The main challenge is communication. It’s a big hurdle for managers. They struggle to keep it effective. Without a traditional office, quick, impromptu conversations are much less common. A manager shared with us, “We can’t have water cooler chats or ‘grab someone for a quick word.’ We must find new ways to connect. We need to ensure our teams stay close and informed.”

Adapting to this new digital landscape requires a shift in how we manage. Traditional oversight and team building must evolve. They need to fit a world where video calls replace meetings. And, where instant messaging replaces desk-side chats. It’s about fostering an environment where people use asynchronous communication. It’s not just accepted but optimized for productivity and team engagement.

Strategies for Success

• Regular Check-ins are key. Schedule one-on-one and team meetings to stay connected. Address any issues promptly.
• Use Technology: Use project management tools and platforms. They help collaboration and keep everyone on the same page.
• Foster a Culture of Open Communication. Encourage team members to share their thoughts and concerns. Make sure remote work doesn’t lead to isolation.

Putting Theory into Practice: A Real-World Example

While the strategies discussed can be helpful, it’s valuable to see them in action. To illustrate this, we spoke with Luigi Pedalino, VP of Product Delivery at a leading national insurance firm. Luigi leads a hybrid team of 30 people and offers a practical example of building and maintaining connection.

He emphasizes the importance of concise daily meetings focused on three key questions:

• What did I do yesterday?
• What do I plan on doing today?
• Are there any obstacles in my way?

These quick stand-up meetings, typically lasting 15 minutes, ensure everyone stays informed and connected. Here are some key takeaways:

• Focus on brevity: Limit individual updates to 10-15 seconds to keep the meeting efficient.
• Facilitate connection: These meetings allow team members to hear each other’s voices and even joke around, fostering a sense of camaraderie.
• Address roadblocks: The format allows team members to identify and address obstacles quickly, preventing delays.
• Camera usage: Cameras are optional for internal meetings but required when outsiders join.

This highlights how small adjustments, like focused daily meetings, can significantly improve communication and engagement in a hybrid work environment.

The key is to experiment and find what works best for your team.

The post Navigating Remote and Hybrid Team Management appeared first on Clearmont Technologies.

In this episode of Tech Talent Today, I’m excited to be joined by Steve Watts. Steve is a manager of storage, data protection, and automation services for a super-regional insurance carrier. He rose through the ranks from network engineer to storage engineer to storage & data protection architect to manager. With the increased prevalence of ransomware attacks, data protection, storage, and backup are essential topics. Listen to Steve’s perspective to learn what companies can do to protect sensitive information.

You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in…

• What can you do about ransomware? [02:53]
• How did Steve gain an interest in computers? [10:47]
• Automation’s influence on storage [12:53]
• Desirable attributes for new team members [15:32]
• The pandemic’s effect on hiring [20:30]
• Managing work/life balance while working from home [27:15]

Defending against ransomware

There was a point when the main concern for an enterprise was if they would get a computer virus. Nowadays, companies have to look at ransomware as “when” rather than “if” it will happen. Ransomware threatens the potential of having intellectual property locked up without the ability to access it. After an attack, the company is faced with paying the ransom. Some companies who deliver the ransom never recover their data. So, the best option is to have a plan in motion before an attack begins.

There are several approaches to defending data. A lot of companies have taken to using air-gapped solutions. They move their regular backups to a secondary, or sometimes tertiary, storage device that’s not on the network. That adds a whole new level of cost and complexity because there has to be a temporary storage device to connect to the backup. Then that backup has to be isolated, so it can’t be accessible in the event of an attack, except by the company.

How has automation influenced storage?

IT is ripe for automation. The days of building servers by hand are gone. Rather than manually building equipment, we have processes that will build repeatedly. The storage space is in the same position. There can be some complex processes that have to be repeated each time storage is brought online. Rather than needing to put the document in someone’s hands, hoping they get it right, it’s a lot easier to automate those processes.

Automation certainly won’t eliminate the workforce. There still need to be people who specialize in automation. Those people make the processes more repeatable and actionable, then they couple that with the cloud. Even with utilizing the cloud, the same work has to be done. Engineers need to be employed to work with all the automation because of the scale the cloud allows. A business needs to be able to scale up and scale down to continue to meet demands. Automation is the solution to managing business fluctuation. 

Staying informed and prepared

If you’re in the IT industry and working in storage, think about the people writing malware. Spend some time with your management team and vendors so you can understand the capabilities of the platform you’re currently using. If the platforms don’t have any suitable mitigations, then do some research. Find out where the gaps are in your environment and what you can do. Storage and backup are the bedrock upon which the rest of the organization is built, whether people know it or not. Backup can be thankless work. But if you have a good plan, the day the organization is under threat, you’ll know you’ve done your job well. 

Companies have to look at ransomware as “when” rather than “if” it will happen. #Ransomware #Storage
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Resources & People Mentioned

• Pure Storage: A Modern Data Experience | Data Storage Company
• Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes

Connect with Steve Watts

• On LinkedIn

Connect With Jodi Kulek Mayer

• https://clearmonttech.com/about/meet-the-team/ 
• Follow Jodi on LinkedIn

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The post Defending Data and the Future of Storage with Steve Watts, Ep #3  appeared first on Clearmont Technologies.

Conducting Performance Reviews With Remote Employees

The time we’re living in now is not like any other period from recent memory. Between the COVID-19 pandemic, global economic downturns and lingering job shortages, it’s safe to say that we’re all charting unknown waters. It can seem like entire processes and workflows have gone out the window—sacrificed for the sake of staying afloat. And performance reviews are among the greatest casualties.

