Are you wondering how to ensure your company goals are still met with your team working remotely? Remote working brings much worry, especially to the business owners on the amount of output produced by remote working. But fear not as this article will share tips on how to ensure your remote team is productive.
1. Have The Right Technology
According to an expert IT consulting in New York, you need to invest in the right tools to run an efficient remote workforce. The first step is to establish secure network services for your business. There are service providers you can outsource to ensure this. They’ll develop a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to ensure data encryption as your team uses their networks to execute tasks. Cybersecurity measures will also be put in place to prevent vulnerability of your data, especially now that you’ll do most operations through the internet. This way, you can run your processes at peace, knowing there’s no security threat.
Consider adopting Remote employee monitoring software for your team to monitor the activities of your remote workers. Some allow for hours counting through a clocking in and out system. As your staff starts working in the morning, they’re required to clock into your system and sign out in the evening. This counts the number of hours they’ve worked in a day. In addition, some tools will take random screenshots of your team’s desktops during working hours. This gives you a report on the sites visited and work done. Such a platform eliminates situations where workers clock in and do nothing the whole day, then clock out in the evening.
There are also productivity tools you can adopt to show you the amount of time your staff spent executing an assigned task, allowing you to gauge their efficiency. Besides the above techniques monitoring team activities, your team will work more knowing that you’re watching them.
2. Formulate Policies
As a business owner, deciding to allow your team to work remotely can be a bold choice. Establishing policies is a great way to ensure the goals are met. These should clearly outline what you expect from your team, including their work hours, dress code during virtual meetings, and other things. Also, outline the consequences of not adhering to the set regulations.
By setting policies, your team would be aware that you expect them to perform even if they aren’t in the office physically.
3. Set Performance Standards
Performance standards provide a platform against which you’ll measure the amount of output your remote team gives. For instance, if you’re a customer service company, it should indicate the minimum number of customers each of your staff is required to attend to in a day. This way, you can analyze each member and see those performing and those that aren’t. It lets you know when you need to take action against a worker due to their productivity.
Besides identifying those not performing, you’re able to get a measure for rewarding the members meeting and exceeding the set standards. This keeps your team motivated and have targets on which to base their productivity and results.
It’s also essential to set standards that’ll guide you and the top management regarding operations to see if you’re achieving the company goals or not. The standards more or less keep you on track and give you a reference for effective decision-making regarding productivity.
4. Stay Connected
Communication is a crucial aspect of successful remote working. Your team needs to stay connected and still feel they belong to a family despite their geographical location. Therefore, it’s essential to invest in communication channels that allow for the easy integration of your team.
Some tools enable real-time communication through live chats, emails, audio and video calling, and document sharing. With such a platform, your team won’t waste time reaching each other through phone calls. Besides wasting time, they hinder productivity since one of the members might have to wait for a response from the other member who might not be online or might have missed the message.
Include regular check-ins with your team where they share any challenges they’re experiencing as they work. Some of these often affect their productivity as they try to figure out what to do.
Consider having informal communication with your team through virtual calls to update each other on current news and new hobbies. Also, hold exciting games that your team can play. Doing this eliminates boredom and takes your team off work for some minutes. This allows them to take a breather, which increases their morale when they get back to work.
5. Train Your Employees
Embracing remote working in your company brings with it many new technologies, some of which might be difficult to use. Based on this, you need to train your workers on how to use these systems properly. This should also include basic troubleshooting techniques they can use if an issue arises as they execute allocated tasks.
As part of the training, let them know whom to contact regarding different issues. This eliminates a lot of back and forth as they’re redirected to other members when there’s an issue, wasting much time. It’s also important to encourage your team to invest in a conducive working station even as they work from home. This is also a significant determinant of productivity.
Conclusion
The tips given in this article are pretty simple to implement in your business. By following them to the letter, you’re assured the productivity levels of your remote team will increase.