Many organizations have adopted remote work in recent years.
With 32.6 million Americans expected to work remotely by 2025, remote and hybrid workplaces are becoming a major corporate trend due to their benefits for work-life balance, productivity, and overall profitability.
You and your company’s human resources staff must be prepared to change course and handle challenges and possibilities associated with managing remote workers as a result of this swift and steady transition to a remote work paradigm.
Check out the advice on managing remote workers below, regardless of whether you have worked with remote workers before or have expertise with anything from virtual meetings to digital nomadism.
Recognizing the difficulties associated with remote employment
Employers should understand that working remotely does not always present new difficulties. Rather, managing remote workers often results in the repetition and perhaps worsening of typical workplace difficulties and concepts that apply to their in-person counterparts.
To put it another way, managing remote workers often presents difficulties that you may already be aware of, like:
Limited in-person opportunity: In distant work environments, workers and leadership may not have the same opportunities to communicate about issues and work together on projects. This may result in less access to resources such as leadership assistance and digital micromanagement.
Social isolation: Without face-to-face contacts at work, employees may feel cut off from your company.
Information accessibility: Remote work may sometimes cause communication and information access to become fragmented, whether it is for discussing project requirements or obtaining task-related information.
Distractions at home: Remote workers may have to deal with issues like parental duties or a small home office.
11 pointers for managing remote workers successfully
1. Clearly define your expectations
Establishing clear expectations for all parties involved is one of the most crucial components of a successful remote work management plan. Share any expectations that are pertinent to each worker’s position, such project updates, virtual work hours, and how often and when to check in.
Developing a systematic strategy is often the most effective approach for frequent check-ins. A planned timetable ensures that check-ins remain regular and predictable, regardless of how often you plan to check in. You and your staff may talk about any worries or inquiries about what to anticipate from working remotely during these check-ins.
2. Establish a plan for communication
Working remotely, where in-person encounters are less usual, might make communication problems worse. Beyond check-in schedules, it is critical that your staff members know that too much communication is preferable than too little communication since it keeps everyone’s attention on the right duties, objectives, and tasks.
Establish guidelines and information on various communication channels to encourage consistent communication. Determine, for example, the appropriateness of a group video conference versus an email or Slack message based on the urgency and nature of the event. Give specifics on responsiveness and timeliness, such as when you anticipate receiving emails during business hours.
3. Promote sociability
Along with holding frequent meetings and communicating, employees also need to be able to connect independently and holistically. You may help your teams interact and establish relationships by creating informal forums like a regular video conference for virtual co-working, pet cams where folks can stop by with their dogs, or Slack channels devoted to talking about the team’s favorite TV shows.
These relationships may thus lessen the social isolation that comes with working remotely and may even spark impromptu discussions that result in brilliant company ideas.
4. Maintain equilibrium in team meetings
Establishing frequent group meetings is crucial, regardless of how distant your employees are. Employees may get to know one another and develop a feeling of togetherness via virtual events and team-building exercises. Additionally, team meetings enable remote workers to express issues and provide suggestions regarding projects, enabling them to proceed with duties and projects with clear expectations.
When planning meetings, keep in mind Zoom fatigue, which is the burnout that results from attending too many virtual meetings. Think about switching up communication channels and making certain meetings voluntary to prevent exhaustion, monotony, and inefficiency.
5. Encourage openness, rapport, and trust
For businesses to establish connections with their workers that are based on trust and effectiveness, transparency is crucial. This is particularly crucial when overseeing remote employees as it may be challenging to establish rapport and trust when team members are not physically there and are often lonely or disconnected.
Listening is the best way to establish trust between you, your company’s leadership, and all of your workers. Give staff members the chance to share their thoughts or speak with you about any queries or concerns they may have. You may then use their comments to modify your approach and demonstrate the value of their opinions to the company.
6. Pay attention to onboarding
An essential component of onboarding is giving new hires the information and abilities they need to be successful at a firm. Poor onboarding causes costly turnover, whereas effective onboarding procedures may boost productivity, employee happiness, and retention. Allowing new remote workers to focus on onboarding during those critical first few weeks rather than on real job assignments can help ensure long-term success.
7. Manage remote workers using tools
Multiple solutions are available to assist in managing remote workers. These technologies may help with file sharing, project and task organization, communication, and collaboration, among other things.
Take into consideration the following resources to empower and manage your teams:
Google Drive
Slack
Zoom
GitLab
Tettra
Slab
Asana
monday.com
Twist
Trello
8. Be adaptable
Everyone on your company’s crew has different wants and lifestyles. Parents who operate from a private home office or a quiet area might be among them. Others may want to bring their work with them on trips and watch Zoom meetings from a coffee shop or the lounge of their hostel. In any case, it is critical to demonstrate empathy and adaptability to enable your staff to balance their personal and work life.
9. Show inclusivity
Company culture develops naturally in face-to-face work settings when staff members engage with one another. It is simple to overlook your corporate culture while working with remote or hybrid teams, much alone create an inclusive one.
Make sure you take into account any pertinent employee comments in order to promote inclusion, diversity, and equality in a remote workplace. To meet the cultural and safety demands of your company, you may establish a remote diversity and inclusion committee in addition to forming representative remote teams and formalizing your diversity and inclusion policy.
10. Prioritize results above input
Employees find autonomy to be one of the benefits of working remotely. But when you are not sitting next to your staff, it is simple to underestimate their efforts or productivity. This may easily turn into micromanagement, when you or the executives of your company bombard remote workers with messages and demands for updates on their progress.
Micromanaging remote workers may cause stress for both sides and give the impression that you do not trust them to remain focused. Focus on results and objectives rather than seeming activity and hours spent, rather than micromanaging their duties. The employee’s work style may not matter as long as they are doing quality work on time.
However, it is crucial that remote workers do not abuse their independence by squandering time and neglecting their tasks. Some workers could lack the self-control necessary for remote work, and it is important to spot this behavior early on before it compromises team output.
11. Establish a policy of openness
Employees that work remotely may not want to bother you by getting in touch with you outside of scheduled meetings. Establish an open-door policy to avoid this. Inform both remote and non-remote staff that they may reach you at any time and that there is no such thing as too much communication, even if you are unable to respond right away.
FAQs pertaining to overseeing remote workers
How can I keep an eye on workers who work remotely?
Even if you should refrain from micromanaging, you still need to be aware of their activities while they are at work. Use time-tracking software, establish deadlines, or schedule check-ins to keep an eye on your remote workers.
Are employees who work remotely less productive?
According to a survey, remote workers put in an extra 1.4 days of work every month, and many employees say they are more productive while working from home. However, a variety of circumstances, including the nature of the job, the arrangement of the house, the quantity of distractions, personality type, and work preferences, all affect productivity. Provide training on how to lessen distractions at home if you are concerned about worker productivity.
How can I inspire staff who work remotely?
Maintaining the motivation of remote workers may directly affect their contentment and output, as well as increase retention rates.
Offering training on how to operate efficiently from home, setting clear objectives and a professional growth path, providing positive reinforcement and acknowledgment, and maintaining open lines of communication are all ways to bring out the best in your remote workers.