Performance reviews are traditionally conducted in-person, on a recurring basis. But, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, most businesses have at least some employees working remotely. Measuring performance among these individuals can be a particular challenge, sometimes prompting managers to adopt an ambivalent attitude toward performance reviews entirely. This is obviously not a viable solution.

Instead, managers should use this shift toward remote work as an opportunity to rethink how their organization conducts performance reviews, particularly among this set of employees. What’s more, reevaluating and strengthening this process will better position them in the remote-work landscape, which is likely to stay for a long time.

This article offers tips for successfully administering performance reviews among remote workers.

Consider Your Goal

As with any endeavor worth pursuing, you should first consider the end goal. Performance reviews are a time for managers to sit down with their direct reports to discuss workplace matters. These meetings are generally broad and can serve a variety of purposes.

During performance reviews, employers are usually looking to gauge the success of employees in the workplace. However, your goal should be a bit more specific. For instance, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, your goal may be to reduce burnout rather than single out individuals for promotion. In essence, as employees adapt to new working environments, so too should your performance review goals.

Reevaluate Your Metrics

The way you evaluate performance during reviews should be influenced by your primary goal. The metrics used only a year ago may be unfair to use now. Moreover, those metrics may not even help assess what you need to accomplish your main objective.

In other words, performance reviews are evaluations against a goal. If your goal has changed since the last time you evaluated your performance review program, then your metrics should change as well. For instance, your current goal may be to see how performance ranks against pre-COVID-19 standards. Alternatively, your goal may be to strengthen collaboration between remote workers. How you measure success in these cases will be entirely different, and the metrics used should reflect that.

Remember Context and Compassion

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone, sometimes in hard-to-see ways. For instance, employees may have taken on extra caretaking responsibilities due to school or nursing home closures. They may also be burdened by a spouse being laid off or sick family members who are financially dependent on them.
These realities are sometimes hidden by employees who must juggle many home and work responsibilities. The employees may fear being viewed as prioritizing other matters over their work, especially if they’re both caretaking and working out of their homes.

Your performance reviews should leave room to discuss these types of matters. Use this time to identify responsibilities and workloads. This has been a challenging time for everyone, and it’s important to be compassionate when dealing with over-burdened employees.

Encourage managers to work with employees on ways to accommodate their other responsibilities, as applicable. This may mean creating a flex schedule, adjusting work hours or scheduling regular check-ins.

Pick Your Battles Wisely

Performance reviews have historically been used for identifying star performers and reprimanding poor ones. However, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a shift toward working remotely, it’s not always prudent to lay into employees with performance issues.

Determining why an employee’s performance has fluctuated will help you figure out what the situation warrants. Directly asking the employee is one of the best methods for getting to the root cause. From there, you can assess the best course of action. Using a heavy hand right away may add to burnout or employee departures rather than address the actual problem.

Look Forward, Not Behind

Remote work is likely here to stay, at least in some capacity. Some of the largest companies in the world have announced plans to allow such arrangements for the foreseeable future. That means your organization should plan for this new landscape right now. For instance, in this new environment, does it make sense to have only one performance review a year? Should promotions be tied to metrics sussed out at these meetings, or is another method better? Is the organization’s definition of “success” the same as it was a year ago?

Pondering these questions will help you evaluate and implement a more meaningful performance review program—one that can benefit remote and in-person employees alike.

Reprinted with permission.

The post Conducting Performance Reviews With Remote Employees appeared first on Clearmont Technologies.

Lauren Young, writer for Reuters.com shares, “A recent survey of more than 2,000 managers and employees in 10 different countries found that employees increasingly depend on technology to communicate with their colleagues, including email (45 percent), text messaging (15 percent) and instant messaging (12 percent).

Of those who cited email, more than 40 percent said they felt lonely always or often, were not engaged and had a high need for social connection.”

It’s also important to understand that it’s not only social isolation that remote workers can feel but other forms of isolation that are more impactful on someone’s career.

Laurel Farrer with Forbes.com goes on to say, “When telecommuting independently from home or mobile offices, workers aren’t just cut off from interactions that contribute to Maslow’s foundational need of love and belonging, they’re also distanced from the opportunities that being around other people provides. In other words, it’s not the break room parties and high-fives that the remote workforce misses—it’s the causes for these celebrations.”

Farrer goes on to describe other types of loneliness or isolation that remote workers have to cope with. Feeling cut off from being able to use the same resources that those working in the office use and feeling like you are missing out on opportunities for promotion and rewards, due to being out of sight are two of the most impactful.

“Without the visibility of a co-located environment, it’s hard to achieve the top-of-mind status that is so beneficial when a promotion or roundtable review is due.

Being engaged in a workforce allows employees to continually compare output, compensation, and goals with others to ensure future growth. Team members are able to silently observe the strategies and successes of others—which in turn inspires individual growth and development. When working independently and focusing only on personal productivity, remote workers run the risk of career stagnation.”

Sophia Bernazanni, with OwlLabs.com, says, “The number of remote workers has increased dramatically, but this physical separation of coworkers has led to more people feeling like they don’t have friends at work, and that they’re less loyal or connected to their company because of it.

For remote workers, loneliness leads to poor outcomes for physical and mental health and productivity. For employers and team leaders, strengthening bonds and connectedness between remote team members and co-located team members can help reduce turnover and improve team collaboration by building relationships.”

For employers looking to keep a remote work staff, be sure to find ways to keep them engaged. Regularly hold video conference based meetings, schedule onsite events quarterly, and do what you can to include the remote workers in any decision making processes. These steps will go a long way towards combating any isolation they may feel and will increase their productivity and loyalty to the company.

The post Remote workers and Loneliness appeared first on Clearmont Technologies.