People in Aid

Managing People Effectively at a Distance

The Organisation

People In Aid is a global network of development and humanitarian assistance agencies that helps organisations to enhance the impact they make through better management and support of staff and volunteers.

The Need

As part of its ongoing programme of identifying and promoting good practice in people management, People In Aid held a membership seminar to identify the issues the sector is facing in managing people effectively at a distance. The seminar identified a need for learning resources for line managers and human resource practitioners to cover such issues as:

International NGOs having staff working in many different places, often remote
Evaluations continuing to emphasise the critical importance of sound people management for the truly effective delivery of aid and development assistance
Recent organisational trends, such as decentralisation and devolution, changing the way line managers need to work with their teams
Line Managers working in different regions to their teams, and often managing across different regions
Organisational structures with matrix and dotted line accountabilities adding to the complexities
Increasingly diverse teams, where people with different cultures and languages work together
Managing non-traditional employment relationships, such as consultants, temps, emergency response staff, secondees, partners, and even those managed by others but to whom a duty of care is owed.

People In Aid commissioned J Hill Associates, MD Management Development and Decher Learning & Development to develop and facilitate a one day workshop, together with associated supporting materials, on the theme of managing people effectively at a distance. The workshop and materials were aimed at line managers of any function, including HR line managers working in INGOs in the humanitarian relief and international development sector and managers managing teams and individuals across different regions and countries.

What We Did

J Hill Associates in association with Decher Learning & Development and MD Management Development created a team consisting of consultants with expertise in distance management in both the international development and commercial sectors, and the HR Services Manager at People In Aid. As the workshop development team members were themselves diverse and geographically distant we set up an on-line project management tool to role-model this way of working. We conducted research into sector trends, academic findings on distance management, and developed case studies that highlighted the key issues. We then designed the workshop to use this research and also draw on participant’s own experiences. Along with the workshop, we also created a stand-alone manual that can be downloaded from People In Aid’s website and not only provides additional information for workshop participants but also guides those who are not able to attend a workshop through the same exercises and learning. http://www.peopleinaid.org/resources/publications.aspx.

Benefits

People In Aid and its membership now have an approach to managing people effectively at a distance that will contribute to their aim of enhancing the impact they make through better management and support of staff and volunteers. A combination of workshop, manual and teleseminar delivery enables a flexible approach to learning for members. The first workshop in 2007 generated so much interest that further open workshops, tailored in-house versions for individual organisations, workshops run across the world by People In Aid international associates, and teleseminars have been delivered since.

Participant comments include:

[The teleseminar helped with] “making relationship with organization staff and others, we are living in insecure area, it is important to have good relation with the relevant staff and beneficiaries.”

“Building effective relationship in distance and HR role elements was most useful for me as I am handling HR”

“I have started using it as my boss sits in Germany. We have mapped out our expectations and had one skype call to clarify expectations. It was a good exercise”

“I have already formed a group with 3 other people who I met on the course to discuss distance management issues in a confidential environment. I also intend to use the expectation mapping with my team.”

“All the topics learnt were extremely useful. Interactions and sharing views with like minded people has been very useful.”

“Really useful were the practical tools and the case studies - extremely useful as post workshop notes, at first glance a lot to take in but excellent point for discussion.”

Maduri Moutou, HR Services Manager at People In Aid commented: "Trends such as re-structuring, decentralisation, delivering through partners and increased recruitment of national staff, not to mention security or access issues have led to a significant increase in the need to work across organisational, geographical and cultural boundaries. Managers who continue with their existing practices and processes using technology to try to overcome the difficulties of distance management have met with mixed results. Innovative approaches are needed.”

“Jacqueline, Cornelia and Michèle have created a great workshop and teleseminar series for us to enable and encourage People In Aid member agency managers and HR professionals to be more pro-active in managing people effectively at a distance. Participants have gained a deeper understanding of the issues and learnt practical ways to improve their effectiveness when managing people at a distance. Through open workshops, teleseminar and in-house bespoke workshops, I have valued the contributions and commitment that Jacqueline, Cornelia and Michèle give. They bring expert knowledge of the topic from within the humanitarian and development sector as well as other sectors to develop and update a global programme.”

People in Aid can be found at: www.peopleinaid.org

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