How Do You Make Sure Employees Are Actually Working From Home?
Coronavirus has drastically changed the way we used to work, many businesses have shifted to work from home policy to continue their operation. While many employees are working remotely, business owners and managers are still trying to adjust to this paradigm shift. Due to the pandemic remote work has become a necessity instead of a luxury for hundreds of thousands of employees.
It is a challenging situation for managers to trust their employees that they are actually doing their work from home. As employees are out of sight, managers are always worried about the productivity of remote employees.
How can you, a manager, be assured that your remote employees are actually working sincerely for the company instead of doing non-work activities? It may look like they are logged into their work computer and working, but with the help of technology it is easier for employees to be connected to work from any location to be in touch with you but not working.
The principle of work is always the same, be it office based employee or home workers, they should be working towards specific, measurable objectives that are assigned to them by the company and finish their projects with realistic timelines.
In this era of remote work, it is easier for everyone to do their job virtually with the help of laptops, smartphones and wifi. Your whole hybrid team can be virtually connected through regular video calls and regular email and work together as a team even though all of them are working from different locations. It is a routine practice for hybrid teams to have a small virtual meeting daily, which encourages them to be in touch with each other and help each other to perform well as a team.
Still the worry for business owners remains the same, whether employees are working sincerely? Are they performing productively? How to know how much each of your employees worked? How long they worked and how productive they were.
With the right policy and communication, your team can be just as happy, connected, and productive at home as they are in the office.
Here are 3 key ways you can keep your team productive while they are working from home
View Team Activity Regularly
It is very important to have transparency when it comes to remote work. Once you’ve planned and structured everything it is time to present your idea to your team. That way, you’ll make sure that each of your employee knows how you want them to work and what discipline they have to follow to synchronize with their remote co-workers. In terms of inclusivity, each member of your team will know how their efforts fit into the team result, which will translate each individual task into a team effort. Sharing your ideas and expectations to the team and seeking their feedback makes the working environment friendly and productive. Including everyone in the review process will transform your team effort to the whole new level. If you truly want your remote team to work as one, it is advisable that you check on the employee activity regularly and include your entire team in those checks for routine maintenance.
Supervise Employees Remotely
Once again, there is no alternative to precise supervision to know what your employees are doing. Installing employee monitoring software is the best thing to do to monitor your remote employees.
It makes it easier to identify issues, and much more satisfying when the results are widely recognized. The software allows remote employees to manually start a clock when they begin working. The software takes computer screenshots randomly or at intervals assigned by the employer, which can be reviewed online, as evidence that work is being performed. No spying, only transparency.
Using dashboards, you can find out in real time how each of your team members are working, it shows data of employees web and application activity, what tasks and projects are currently being worked on, and how long the actual workflow takes.
As thousands upon thousands of companies are going fully remote, in most cases working from their homes, it is very important that you know what they are doing during their committed hours for their work. Even the most sincere office employee can end up being a lazy remote employee. But your monitoring skill can always keep the team enthusiasm up and let them perform efficiently.
But of course, to do so crossing the border between the land of transparency and Big Brother is a gigantic step, which goes in the wrong direction and can demotivate your team. The monitoring tools can use to track employee internet activity to know what your employees do when they work.
End of Day Report Summary
While working on multiple tasks simultaneously and working from home all alone, your team members may lose track of what they accomplished during the day. However, submitting a daily report of work to the team leader can help employees summarize what they did. The daily summary can also be a tool that will help you identify the opportunities for improvement, outline any potential issues, and show you the steps your team needs to do to either achieve or overcome them.
Make Productivity Simple
At the end of the day, your remote employees will be more focused on work if they know you are trusting them and not micromanaging them, if their effort is appreciated, and if they know you’ve got their back. It’s hardly feasible for you to personally check in every few minutes to supervise them, so having a monitoring tool can save your time and help you get error free data about each employees’ work activities into easy to understand productivity metrics.
Increase your team’s productivity with CloudDesk employee monitoring software, which can be used to track digital activity of your employees from their remote location. Start your 14-day free trial today so you can test out the innovative CloudDesk software and see how it will help you meet your business goals!
