Benefits of remote working inhibited by outdated management

Poor management is blocking the UK’s path to productivity, according to a new report commissioned by City & Guilds and the Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM). The ‘Tomorrow’s Leaders’ study, undertaken by Henley Management College, shows that managers are struggling to reinvent their working patterns to get the best from a growing army of remote workers, with visibility and presenteeism still used to judge performance. 
 
According to today’s findings, remote working is on the rise.  Three quarters (73%) of managers say flexible working is common in their organisation, and, more strikingly, 37% of all managers now look after teams who are either entirely or predominantly based away from the office.

However, although the majority of managers are working with teams that include remote workers, nearly half (44%) of managers say they are unprepared for the supervision of remote teams, and only  25% had received any training on how to manage such a team.  

While nearly 75% of managers believe remote workers are more productive, and 90% say they trust their remote employees, a third also confess to wanting to monitor their employees closely - just to make sure.

Chris Humphries, Director General of City & Guilds, comments: “A quiet revolution is taking place in offices across the UK. With the introduction of flexible working legislation, a growing awareness of the environmental impacts of travel, and a realisation among the business community of the cost benefits of flexible working, employment away from the office has never been so popular. However, as City & Guilds and ILM have demonstrated, managers are finding it less comfortable to lead and motivate flexible teams.

Our research shows that bosses are highly sympathetic to the notion of flexible working, but in practice find it difficult to break the mind set of ‘presenteeism’. The UK’s professional culture is still built on long hours – if you’re visible, you’re accountable. In reality, this means we reward people who take a long time to get the job done, rather than those who do it most effectively.” 

Kim Parish, Chief Executive of the Institute of Leadership & Management added: “Our experience at ILM shows how much we need to keep the training of our managers up to date.  Whilst technology is allowing fundamental changes to working patterns, the behaviour of managers and team members lags behind. 

Managers need a new set of skills and attitudes to optimise the benefits of all forms of flexible working including remote working.  This is just one of the areas where modern management and leadership qualifications, like those of ILM, can improve the performance of managers and organisations.”

The survey highlighted particular management skills gaps around communication skills and team bonding, as well as appropriate use of emerging technologies. Long distance, virtual relationships with staff members can be demanding, and one third of the managers participating in the study confessed that they needed to improve the way they communicated with their teams.

In addition, while 62% of managers say their IT systems support remote working, half of respondents believe they are not exploiting the networking technology to the full. Under 20% use audio conferencing and instant messaging, and only 10% use video conferencing.  

Peter Thomson, Director of the Future Work Forum Henley Management College, continued: “Today’s managers are very aware of the commercial and competitor advantages associated with more flexible employers, however they are struggling to turn theory into practice and clearly need support to adapt their supervision styles. 

Businesses will begin to look for leaders rather than micro-managers – inspiring from a distance rather than giving hands-on direction. There are some clear skills around this that can be taught, but managers have to first accept that much of what they’ve learnt in the first stages of their careers will evolve as the shape of the workplace changes.”

For further information and to download the Tomorrow’s Leaders report visit www.cityandguilds.com/tomorrowsleaders

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For more information please contact Hannah Windross or Jenna Frost on
020 7260 2700 or at cityandguilds@bluerubicon.com

Notes to Editors

• The Tomorrow’s Leaders research was conducted by the Future Work Forum at the Henley School of Management.

• The research for Tomorrow’s Leaders was conducted via the distribution of a substantive questionnaire to general managers across the UK. In-depth analysis of the results was then carried out by a panel of experts. For details of the panel and Henley Management College, please read the final report, available at www.cityadnguilds.com.tomorrowsleaders

• About the Institute of Leadership and Management
The Institute of Leadership & Management (ILM) www.i-l-m.com is part of the international City & Guilds group.

ILM is the largest provider of management education qualifications in Europe, building the skills of over 85,000 managers and leaders each year.

All ILM qualifications are designed to deliver practical business benefit to the individual, their team and the organisation they work for.

ILM is the professional membership body of choice for over 20,000 forward thinking managers and leaders, providing a wide range of member benefits, support and development opportunities throughout their career.

• About City & Guilds
City & Guilds (www.cityandguilds.com ) is the expert and leading authority in vocational education and training - both in the UK and beyond.
In operation for the last 130 years, City & Guilds is the UK’s leading awarding body for work-related qualifications. Twenty million people in the UK have City & Guilds qualifications, and the organisation awards a further 1.5 million qualifications to learners every year.

City & Guilds also enables people to develop essential leadership and management skills through its Institute of Leadership and Management, which is the largest provider of management qualifications in Europe.

City & Guilds creates prosperity from skills for individuals, business and nations within and beyond the workplace.
 
• Key Findings of the research:

The Growth of flexible working

• Flexible working has grown rapidly. 73% of the respondents said that it is common in their organisation.
• 67% of managers felt all employees should be able to request flexible working.
• Only 13% of those surveyed said that legislation had encouraged them to introduce flexible working, implying that they would have done it anyway.

The benefits of flexible working

• 55% of respondents agreed that flexible working helps with recruitment.
• 74% per cent of participants agree or strongly agree that flexible working is more productive. Only 2% disagree with this view.
• As well as productivity, significant cost savings can also be gained from flexible working with 60% of survey respondents supporting this view.
• Reduced absenteeism was also identified as a product of flexible working with 71% of managers agreeing with this benefit.
• Flexible workers were agreed to be less stressed by 58% of managers.

The barriers to flexible working

• A large proportion (42%) of our sample did not have HR policies to support flexible working. Even fewer have specific guidelines for flexible working.
• IT was often mentioned as a barrier to wider uptake of flexible working. Only 22% told us that their employers invest heavily in appropriate working technology.
• 50% believe that they are not exploiting networking technology to the full – with under 20% using audio conferencing and instant messaging, and only 10% using video conferencing.
• 20% of managers fear remote workers may miss out on promotion opportunities
• 35% of all managers surveyed think they need to develop better communications skills, rising to 39% amongst managers of remote teams.

Managing flexible working

• However, almost half of our respondents agreed that managers are not prepared for flexible working.
• The survey showed that the majority of managers feel competent at managing people, although a surprising one in ten (11%) admitted that weren’t up to the job. 
• 92% of the managers in our survey said that it was easy to manage people who are self motivated and 90% of them said that they trust employees to manage themselves.
• However 29% of managers said that they need to monitor their employees progress closely which does not indicate that they trust them to manage themselves.
• 72% of managers claimed to manage by outputs and 80% claim to reward people for getting the job done. However, when asked to rate the statement “Loyal employees work long hours”, a small majority agreed, which undermined the output measurement approach.