In today’s modern world, remote work has become a popular trend in the business industry. It offers convenience to those workers who want to work from the comfort of their homes and reduces companies’ operational costs in the long run. However, managing remote work can never be easy. With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic that makes work-related tasks more challenging, employees also find it challenging to become more productive now that they work remotely.
To help you address these issues and ensure your remote workforce is working more effectively from home, below are the five tips to consider when managing them:
1. Establish Expectations From The Beginning
It’s essential to set up expectations when managing a remote workforce. Since you’re not working traditional office workspace, you need to let them know what you want from them from the start. For instance, if you’re going to manage your remote workers more effectively, you should communicate your expectations regarding the business objectives, code of conduct, duties and responsibilities, working processes involved, company culture, and even communication rules.
By doing so, you can ensure synchronization among your remote workforce, resulting in a better level of productivity.
2. Use The Right Technology
You can’t successfully manage your remote workforce without using the appropriate technology. Since your workers are working remotely, you need to access various technologies. With these modern innovations in place, you can communicate, collaborate, and share data with your workers remotely. Some technologies you should have can include:
- Communication Apps
- Collaboration Software
- Remote Access Software
- File-Sharing Software
- Client Management Systems
Moreover, the work management apps mentioned above won’t work if you have no stable Internet connection. Make sure you establish a stable Internet connection to manage your remote workforce more efficiently. However, you would also need functional computer equipment or a laptop to utilize these software products and perform your management tasks properly. Otherwise, you may need to get it checked up and fixed for any problems that may prevent you from doing your job. In doing so, you may need to contact a professional who offers Denver computer repair or wherever you may be located to address the computer issues for you.
3. Be Available
If you want to manage your remote workforce successfully, it’s also important to be accessible at all times. It means you should make yourself available to your workers for any feedback or queries across several digital platforms and different time zones. By doing so, you can promote a good sense of loyalty and belongingness among your team members.
To make yourself accessible to your remote employees, you can do the following:
- Schedule one-on-one calls with your workers to keep them motivated.
- Create digital interactions with your team to keep them engaged.
- Show empathy by letting them know that you’re human and you care about their well-being.
- Appreciate high-performing employees by celebrating the completion of specific projects.
In most cases, staying available to your remote workforce can make a huge difference in successfully managing them. When they know they can always reach out to you whenever work-related problems arise, they feel more empowered to do better with their jobs.
4. Do Not Be Tempted To Micromanage
When you’re not sitting next to your employees, it’s easy to mistrust them, resulting in excessive supervision. Unfortunately, this situation can lead to micromanaging, in which you’ll tend to pressure your remote workers to report to you from time to time and provide progress reports. However, micromanaging doesn’t do good to your team members. Being bombarded with communications and tasks can stress them out, making them less productive. Also, it can make them feel that you don’t trust them to get the job done right.
Therefore, it’s best to avoid the temptation to micromanage. Instead, it’s best to provide your employees with the autonomy they need. Don’t focus too much on the workers’ hours worked and individual work styles. As long as they get their jobs done correctly and on time, it means you’re managing your remote workforce well.
5. Support Your Team Members’ Mental Health
While some workers can quickly adapt to remote working, others may find it hard to handle tasks remotely, causing some mental health concerns to them in the long run. However, your overall business growth may be adversely affected when your remote workforce deals with mental issues.
Hence, to avoid this from happening, it’s important to advocate for your remote workers’ mental health. You can effectively manage your workforce by helping them improve their psychological well-being. When they’re mentally ready to handle work from home, they can deliver better results for the company.
To support your workers’ mental health, you can encourage physical fitness, provide mental health benefits, encourage breaks, and share self-care resources.
Bottom Line
Generally, many problems can occur when managing a remote team. But, it doesn’t mean it can’t be done correctly. With the right tools and the tips mentioned above, you can achieve a productive remote workforce. The more you know how to manage your workers remotely, the more you can enhance your business’s overall performance and productivity.