Managing Remote Workers: 7 Best Practices
Managing remote workers became the greatest challenge pre and post pandemic for all. It was hard for the HR managers to learn the new expectations of their remote workers, who wanted nothing more than a meaningful workplace with growth and stability.
The first-time managers did not get to encounter or meet workers in person. They started to train remote workers completely online. The foundation was shaky for many people who were becoming managers, recruiters, or talent acquisition experts for the first time. However, working from home became easier with time with the availability and acknowledgement of the HR best practices for managing remote workers.
If you’re one of those first-time managers, learn about the best practices below. These strategies will help you build better relationships with your remote teams. You can also scale them on time and prepare them for uncertainties, like knowing tech and digital skills without former training.
7 Best Practices For Managing Remote Workers
Provide flexible work schedules to remote teams
Recognise that employees with remote work arrangements have different demands. This includes taking care of young children or elderly parents.
Giving employees the option to work early morning or late night shifts so they may adequately care for their families can help them feel less stressed and focus more intently on their work.
Although having a clear plan is essential, you should be willing to change your tactics as necessary. It shouldn’t matter whether your staff members prefer to work in the morning or the evening as long as the work is done well.
Plus, you can use smart HRMS for managing your teams. Employees can use the HRMS to punch in and clock out whenever they are online. They will become more disciplined about their time when they know that the system is calculating their work hours and the project completed within a defined period.
Workers can manage their log-in and log-out times without micromanagement. The smart tech makes them responsible for their deliverables.
Cut virtual meetings short
Be mindful of virtual meetings, as the listeners’ attention span is very short. There is just so long they can look at screens. Short virtual huddles are preferable to long and boring meetings.
Use HRMS instead to keep everyone in the loop. Make use of the social intranet by uKnowva. Deliver the message in a group chat or stream. Avoid having meetings instead. When you follow this practice, there will be lesser disruptions or disturbances for the employee. They can continue to work on high-priority tasks and simply acknowledge the message when you send them. There will not be any need for remote teams to prepare themselves for a meeting.
Clarify your expectations
Set timelines and realistic goals for your staff. When remote teams know what they need to do, there will be no more confusion. They perform their tasks on time. Using human resource management software is another best practice here when you need to set clear expectations.
You can define your team’s OKRs and KPIs in the tool. They will get instant notification, and their appraisal will be based on their performance. So there will be no confusion as to how well each member is performing in the team. Each team member will or has to acknowledge their KPIs for the purpose of performance evaluation and appraisal in every cycle. This goes for all team members, despite their current working locations or timings.
Monitor the development of your employees
You need to create a list of tasks, which is explained in the point above. This list of KPIs or OKRs is important to track your employees’ growth and performance. You need to make sure that your team members are self-driven and have the right character to move the needle for themselves. They need to be entrepreneurial when it comes to taking ownership of their tasks and deliverables. Otherwise, no amount of coaching might motivate them. Thus, uKnowva helps you monitor the progress of your remote teams and workers at a click. So, you don’t need to chase your teams to know what’s their status and progress. According to that, you can continue to evaluate their performance and rate them on time.
Put communication first
Keep in touch with remote workers, as it is one of the best practices while managing remote workers. Let them know about deadlines, resources available, difficulties at work, and bosses’ expectations.
Choose the form of communication that best suits the team’s culture—email, texts, phone conversations, video chats, or an intranet channel—and strike the right balance between keeping employees in the dark and sending them messages and emails all the time.
Each employee may receive communications at a different rate.
To give similar experiences, you can use social intranet and the integration of chat within the tool on extra demand. That will allow you to connect with your employees within a single click of the button to chat. Your messages can be on a streamed chat for all. Otherwise, you can float a message to your group members only. They will read at their convenience when they are online. However, at least your message is on time and is not lost in the chain of emails or hundreds of other groups. You can also tag them, so they get the alert instantly.
Build relationships
Giving employees the tools they need to work remotely isn’t enough; they also need to engage with others. Give them a platform like a smart social intranet to develop healthy and purposeful relations during work hours. They need this connection and networking to make their professional career and portfolio strong.
At times, these relationships help people to scale up their abilities, knowledge, and resources. When employees bond well, they can work together like a well-oiled machine. Plus, there will be fewer conflicts for you to solve when your remote workers grow fond of each other and know each other’s strengths and weaknesses at their fingertips.
Give people a means to work together
Give your team the right tech tools to develop their skills and work together in harmony. Remote teams need these resources or platforms to connect with a purpose. It will make your task of managing remote teams easier than ever. One such example is uKnowva for making sure all your teams are on the same page and working together for the common company’s goal.
Conclusion
Whether you are considering short-term or long-term remote employment, it is beneficial to adhere to best practices for managing remote personnel. Making a thorough plan and utilising workforce management software to keep an eye on crucial data can help you succeed in remote employment. So reread and reshare the best practices mentioned above. Those will help you streamline your remote team’s workflow and boost their productivity every day.