Managing a Remote Workforce: 4 Ways To Get It Right

MANAGING A REMOTE WORKFORCE 4 Ways to Get It Right

An Edify eBook

Digital nomads are here to stay as we’re living in truly a work where you want, when you want, and from anywhere type of world now - with good reason. Remote work benefits both employers and employees. Forbes reports that letting employees work remotely reduces distractions, reduces stress, and decreases company overhead. A survey from SurePayroll found that 86% of people prefer to work alone to hit maximum productivity. Instead of commuting to an office day in and day out, employees can tackle their tasks from a desk at home (whether that be five miles away from headquarters or halfway around the world).

It’s not a trend. A 2019 report on the State of Remote Work by Buffer concluded that “remote work is here to stay.” The survey of nearly 2,500 remote workers found that an overwhelming 99% said they wanted to work from home, at least some of the time, for the remainder of their careers.

Are you convinced to hire remote employees yet? Or, maybe you already do. Letting employees work remotely is the easy part, but learning to effectively manage a virtual workforce requires a fresh mindset, a shift in management style, trust, and the right technology.

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THE HOW

1

Foster a positive, connected work environment.

The key here is to engage regularly. The constant interaction and engagement with colleagues that a well-built uniďŹ ed communication platform offers will help remote workers to feel included. And, it makes it easier for them to get their questions answered faster. Whether they have a question for their supervisor or need to collaborate with someone in a different department, they’re just a click away! Make sure to set them up for success with a proper workspace, too. They bring the talent and you bring the tools necessary. Be intentional about fostering a genuine and supportive environment. Fostering a positive work environment requires trusting your employees also. Hire people you trust to get the job done and let them do it where and when they work best.

The constant interaction and engagement with colleagues that a well-built unified communications platform offers will help remote workers to feel included.

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It’s crucial to set clear expectations for communication, availability, and weekly responsibilities.

2

Don’t expect “always on” all the time.

Working remotely does not mean working 24/7. A common problem remote workers face is actually working too much; their desk and computer are always right there, making them wonder if they should check emails again and again. Discuss an end-of-day stopping point. Schedule regular meetings to check-in and discuss project milestones, laying out new tasks for the week ahead. This is a great opportunity for coaching and training, too.

Having set hour expectations can be counter-productive for some positions but perhaps necessary for others, like customer service agents that need to be available during certain time frames. Taskand project-based employees will thrive with flexibility. Either way, it’s crucial to set clear expectations for communication, availability, and weekly responsibilities. Reasonable expectations could be: responding to emails within 24 hours, using text for urgent matters, and not calling before 7 am or after 7 pm to prevent burnout.

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“Give remote people as much access to you as possible. Remember, your local people see you in the halls, eat with you at lunch, stop by your office, etc. The remote people don't have that access and can feel distant.

Respond to them as quickly as possible.”

-Wayne Anderson, Leadership Science Institute LLC

3

Make them feel like part of the team.

Since remote employees can’t join team lunches or happy hour meetups, it’s important to find ways to make them feel like they’re still an equally important part of the team. They desire to remain connected and seek reassurance that they are successful in their work due to the lack of quality facetime. Managers need to remember to be responsive and available. This quote from a Forbes article sums it up perfectly: “Give remote people as much access to you as possible. Remember, your local people see you in the halls, eat with you at lunch, stop by your office, etc. The remote people don't have that access and can feel distant. Respond to them as quickly as possible.”

-Wayne Anderson, Leadership Science Institute LLC Make time for small talk. Ensure they feel included in team decisions. If you have the resources, make occasional face-to-face meetups a reality, whether that’s bringing remote employees along to conferences, flying them in to spend a few days in the office, or hosting company-wide retreats once or twice a year. Avoid making them feel like they’re a secondary consideration!

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4

Leverage technology to support them.

Tech workers, freelance professionals, and customer service agents make up a large portion of remote workers. But, thanks to technology, people in all industries are becoming able to have flexible work options.

Studies have shown that remote workers are actually more productive. A two-year study by Stanford University found an impressive increase in work productivity among people who worked from home. The study of 500 people who worked both remotely and in a traditional office setting concluded that the productivity increase among home-based workers was equal to a full day’s work each week. In order for them to reach peak performance, however, they need the right technology. Essential tools your communications technology should have built-in include chat, collaboration, video calling, screen sharing, a recognition and reward system, and more.

Use video whenever possible, since so much of our communication is nonverbal. It’s important to have a wide variety of tools available that work seamlessly together. And just like you would grab an office employee to join in on a meeting, it’s easy to loop in remote employees to join in via a video call when you have the technology to do so.

If they’re struggling with poor connections on conference calls, have no means of easily chatting with colleagues, and are forced to use unapproved messaging apps or long email chains just to get in touch with the right people, then you have failed your employees!

Ask them, “Are the tools we’re using working well for you remotely?” Technology should support them in every way, not make it more difficult for them to get their job done. It’s crucial to invest in reliable collaboration tools, preferably ones housed within an all-in-one communications platform.

Skilled employees working in a position that’s a good mutual fit will thrive with remote and flex work options. The two most important things are connection and collaboration. With the right technology, staying connected and managing a remote workforce is easier than ever. Find a software platform that works on their computers and their phones, making it easy to stay connected even when they might be worlds away. Communication and collaboration tools like video and chat help foster a strong culture. When all employees are integrated into the same communications platform, you’ll see productivity increases for your company and a better quality of life for your team.

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THINGS TO NOTE ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

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Edify connects businesses with customers and employees with each other. The company’s Business Communications as a Service (BCaaS) platform, Huddle, is the only one uniting contact center (CC), unified communications (UC), and real-time communications platform (API) functionality in a single, cloud-native software solution that lets users move seamlessly among channels within one conversation. Edify removes all the risk of using its cloud-based platform with five free users forever, global availability, real-time redundancy, usage-based pricing, and a 100% SLA uptime guarantee. edify.cx 833.740.8024 @edifycx