I think the participation in those meetings can still occur Dawn, albeit through the use of technology.  The big gap, that you’ve identified and I have noticed also is the loss of working alongside more experienced people and being able to listen to and observe how they behave, react and contribute in the actual workplace as and when it happens.  One can learn so much listening to an experienced colleague, manager or leader deal with a reactive matter and often nuggets of information can be picked up listening to them in discussion.  I think it’s a time for managers to be very conscious of this and to reflect on discussions and actions they’ve had/ taken and to capture these for regular cascades to team members and those going through induction and training.  That is, to think above and beyond the nuts and bolts of induction etc and consider the finer details that are requiring a different approach to ensure knowledge is imparted regularly.  Was what I did there useful to share?, were my actions there what this organisation is all about and should I let the team know?  Not always something that comes naturally; that type of reflection, but we do need to be mindful always that we as managers and leaders are only as good as the team(s) we have and investment in our people is essential.  Hope this helps – even if just a little.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by .

Hi Dawn, that’s a really good question as we are sure there are plenty of others having a similar concern. Thanks David for your really great advice – we couldn’t have put it better ourselves! Here’s a few other things to consider doing to help in this situation:

•        Start to cultivate a culture where you encourage employees to own their development so they start to seek out conversations with their managers or others from different teams/departments to learn something that they are interested in. Adobe ask their employees to take responsibility for setting up conversations with their line managers about their career and performance.
•       –  Incentivise managers- simple things like getting them together to ‘talk talent’ every couple of weeks might help. They can share with the other managers what they’ve done for their team and this will help motivate others to take some action!
•         Use your comms channel- set up a space where team members can post what areas they are interested in growing, things they want to learn and someone who has these skills can respond to them and they start informal knowledge sharing right there. Find our tips on setting up an informal mentoring scheme here.

We hope this helps. Keep us posted on how you decide to address it.

Good luck!

Disruptive HR Club Team