The companies that are out there that offer their employees the chance to work remotely have got it cracked. They swear by the way that remote working has changed their company work ethic, with research spelling out how much happier remote workers are compared to those who continue to commute to work every day.
Productivity levels go up and people are more excited to get to work every day; they only have to go to wherever they work in their home! Of course, remote working isn’t all completely positive and there are challenges to be had at home. Being away from the buzz and the camaraderie in the office can make remote workers feel displaced and out of the loop. Not only that, but managers and business owners can find managing remote workers a challenge in itself.
Being outside of the office, there is no way for company management to keep a watchful eye on their staff. Not every company leader micromanages their staff because there’s no need to, but you’d be surprised how things change when your staff isn’t under your roof anymore! To be the best company leader that you can be, you have to be able to offer something as lucrative as remote working and also manage those workers successfully. With that in mind, here are six genius tips for your management success:
#1: Hire People You’ll Trust
Trust is the biggest thing that you need when it comes to offering your staff the chance to work remotely. You need to know that people are going to be doing their work within their deadlines, even when they’re not working under your watchful eye. You can bring in the best employee scheduling software into your business so that both in-house and remote workers have got the right schedule to work to.
This way, you can all coordinate and everyone is aware of the expectations that are set out. The thing is, with remote working you need to be able to believe in the people that you have hired to work outside the office. Once you doubt those people or deadlines are repeatedly missed, you need to rethink whether or not remote working is for your company.
#2: Create A Workplace for Your Remote Workers
Okay, so you’re offering people the chance to work outside the office and this is wonderful. It’s a good way to let people know that you care about their wellbeing and you want to be able to offer them something completely different from other companies. You still need to be able to hold meetings, though. A digital workplace is your answer. Having a website or a product where your staff can all come together and discuss projects such as Trello or Google Hangouts is the perfect solution.
Remote workers have a lot of autonomy in their job, and this suits a lot of people. It doesn’t, however, cultivate a feeling of teamwork and togetherness. You can use online products to do this and it’s very important for you to understand that things can be misinterpreted online. For anything important, always pick up the phone and encourage your staff to do the same.
#3: Be Clear & Honest
Remote work is not as structured as the work that is done in the office. The freedom is not something that most companies offer as they need to be assured of the loyalties of their staff. If you are already reassured by this, it’s important to lay down to your employees what you need from them. Working remotely is a wonderful perk to have, especially for working families, but you really do need to provide structure to the expectations that you have.
Have a meeting individually with the staff that is going to be working from home so that they know very clearly what you want from their time at home and what deadlines they need to stick to. Availability and hours should be clear and obvious so that you aren’t having to chase for work after the set hours you lay out. If you are honest from the beginning, you can’t go wrong.
#4: Surprise Call!
It’s one thing to have an online product that you use to get people chatting about work, but it’s another to have people feeling left out because they are working from home instead of being among all the office fun. You need to have spontaneity with your staff that work from home, so schedule work dinners or social events throughout the month. Make them a weekly event so that you can gather the masses at least once a month and keep the links open on a personal level.
Allowing people to have casual chats over Skype or another messenger service is a good way to keep up a rapport in your team; don’t reprimand your staff for chit-chat – you want to encourage this.
#5: Encourage Accountability
Working from home doesn’t mean that people can be lazy, and the beauty of it is that people know this when they agree to work remotely. Goals that are set should still be met, regardless of where your employees are working, and you should encourage meetings with management teams to ensure that this is going smoothly. This doesn’t mean you are micromanaging your remote team, it just means that you are ensuring that the work that needs to be done is still going to get done in the right way.
#6: Lookout For Burnout
Believe it or not, the worst thing to happen with remote workers isn’t the fact that they could slack off and go shopping instead of being at work. The worrying thing is that more remote workers burnout than anyone else. Management teams often panic about work not getting done and on time, but the worst thing that could happen is the staff you admire and rely on beginning to take on too much and start to burn out.
It’s important to be able to balance your remote staff and their work, and that’s why you have to set very clear working hours and boundaries. You don’t want to be receiving work emails in the middle of the night or before the sparrows are awake in the morning. You need to have weekly maximums for working hours so that your staff stay on track, fresh and notice when burnout approaches. You can’t see the eyes of your remote staff to notice it, so be mindful of the people who work for you away from the office.
The office landscape is changing drastically, and your company has to keep up with these changes to be steady. Offices are no longer just about working hard; and this is evidenced in the gyms, vending machines and break rooms that are dotted around. Companies are really working hard to ensure that their workplace has the best atmosphere for their employees. When your staff work remotely and get the option to do that, they are more likely to respect you when they get offered that sort of flexibility.
Conclusion
Remote working attracts some of the best employees, and the costs for the company are reduced. There’s less to spend out when you have fewer bodies in the office! Yes, remote working can get complicated, especially in terms of communication, but if you are working hard with your staff to keep them involved and happy, your whole workforce can be stronger, happier and work harder. Your business can flourish, and it’s all going to be down to remote working on offer.
What do you think about it?
