How To Manage Remote Workers Without Driving Yourself Crazy
In a physical office, you can go down the hall and talk to your employees. Maintaining the same relationship with remote employees is a challenge. You need to find ways to communicate with them and monitor their productivity without spying or interfering. Learn how to manage remote workers without losing your sanity with our eight strategies.
1. Use remote employee monitoring software
No matter where your employees work, you need to know how well they are performing. This could be hard when the employees are working in remote locations. Try CloudDesk remote employee monitoring software to close this loophole. It allows you to see if remote employees are working or not. With this app, you can detect pro-active employees, find their productivity level, and learn how to manage remote workers. This is a tool that allows employees to work flexible hours, so they will feel more comfortable and happier with their work. It builds trust from both sides, so use this software for the betterment of your organization and the employees.
2. Don’t force them to work 8 to 5
One big advantage people get and deserve to get from remote work is the flexibility around commitments. This is a direct conflict to the traditional eight-to-five work routine and it allows employees to attend to personal activities. There are workers who simply feel more productive before the sun comes up or later after it goes down.
It’s still reasonable to ask employees to be accessible to coworkers for at least a few hours. If someone can’t manage, they will be more productive by themselves anyway. If someone can’t manage their work in a flexible working environment, then it’s probably not suitable for them.
3. Establish remote work productivity standards
Productivity standards vary with a particular job, but some standards remain the same across the company. A company can ask all employees to reply to customer email at the end of the day. Another example of a common standard is ensuring all employees have availability for meetings from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Individual standards require informal analysis and documentation before enforcing. For example, you and your remote team may create a rule of delivering code for a project within eight workdays. Upon failing to deliver in the due time, there will be 48-hour notice. Managing productivity standards may look like an extra burden, but it helps to detect the trends.
4. Deploy an employee engagement app
Remote employees stay at their desks for hours without going outside. This may not only damage their health but also make them feel alone and isolated. Try the CircleCare employee engagement app to help them solve these issues. It encourages employees and helps them to achieve health goals. With this app, you can keep employees motivated and keep them engaged to work. Try this app to increase the productivity of your remote teams.
5. Set standard time and methods for team communication
Any causal interaction among employees can foster their teamwork. It can take a little extra effort to build such communication in a remote team. Take the opportunity to include everyone in team activities and discussions as many times as possible. Encourage your employees to contact you and other coworkers regularly—and vice versa. The subject of regular contact can vary by the job and particular tasks of the communicating employee.
6. Learn how to manage remote workers with follow up
There is no one-size-fits-all type of tricks on how to manage remote workers. The most effective one-on-one calls aren’t only done for ensuring productivity. They can also work as a powerful tool for motivating and engaging employees. Regular one-on-one calls can help the manager to:
- Learn about the employee’s overall performance.
- Get team members’ help in finding and eliminating the bottlenecks.
- Get ideas on employees’ plans for professional development.
- Deliver answers to the questions employees could ask.
7. Don’t use remote as a cheaper option
Sometimes, budget plays an important role while adapting remote teams. There’s a misconception among some business leaders that involving remote employees and eliminating office space equals a 50% cost reduction. The formula isn’t that straightforward though. Remote teams do not require office space, but they may need expenses in some other areas of work. For instance, software upgrades or additional hardware, like headsets. Keep your perspective right on these expenditures—setting up your employees is needed for success. By knowing how to manage remote workers with proper utilities, you can help them to be as productive as the in-office employees.
8. Grant promotions for employees
Remote employees need to be rewarded based on their performance—just like in-office employees. Daniel Cable of the London Business School found in his research that remote employees are less likely to be promoted. Working out of sight doesn’t mean they have to stay out of bosses’ minds. Consider your remote employees’ talent while planning for promotions. Give your remote employees the chance to contribute more by evaluating their performance merits.
With remote work becoming more common, your business organization can’t afford to delay adopting remote teams. You need to develop the skills on how to manage remote workers. The good news is, it does not require any expensive changes. Try CloudDesk remote employee monitoring software. It’s affordable and offers a 14-day free trial—so give it a look. Click the Contact Us button so that we can contribute to your planning and decision-making process.
