If you run a business and many of your employees are currently working from home, you would be forgiven for worrying that they might not apply themselves as they would if they came to the office. While the cat’s away, the mice will play, or so the saying goes, yet it doesn’t have to be this way, and on that topic, here are a few ways that you can check that your workers are doing their bit when working from home.
- Clear Work Assignments – When assigning work to remote employees, it is important to make it very clear about deadlines and other aspects of work assigned. All it takes is a slight misunderstanding and the work might not be submitted in time. You have to be clear about what you expect.
- Weekly Face to Face Meetings – Even though your employees are working from home, you can still request an in-office meeting once a week, which does several things. Firstly, this allows all employees to get together, which builds team spirit and if anyone has any issues, they can discuss them with you or one of your managers. For conflicts, a workplace mediation service might prove to be valuable.
- Daily Video Call – If you talk to your remote employees on a daily basis, this will create an ambience of responsibility. Set up a time and spend 10-15 minutes talking to each employee via Zoom or Skype and this will ensure that your workers are motivated and engaged in their work.
- Evaluate Remote Employee Performance – It isn’t difficult to assess your remote employees’ performance and if you do this regularly, you can compare how remotely located workers are doing when compared to those who come to the office. If you find an employee who is under-performing, add some assignments to their weekly quota, which should be enough to boost productivity. You can also seek the help of a 24 hour HR advice line for business owners if you don’t have yet an in-house HR.
- Praise Good Performance – Just as you would if an office employee goes above and beyond the call of duty, you should openly recognise good performance in your remote employees. This is great motivation and when an employee feels they are appreciated, they perform better. Running an ‘employee of the month’ program is a great idea and you can present the prizes at the monthly employee meeting and those who didn’t quite make it this month, will try harder next month. These awards really do work and the prize doesn’t need to be substantial, it is the recognition the employees are looking for, not the reward.
One does need to manage remote workers in a different way than those who come into the office on a daily basis and with the above advice, you can get the most from your work-from-home staff. People respond well to added responsibilities and by treating your remotely located employees in a responsible manner, they will rise to the occasion and be just as productive as if they were working in the office.