With the rapidly changing geography of office spaces and exploding hybrid work cultures, the management of the workforce has become a daunting task. With work-from-home becoming the new norm, managers can feel disconnected from the remote workers on their team. The lack of face-to-face communication often complicates onboarding of resources and evaluation of the existing workforce. This article looks deeper into this issue and highlights practical solutions to how a manager can effectively monitor remote workers.
Set Goals
The best way to ensure that your remote workers complete their assigned tasks is by setting specific and realistic goals tied to the company’s overall objectives. This will help you determine if an employee is meeting your expectations or if they need additional training or support.
The SMART goal-setting method can be useful when creating goals for remote workers. SMART stands for:
- Specific – Goals should be clear and detailed.
- Measurable – The results the employees aim to achieve should be measurable.
- Attainable – Your employees should possess the skills and resources required.
- Relevant – The goals should align with your organization’s overall mission, vision, values, and culture.
- Timely – Goals should include a deadline.
Communicate Regularly
One of the most important things you can do as a manager is to communicate regularly with your team members. This includes scheduling regular virtual meetings or calls so you can check in on their progress on projects and assignments. It’s also helpful to ask them what they’d like to work on next and how they’d like to be managed.
By staying connected with your team members, you’ll be able to identify any potential issues that may arise with their performance or productivity before it becomes an issue for either party.
Use Project Management Tools
Project management tools are a great way to stay on top of remote work. The tools allow you to see what tasks each worker is assigned and how much time they spend on them. You can also see when they last worked on each task and even send them messages in real-time.
This can be especially useful if you need to know if they’re working on something that needs immediate attention or not.
Set Up Automated Provisioning Tools
One of the biggest challenges of managing remote workers is keeping track of what they need and when they need it. You can automatically update remote machines with new software or configuration changes if you’ve set up a user provisioning tool. This enables you to track who needs what and when they need it.
Also with the right software provisioning tools at your disposal, onboarding and integration of new resources in your team can be hassle-free.
Give Regular Feedback
It’s important to give regular feedback to remote employees to stay productive and motivated. You don’t want them to feel like they’re being ignored because they’re not in the office every day.
One way to ensure this doesn’t happen is by sending out quick emails every morning with positive comments about what happened the previous day or week.
Use Unified Communication Provisioning Tools
Ensure that all employees have access to the same communication tools. This means that the manager needs to use the same tools as well. For example, if they use email, they should also use Slack, Google Hangouts, and other collaboration tools.
The idea is that everyone is on the same page with what is happening throughout the company. These unified tools are important because not everyone is in the same time zone. This ensures any team member knows what everyone else is doing at any given time.
Also, when someone has an issue that needs immediate attention, they can be easily reached no matter where they are located.
Measure Success by Outcomes
It’s easy for managers to fall into the trap of measuring success by the number of tasks completed or hours logged in each day. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that a person is productive or successful at their job.
You want to measure success by outcomes rather than just activity. This ensures that people do their job properly and get things done efficiently. They don’t have to rush through them to say they got something done quickly!
Hold Regular Meetings
The main purpose of a meeting is to share information and discuss issues. Managers should ensure that their remote employees know what they need to accomplish and any deadlines or changes in priorities. In addition, managers can use this time to ask questions or get clarification on how things are going.
Managers must remember that these meetings can be held using video chat programs like Skype or Google Hangouts. This allows them to see their employees and give them feedback on their work environment directly, instead of relying solely on email or phone calls.
Check for Employee Engagement
You don’t want your employees feeling like they can just disappear from the office without any consequences. There are many tools out there that allow you to check on what your employees are up to while they’re logged on at work.
These tools will enable you to see who is working and who isn’t. It’s especially useful if your company has a set number of weekly hours that all employees must work. If someone is not performing their required hours, an issue might need addressing.
Look for Trends in Communication Patterns
If you have a remote employee who works from home, they need to communicate regularly with you and other team members. Look for trends in communication patterns to determine if someone is not doing their job correctly or perhaps feeling unappreciated by their manager.
If you notice an employee hasn’t communicated with anyone or made much progress on their projects, it may be time to step in and coach them back on track.
Check In Regularly
If your remote employee has no set schedule or time zone restrictions, make sure they check in with you at least once a week so you can get an update on what they have been working on since your last conversation. You should also check in with them more frequently if their work needs immediate attention or feedback from another team member.
Final Thoughts
To effectively monitor remote workers, you need to be an active communicator equipped with the right set of tools. Sometimes, checking in with employees is necessary, and other times, communication needs to be less frequent. The key is always to remain open and transparent so that both parties know what the other expects from them.
Table of Content
- 1 Set Goals
- 2 Communicate Regularly
- 3 Use Project Management Tools
- 4 Set Up Automated Provisioning Tools
- 5 Give Regular Feedback
- 6 Use Unified Communication Provisioning Tools
- 7 Measure Success by Outcomes
- 8 Hold Regular Meetings
- 9 Check for Employee Engagement
- 10 Look for Trends in Communication Patterns
- 11 Check In Regularly
- 12 Final Thoughts
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