and should be resilient and proactive with solutions. When the managers and decision-makers try to do their best, it is fair only if you equip them with the right set of tools. Technology is the true companion this moment to help them communicate and collaborate with their remote teams.

Here are 6 types of tools to empower your manager.

Objectives and Key Results to Set Relevant Goals

The objectives set for the first quarter would have become irrelevant due to this COVID outbreak. As a manager, your first task should be to revise the already decided goals and set new ones if they are not important anymore. When you change goals without notice, it would be difficult for the employees to adopt it without complete knowledge of it. That’s when you have to choose a powerful goal setting methodology.

Objectives and Key Results (OKR) is a management tool that can help managers to focus the efforts of all employees toward the relevant goals in this pandemic situation. When the goals of the top management are made clear to the employees, they can set their individual goals and key results accordingly, which the managers can review later. To accomplish this method successfully in the teams, provide the managers with a robust OKR tool like Synergita’s My OKR.

Continuous Feedback Help Employees to Stay on Track

Annual feedback ritual is obsolete, and that approach will definitely not help you in this emergency situation, where you have to thrive as well as ensure business continuity. So, it is high time to embrace continuous feedback mechanism. Instead of waiting for the employee to make a mistake, it is better to guide them along the way to lower the chances of failure. Thus, the quality of work and time management will become your new strengths.

In this time of perplexity, managers should not deliver harsh feedback. Like Dale Carnegie says in his book, “How to Win Friends and Influence Others,” smile and be friendly to your employees. Always begin your comments with a positive note and deliver negative feedback over video calls to convey your intent to your team members. Besides, provide them a solution and way to improve themselves.

360 Degree Feedback to Build an Individual

360 degree feedback technique encourages upward as well as downward communication. If employees have suggestions for a superior, they can pass the message to the superior through a tool that supports 360 degree feedback. The tool should also endorse anonymity to steer clear of problems with the manager or employer. The leaders should be trained to accept the feedback without holding grudge against any employee. They should consider this as a chance to bolster their leadership skill. On the other hand, this feedback technique will also help employees to identify the gaps in their performance.

Employee Engagement is Significant to Make your Customers Happy

Your clients are as anxious as you are. To make your customers happy, you should engage with your employees who are on the frontline of the battle. When they emotionally invest in the work, the product and service of your company will reflect the quality.

Here are a few tools that your managers should possess to engage with their teams.

1. Conduct frequent video calls through Zoom, Microsoft Teams.
2. Recognize the efforts of your employees and reward them with customized awards using performance management software like Synergita
3. Virtual coffee breaks to chit-chat with employees to know them better

Performance Management Tool to Satisfy the Needs of Employees

The performance management tool is inevitable, especially in this new working environment.  A dynamic automated performance management system helps managers to track the employee’s performance and achievements. They will always have reliable and accurate data to refer to about an employee during the appraisal or performance review meetings. The insights from the performance management tool help managers to get rid of the recency effect. The managers can also understand his/her team member and react accordingly. This builds mutual trust between the two.

The managers, with the information from the tool, can devise development plans that are needed to bridge the gap in the performance of each employee. When the workforce is given a chance to improve themselves, they will always be ready for the future of work.

Task and Project Management Tools Help You Increase your Productivity

Task management tools like Trello, Quire, Accelo assist teams in managing productivity. If used in the right way, they can also increase the productivity of your workforce, especially in this period. Project management tools will ensure on-time completion of projects. These tools will help the managers to monitor the team’s performance and also the employees to track their own productivity per day. Managers, before using these tools, should map the skills of the talents and pick the right skill set to do a particular project and task.

Equip your managers with all the above-mentioned tools to manage the teams well and to bring the best out of the employees.