19 Ways to Manage Remote Workers

For better or worse, remote working has permanently altered the work landscape. Managers must face new realities when it comes to hiring, managing, and retaining top employees remotely. Based on our experience, here are tips you can use to keep these workers working and productivity high.

1. Create Enjoyable Employee Experiences
   For HR, the explosion of telecommuting has placed a bigger stress on developing a positive corporate culture that can transcend a physical building.

2. Train Virtually
   Does your company have all the processes set up to do new hire training virtually? Our clients tell us this is one of their biggest challenges.

3. Maintain Healthy Teams
   Create team working agreements for how team members work together and treat each other.

4. Be More Human
   Don’t lose the “personal touch” from being in person. Take steps to connect with individuals to offer help with challenges, share information, and gather feedback.

5. Find Separation
   Encourage employees to work in a separate room that gives them separation from family, pets, and other distractions.

6. Balance Work and Personal Life
   Take breaks regularly and encourage your team to do the same. Allot time for balance between work and family lives.

7. Recognize Employee Burnout
   Use both direct conversations and indirect observations to get visibility into employees’ challenges and concerns.

8. Trust Your Employees
   Don’t micromanage. That will only disengage and fatigue already stressed employees. And if you can’t trust them, why are they working for you?

9. Focus on Outputs, Not Processes
   Enable employees to complete their work in ways that are easiest and most productive for them.

10. Increase Recognition
    Celebrate success. Managers should look for opportunities to celebrate the same work milestones that would be celebrated in the office.

11. Encourage Innovation
    Amid high levels of uncertainty, innovation and risk-taking become even more important for employee engagement and organizational success.

12. Set Expectations Early and Often
    Providing guidelines, setting boundaries, and reviewing the basics are among the most important steps to take when setting out on your project.

13. Keep Employees Up-to-Date
    Keep employees informed on new policy and staffing changes, company successes, and tips for working at home.

14. Adapt Meeting Length
    Instead of lengthy meetings, have short virtual huddles. Apply this thinking to team resourcing, scheduling, and action planning.

15. Take Advantage of Technology
    The right technology allows distributed teams to increase value and productivity. Tools like Zoom, Asana, Slack, and Microsoft Teams provide simple platforms.

16. Mentor More Than You Manage
    The best managers understand the not-so-subtle nuances and differences between leadership and management.

17. Perks and Benefits
    Consider adding creative perks any employee can use (i.e. gym stipends, gift cards) to balance out what they miss from in-office freebies.

18. Engage Workers with Videos
    When you communicate with remote workers through videos, you have the chance to explain complex or complicated issues with more emotion.

19. Convey Emotions with Animated Gifs, Icons, and Emoticons
    Written words alone can be misrepresented or misunderstood. You risk coming across as more aggressive, or not as helpful as you may intend.

Sources: Gartner, SHRM, Forbes, Hivedesk, Softwareadvice, TechPerspective