How to Manage an Expanding Team of Remote Employees
Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels
Victoria Smith
The current working environment has transformed into a unique system where most employees work outside the office. Remote employees, such as those working from home due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, enjoy a flexible working environment, which is known to increase the satisfaction, happiness, and productivity of employees.
Granted, managing an ever-expanding remote workforce can be daunting and challenging; however, you can do it.
With these simple tips, you’ll learn how to manage remote employees painlessly and successfully.
Proper training and preparation
The virtual workspace requires more specialized training compared to what is offered in a traditional work environment. For example, the current global pandemic caught most businesses unawares. To keep their businesses from collapsing, companies initiated work-from-home policies. The biggest challenge was that most of these companies had not prepared their employees. Imagine trying to hold a business meeting, but your employees don’t know how to turn on the microphone in zoom meetings!
The best way to ensure that the productivity of your remote employees is high is by offering them the necessary training, such as how to prepare online work reports, handle communication equipment, and manage time.
Provide all necessary resources
A virtual work environment calls for unique working resources that you may deem unnecessary in the traditional office. These resources include things like computers with preinstalled VPN protocols and home Wi-Fi routers. While some of these resources may be accessible to your employees as personal gadgets, encourage them to keep in mind your business’ work and productivity standards while acquiring them.
You also need to note that this might require you to provide your employees with official computers and even simple end-user gadgets, such as webcams and earphones, and ensure that their Wi-Fi’s are secure and fast enough to get the work done. Furthermore, your employees will require remote access to company servers and services when necessary for their work. Properly equipped remote employees will be more productive, thus making your work-from-home investment practical.
Keep track of how your employees use resources
Given that you have provided your employees with company resources to work with, it is important to ensure that they use them appropriately. An excellent way to track the use of company resources by employees is to install License Management Software (LMS) on your computers.
LMS provides tools that control how installed enterprise software is used and where they are accessed from. Such software can assist you to ensure that your company complies with all license and End-user License Agreements (EULA). You can also configure access control rules on your servers and company computers to limit your employees’ access.
Provide a virtual social workspace
Even though your employees are working apart, it is important to acknowledge that they still are social beings. While traditional working environments provide constant bonding and learning from each other, virtual employees interact less. In addition to that, studies show that a social working environment increases productivity. So, what can you do to create a socially active virtual work environment?
First, you should provide communication tools. You can do this by organizing online social meetings through video calls like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Allowing your employees to bond and chat freely results in a less-tensed working environment. Secondly, you should ensure that the working environment is collaborative, in the sense that no employee feels isolated. The best way to achieve this is by having a central workspace by establishing a central cloud data system and sharing platform.
Furthermore, it would help if you kept acknowledging the work your employees do through awards and appraisals. You can achieve this by creating virtual awarding ceremonies to make it lively. Just remember that promoting hardworking employees is not only done in traditional work settings.
Be understanding
Finally, the biggest challenge businesses face when it comes to the remote working environment is telecommunication problems. In many cases, these hitches are usually not the fault of employees. For example, natural occurrences, such as storms, widespread low internet connectivity, and power issues can prevent an employee from submitting their report on time. As long as your employees are honest and hardworking, it would be helpful if you understand and help them.
If you’ve been looking for ways to manage your team of remote employers, you should consider implementing these tips. Simply:
- Provide a virtual social workspace
- Keep track of how your employees use resources
- Provide all necessary resources
- Proper training and preparation and
- Be more understanding
About the Author: Victoria Smith is a freelance writer who specialized in business and finance, with a passion for cooking and wellness. She lives in Austin, TX where she is currently working towards her MBA.
