Agile working will involve periods of home working and this will also involve many of us juggling home working with caring responsibilities. Queen’s is committed to ensuring the safety of its students, staff and the wider community, but recognises that staff may need to access additional support and information to remain as effective as possible in their role. 

You can access the following support here:

• Queen’s Coronavirus (COVID-19) FAQs
• Support for Queen’s Students
• Queen’s Health and Wellbeing support
• NI Executive Coronavirus Guidelines
• Public Health Agency (PHA) Information
• Travel and quarantine advice

Working Effectively from home

Many staff have become used to working from home during the pandemic and have established good working practices. To remain as effective as possible it is useful to update your skills and avail of advice and support available. You can access information about working from home on the Information Services webpage. This includes information on health and wellbeing, email and calendars, file storage, communication and collaboration, Office 365, connecting to the university network and staying secure.

Learning for All

Our Learning for All (Staff Intranet) offer continues and is open to all staff.

LinkedIn Learning:

The LinkedIn Learning resource is freely available for all staff at Queen’s. The courses in the Remote Working: Setting Yourself Up for Success collection aims to support more effective remote working. Discover how to be productive and stay connected when working from home or elsewhere.

Throughout the pandemic, there were prolonged periods when schools and/or childcare settings were closed. As a result, many of our staff were facing the difficult task of continuing with their work commitments while also home schooling their child or children. The links below are still useful for those who need to continue to support the learning of children: 

1. LinkedIn Learning, which is freely available to all Queen’s staff, also offers some courses that support parents faced with home schooling responsibilities including Supporting Your Kids' Learning at Home and Balancing Work and Life as a Work-from-Home Parent.
2. You can also find further advice on home schooling from Parenting NI.

Managing a Remote Team

Managing a team that is no longer based in the one location is of course a challenge, and our leaders and managers have adapted to this. However, support is available and we encourage all those in leadership and management roles to review the resources below:

LinkedIn Learning:

The LinkedIn Learning resource is freely available for all staff at Queen’s. The courses in the document below are specifically relevant to managing and leading remotely:

For additional courses, please visit the full Leading and Managing Remotely collection via LinkedIn Learning.

Leading and Managing at Queen’s

Access a programme of management and leadership development for staff with line management responsibilities and others who play a leadership role, Leading and Managing at Queen's (LMQ)

Looking After your Own Wellbeing

There’s often a lot of focus on your responsibility as a manager to look after your team and be mindful of their wellbeing. It’s just as important to make sure you look after yourself – and even more so when facing the added challenges brought about by our new working environment.

You should read through the ‘Looking after yourself and others’ section on this page, but also see below for some useful links aimed specifically at those in leadership and managements roles:

• What drives leadership stress
• Leadership Resilience
• Remember you are resilient
• Resilience Questionnaire

Managers are also encouraged to consider our Staff Coaching and Mentoring programmes.

Links to Useful Articles:

• Article: Adapting to Change - Tips for Flexible Leadership
• Article: Emotionally Intelligent Leadership in a Time of Crisis: Fear and Reassurance
• Article: Managers, Adjust Your Expectations (Without Lowering the Bar)
• How to Have Difficult Conversations Virtually
• When Crisis Strikes, Lead with Humanity
• CIPD Guidance for Managers

Note: In order to access the Harvard Business Review (HBR) articles below, you will need to click on the Supplier Platform. Under ‘Business Source Premier’, click on the date ‘01 Oct. 1922’ and it will take you to the interface, where you can search the journal with key words or select date and issues. To find the articles listed, click on ‘search within this publication’ and in the top search bar, insert one of the HBR titles listed below and click ‘search’.

To ensure employees remain engaged, here are some top tips and useful resources for managers to help keep your team motivated:

• Arrange a regular Teams call to check in. This could be a shared lunch or coffee break, and team members should be encouraged to turn their cameras on and say hello. You might want to make a focus for these catch ups: you could share recipes, have a team Bake Off or host a virtual quiz.
• Agree with your team how your new working arrangements will work for you. This may differ from team to team but you should agree core meeting/contact hours or make sure everyone in the team is aware of any staff who are working different hours to accommodate other responsibilities such as caring or childcare. If a colleague’s role or responsibilities has changed due to working from home, this should be communicated to the whole team.
• Keep your regular one-to-one check ins in place for all staff. This is a time to check in on work progress but also time for you to chat to staff about their personal working circumstances and make sure they are adapting to the changes in working environment. Be conscious that everyone’s personal circumstances are different.
• Remember to provide, and keep up to date, links to University sources of information and support. It may also be a good idea to remind staff of any existing sources of internal support, e.g. Employee Assistance Programme and Staff Wellbeing services that they are eligible for, but which might get overlooked.
• Don’t forget to say thank-you. Everyone is working under greater pressure than usual and not everyone's circumstances are the same. Remember this when speaking to members of your team. Don’t forget to say thank-you for their efforts and acknowledge that they likely have a lot of other things going on besides work that are having an impact.

