Effective ways to manage remote employees

Working from home or Working Remotely is the new normal in 2020. All thanks to COVID, the remote working culture is something that most of the companies have embraced for the wellbeing of its employees. This concept has revamped the entire workspace atmosphere. According to a global survey, before the pandemic, 70% of the employees would work remotely at least once a week.

While earlier, it would have taken months to provide the infrastructure to work from home for a large number of employees, this pandemic accelerated the need to enable employees to work remotely. Though companies like IBM and Accenture provided remote working facilities for a large percentage of employees since a long time, most companies were forced to jump on to this bandwagon abruptly when the number of people contracting the Virus increased and governments across the globe urged everyone to practice social distancing and work remotely.

When the IT revolution started and due to the global presence of the companies, teams were spread across cities and sometimes countries which required effective co-ordination between the remote teams. Hence this is relevantly not a new issue that needed attention.

Although remote working has its own pros and cons, managing the employees working remotely has been a major concern for the managers especially if it’s their first time.

There are various positives when employees are asked to work remotely:

Employees can save on their commute time to office
Increased productivity as it helps the employees to maintain a good work-life balance
There are less costs involved to set up the required office infrastructure- be it the premises or the devices such as computers, printers etc.
Companies can employ workers with the required skill set and need not spend on training costs.
Companies can get to hire employees from across the world without any constraints on the location.
It provides more flexibility to employees and hence they don’t quit.
Sometimes the companies don’t have to pay as much as having a regular employee.
If there are employees working in different time zones, the work can get done round the clock.
The availability of various free and moderately priced apps such as Zoom, Trello etc., makes it more affordable to effectively manage a remote team.
If required, the cost of setting up a physical space can be in turn directed towards paying more to employees which can help in retention, hiring the best talent and also the employees feel that their needs are being taken care of.
They can be flexible to work at the time of their choice provided they can deliver on-time.

There are a few cons of remote working:

Difficult to communicate with each other and work as a team.
There are no fixed timings to wrap up work.
Employees are likely to be distracted.
If the team is spread across time-zones, it is difficult to co-ordinate.
Employees feel isolated and the team spirit comes down.
If the manager doesn’t have much trust then the visibility of the employee comes down. Hence it may hamper the growth.
In some cases, the work-life balance will be affected.
There will be no positive bonding between the co-workers.
There may be infrastructure related issues- Power cuts or internet connectivity issues etc.,

Though the team is working remotely, effectively managing a remote team is not entirely different from managing a team physically. The team may be virtually connected however they are still working for the organisation and deadlines have to be met.

However there are a few additional factors that need to be considered while effectively managing a remote team:

1 . Equip Employees:

With everyone working from home and the kids starting online education adding to the fact that not every household has the required infrastructure hence make sure that the company can empower the employees to buy the necessary resources. (etc., such as work table, computers etc.,).

2 . Do not put too much pressure:

In the initial days, the manager’s must not expect a lot of work to be done as everyone will still be adapting to the new routine.

3 . Communicate the expectations:

Managers must be vocal about expectations from the team- be it deadlines or frequency of communication.
Use e-mails, @mentions, slacks, Trello, Confluence, and Asana to communicate with the team.
Use Zoom, Teams , Skype to have video conferences.
Include everyone in the team in all team related communications and updates.
Have all critical information communicated in the shared communication channels such as emails or group chats.

4 . Create a positive work environment:

Just because the employees are working from home, the managers must not expect them to work for extended hours and be available always.
Treat them the same way as you would treat a team that is co-located.

5 . Trust the team and be transparent.

Rather than micromanaging, managers must trust the employees and give them freedom which makes them feel valued and in turn their productivity increases.

The team must be honest and must communicate as to what they are working on and when they can deliver.
Managers can effectively manage remote employees by asking them to use a common calendar such as Google calendar or apple calendar or outlook calendar and update with official and personal tasks.
Have stand-up meetings at different times every day.

6 . Create guidelines for remote working:

The guidelines include the response times, the modes of communication.
It also includes roles and responsibilities, anticipations from the employees.
Document these guidelines.
Ensure everyone follow these guidelines.
If a team member is not following the guidelines, managers must use one-on-one mode to communicate opinion.
Inform the team about where the team can get the important information that is commonly needed.

7 . Organise virtual team building activities regularly:

These activities can be virtual lunch sessions, movie times, virtual games .

8 . Give a personal touch to the remote employees:

Remote working is often stressful due to long working hours and the feeling of isolation.
At times there will be no work-life balance hence managers must connect with the remote employees on both official and personal front.
Especially in current times, the pandemic is causing unprecedented stress to everyone hence the manager must identify if the employees are facing any burnout.
Encourage and provide emotional support wherever necessary.

9 . Offering trainings:

Encourage employees to take up any certifications or trainings that help them with their work.
Provide all necessary trainings before expecting the remote employees to give in their best.

10 . Be flexible where required:

Whenever a remote employee is unable to complete the assigned task within a deadline, the manager must discuss with them on an individual basis and extend the timeline for submission.

