While teamwork is an essential skill for most professionals today, independent working is equally as valuable. Every qualified worker must be able to stand on their own two feet. Independent workers may also be more aspirational. They will look for opportunities where they can be tried and tested, proving their competency in the process. They won’t choose to fade into the background. Leadership qualities can be amplified, and promotions will be hard-fought for.
Still, some employees may ironically need an extra push toward their independence. Once they have a taste, many of them will double down on this way of working, feeling a greater sense of self-belief in the process.
Therefore, you should endeavour to facilitate things here. Here are some key ways to encourage independence amongst your employees.
Implement work-from-home schemes
Working from home can give workers more freedom in their roles. Even remote supervision isn’t as overbearing as in-person interventions.
Despite some people questioning whether working from home should end, it is still a popular choice among workers. Under these arrangements, workers can more effectively balance domestic duties with their professional responsibilities, having more say in their schedule. They may also sign into work invigorated, not drained from lengthy commutes into work.
Even a hybrid working scheme can be effective. That way, employees can get the best of both worlds, flexibly switching between working with colleagues on-site and independently at home. Every employee will have different preferences on what they’d like to experience. Running an internal survey on these issues could be worthwhile, feedbacking with employees to ensure they get the amount of independent work they’d prefer.
Self-paced training
Training is often thought of as something rigid and structured. However, flexible approaches are possible with online courses.
There is a range of eLearning courses with iHASCO. Each has a self-paced learning model, meaning your workers can easily fit these efforts around their work schedule. Content can be accessed by various devices, including tablets and smartphones, with these potential arrangements complementing a work from home scheme nicely.
Of course, if workers are forced to go through training, they may view the entire event as tedious and dull. Consequently, the chances of staff retaining the information they learnt will become much smaller. However, if they can dip and out at times of their choosing, they will feel greater agency in their career development and become more invested in their progress.
Practise forgiveness
Critical errors are quite serious. That said, they are also quite common, so it’s important not to be too hard on employees who occasionally slip up.
If workers are punished extensively for their blunders, they may be less confident in their work. After that, they may be less willing to take risks and feel more comfortable under supervision. It could be that they will ask for their work to be peer-reviewed more than necessary, delaying other work processes simultaneously. Others who witness harsh punishments may also feel the same.
However, if you’re more forgiving of workplaces blunders, employees may get back in the saddle faster. Without a boss breathing down their neck, they may feel more at ease at work and operate outside of their comfort zone. All of this can foster independent working more effectively.