LinkedIn Learning:

LinkedIn Learning offers some online courses that may be useful for managers and leaders. This is a free resource available to all Queen’s staff:

• Stay Engaged and Motivated while Working from Home

Useful Links and Articles:

• Engage for Success – Five ideas to boost engagement when working from home
• Podcast: Engage for Success Radio Show #340: Employee Engagement: What Can a Manager Actually Do About It
• Podcast: Engage for Success Radio Show #345: How to Avoid a Big Dip in Team Morale
• Article: Leading Remotely: What Managers Need to Keep Teams Engaged
• Article: 6 Ways to Maintain Employee Engagement When Working Remotely
• Research Report: CIPD (2017) Developing Managers to manage sustainable employee engagement, health and well-being

Researcher Development online resources are available for staff including:

• Professional Skills for Research Leaders Queen's Online, under the 'Online Training' link
• Nature Masterclasses Online - Register via  Nature Masterclasses website. On the Login page, select ‘Login with your institutional credentials’, further details available in the user guide
• Vitae supports the professional development of researchers, register via www.vitae.ac.uk
• Online course (PDP ROC): Professional Development Planning for Researchers
• Further Vitae resources on Career Development
• Stories on failure and overcoming barriers: Adapt to Thrive

Additional learning and development support, courses and events are available on the Researcher Development page.

In order to combine face to face with remote working and teaching, some resources are available to help enhance digital learning and development:

• Our IS team have put together information on Remote Working Best Practice and Tools, to make sure you have access to all the technology needed to work from home
• The Staff Digital Literacies Hub allows staff to audit their digital skills and explore new areas for development to expand and enhance digital skills.
• The Digital Learning and Development Enhance page includes L&D, resources and support on Canvas the VLE for learning and teaching, courses and workshops from the Centre for Educational Development and web resources to support digital learning and development

It is important to ensure that staff are introduced to the campus, facilities and support services when they join Queen’s.  This should combine on and off campus working and meeting/working with colleagues and managers in-person and remotely, as appropriate to the role.  It is the responsibility of the department/line manager to co-ordinate this to ensure new staff members are welcomed to Queen’s and their new roles and have the best opportunity to succeed.

Here are some useful tips to support all those involved with onboarding which includes remote aspects:

• Stay in touch with new employees prior to their start date. Make sure they know what to expect
• Get equipment ready – try to make sure arrangements are in place for technology, devices and access/login to systems
• Structure – managers need to ensure remote workers joining the team have structure for their first day, first week and beyond. The lack of in-person interaction will make this more difficult. If this does not happen, a new employee will feel demotivated
• Ensure new starters still ‘meet’ the right people via video calls. Virtual introductions, bring new employees into meetings to gain insight into roles and responsibilities of others
• Ensure virtual tours of processes and systems are thorough
• Try to engage new staff socially with colleagues – informal meetings will help people to get to know each other and integrate with the culture of Queen’s, the department/team

Adapted from People Management

When a new member of staff joins your team, you should share the following information with them:

• The Central New Staff Welcome Event
• Our Campus video
• A link to the Staff Gateway as the main online source of up to date comms and information

Other useful resources and articles

• Induction Toolkit
• What is remote employee onboarding?

Whether on campus or Agile Working including working from home, maintaining your own Health and Wellbeing and that of others is important.  Here are some useful tips and resources including Queen’s Employee Assistance Programme.

Health and Wellbeing

• Follow a daily routine. Plan your daily and weekly activities, try not to schedule back-to-back Teams meetings and make sure to take regular breaks during the day.
• Get up and get outside. Step away from your screen and follow the PHA advice to get 10,000 steps per day. Try to schedule a walk or some exercise at some time during the day that works for you, and get outside when you can.
• Prioritise your sleep. Try to stick to your regular bedtime and get restorative sleep every night.
• Don’t overlook your own mental health. It’s normal to feel anxious at the moment. Remember to reach out and seek help if you are struggling.

Our Wellbeing Team have compiled lots of useful information and resources for staff which you can find on the Staff Wellbeing pages.

All Queen’s staff can access our Employee Assistance Programme, run by Inspire Wellbeing. This is a confidential and free helpline for staff that can be accessed at any time. Further support and information is also available for staff through the Inspire Wellbeing Hub.

Working from home can often mean the lines between home and work life become blurred. You might find that members of your team are working different patterns now and that might mean that you’re receiving emails emails. Read our guide to Preventing an ‘Always on’ Culture, for some tips on how to manage this.

LinkedIn Learning Resources

LinkedIn Learning is freely available to all Queen’s staff, it offers some courses which might be helpful when considering how you can improve your wellbeing while working from home. The collections include advice on:

• Enhancing resilience
• Dealing with Grief, Loss and Change as an Employee
• Supporting your Mental Health While Working from Home
• Avoiding Burnout
• Mindful Meditations for Work and Life
• Managing Your Emotions at Work

Staying Connected

Maintaining strong relationships with the rest of your team can help boost your mood and keep your productivity high, so why not try these tips to keep your team connected while working either on campus or as part of a hybrid team?

• Schedule a weekly group check-in. This could be a shared coffee or lunch break where everyone is encouraged to turn on their cameras and say hello in person.
• Encourage at-home and on-campus exercise, or host a daily steps or workout challenge.
• Share recipe ideas or start a virtual book club.
• Set up a shared space such as a Teams channel where colleagues can post questions, start discussions or share ideas with one another.
• Establish a buddy system within your teams. This ensures that everyone has a point of contact aside from their manager, someone they can check in with and have a chat either on-campus or virtually.
• Encourage staff to engage in our Staff Mentoring Programme to expand their networks and build connections.
• Promote our Staff Coaching Service, as a way of staying connected.

Flexible Working and Time Off

Queen’s is committed to supporting our staff and we urge you to remain in close contact with your line manager and colleagues and in particular, to keep your manager updated regarding your circumstances. If you do need to work flexibly to accommodate your circumstances, please speak to your manager about changes that can be made, for example, different working patterns.

Note: If you are unable to complete your work via flexible working arrangements and need time off, please speak to your manager. You can also visit our Flexible Working webpages.