11 . Identify and find ways to recognise the hard work and reward appropriately:

The rewards need not be monetary instead can be in terms of praise-worthy e-mails, shout-outs, appreciation in team meetings etc.

However most of the companies are now considering encouraging work from home even after this pandemic ends.

.
Although remote working has its own pros and cons, managing the employees working remotely has been a major concern for the managers especially if it’s their first time

.
There are various positives when employees are asked to work remotely:

Employees can save on their commute time to office
Increased productivity as it helps the employees to maintain a good work-life balance
There are less costs involved to set up the required office infrastructure- be it the premises or the devices such as computers, printers etc.
Companies can employ workers with the required skill set and need not spend on training costs.
Companies can get to hire employees from across the world without any constraints on the location.
It provides more flexibility to employees and hence they don’t quit.
Sometimes the companies don’t have to pay as much as having a regular employee.
If there are employees working in different time zones, the work can get done round the clock.
The availability of various free and moderately priced apps such as Zoom, Trello etc., makes it more affordable to effectively manage a remote team.
If required, the cost of setting up a physical space can be in turn directed towards paying more to employees which can help in retention, hiring the best talent and also the employees feel that their needs are being taken care of.
They can be flexible to work at the time of their choice provided they can deliver on-time.

There are a few cons of remote working:

Difficult to communicate with each other and work as a team.
There are no fixed timings to wrap up work.
Employees are likely to be distracted.
If the team is spread across time-zones, it is difficult to co-ordinate.
Employees feel isolated and the team spirit comes down.
If the manager doesn’t have much trust then the visibility of the employee
comes down. Hence it may hamper the growth.
In some cases, the work-life balance will be affected.
There will be no positive bonding between the co-workers.
There may be infrastructure related issues- Power cuts or internet connectivity issues etc.,

The onus lies on the Manager to get work done and on time- be it when the team is working from office or remotely. The Managers and team need to adapt to a lot of things in order to make remote working effective.
Though the team is working remotely, effectively managing a remote team is not entirely different from managing a team physically. The team may be virtually connected however they are still working for the organisation and deadlines have to be met.
However there are a few additional factors that need to be considered while effectively managing a remote team.

1. Equip Employees:

With everyone working from home and the kids starting online education adding to the fact that not every household has the required infrastructure hence make sure that the company can empower the employees to buy the necessary resources. (etc., such as work table, computers etc.,).

2. Do not put too much pressure:

In the initial days, the manager’s must not expect a lot of work to be done as everyone will still be adapting to the new routine.

3. Communicate the expectations:

Managers must be vocal about expectations from the team- be it deadlines or frequency of communication.
Use e-mails, @mentions, slacks, Trello, Confluence, and Asana to communicate with the team.
Use Zoom, Teams , Skype to have video conferences.
Include everyone in the team in all team related communications and updates.
Have all critical information communicated in the shared communication channels such as emails or group chats.

4. Create a positive work environment:

Just because the employees are working from home, the managers must not expect them to work for extended hours and be available always.
Treat them the same way as you would treat a team that is co-located.

5. Trust the team and be transparent.

Rather than micromanaging, managers must trust the employees and give them freedom which makes them feel valued and in turn their productivity increases.
The team must be honest and must communicate as to what they are working on and when they can deliver.
Managers can effectively manage remote employees by asking them to use a common calendar such as Google calendar or apple calendar or
outlook calendar and update with official and personal tasks.
Have stand-up meetings at different times every day.

6. Create guidelines for remote working:

The guidelines include the response times, the modes of communication.
It also includes roles and responsibilities, anticipations from the employees.
Document these guidelines.
Ensure everyone follow these guidelines.
If a team member is not following the guidelines, managers must use one
on-one mode to communicate opinion.
Inform the team about where the team can get the important information that is commonly needed.

7. Organise virtual team building activities regularly:

These activities can be virtual lunch sessions, movie times, virtual games .

8. Give a personal touch to the remote employees:

Remote working is often stressful due to long working hours and the feeling of isolation.
At times there will be no work-life balance hence managers must connect with the remote employees on both official and personal front.
Especially in current times, the pandemic is causing unprecedented stress to everyone hence the manager must identify if the employees are facing any burnout.
Encourage and provide emotional support wherever necessary.

9. Offering trainings:

Encourage employees to take up any certifications or trainings that help them with their work.
Provide all necessary trainings before expecting the remote employees to give in their best.

10. Be flexible where required:

Whenever a remote employee is unable to complete the assigned task within a deadline, the manager must discuss with them on an individual basis and extend the timeline for submission.

11. Identify and find ways to recognise the hard work and reward appropriately:

The rewards need not be monetary instead can be in terms of praise-worthy e-mails, shout-outs, appreciation in team meetings etc.

Lastly, keep in mind that remote working and managing remote employees is not everyone’s cup of tea. Once the pandemic ends and if the employee wants to return to office, provide all the necessary help to resume operating from offices.
However most of the companies are now considering encouraging work from home even after this pandemic ends.