As remote employees become more common, remote business owners are faced with the challenge of making sure their remote workers are productive. If you find your remote employees to be less than productive, there may be a few things that you can do to help them improve. In this article, you will learn how to ensure your remote employees are productive and engaged in their work!
Do A Weekly Check-in With Remote Employees To See How They’re Doing
A weekly check-in is a great way to make sure remote employees are productive and staying on task. Set aside time each week for remote workers, such as Wednesday mornings or Friday afternoons to check in with them about their work the previous week, what they accomplished, their goals for next week, and any questions that may be holding them back from being successful.
The first step is to create a remote checklist. When you hire remote workers, ask them about what tools they are going to be using and how often they’ll be checking their email so that it’s clear on your part as well as theirs.
Get An Employee Monitoring Software
An app that monitors the work of remote employees is one of the best ways to make sure they are being productive. There are many apps that can do this, but some remote employees may feel as though it is an invasion of privacy and won’t use them at all.
Some remote employers have their remote employees download a monitoring app on their computers or smartphones before they head into work for the day so they know where they went and what was done during any time spent away from the office during business hours. Like the experts at Workpuls say: “It’s impossible to watch your employees every minute of the day”. This ensures you’ll get real data instead of asking your remote employee to just tell you how much time they spend working each day without context.
Here is a list of benefits of employee monitoring software:
- they are more productive if they know you’re watching
- they can make time for other tasks, like marketing or client support
- remote supervisors will have access to important data about how much work is completed during remote work hours
- remote employees will be more productive
- the company won’t have to worry about someone stealing time
Get Them Involved Through A Conference Call
Having direct contact with remote employees is one way to make sure remote employees are productive. Another method is to have remote employees work with other remote workers on conference calls, so they can participate in conversations and brainstorming sessions without leaving their desks.
Give Your Remote Employees More Responsibility
More responsibility means more work, which means remote employees will be more productive. One way to give remote employees more responsibility in the business is to ask them what they think about a decision that you need feedback on instead of going it alone, like with your marketing strategy or an email campaign. It might seem silly at first, but once workers realize how much time and effort went into their input and how seriously you take their opinion, they’ll feel invested in the company’s success.
Communicate About Deadlines For Projects
Giving employees deadlines will ensure they are working towards a goal. You can do this by specifying deadlines in remote meetings or through email so that employees know when they should be done with their work.
Have remote team members share what projects they’re working on and assign them to various deadlines that the remote workers agree on together as a group. This will ensure all remote employees are being productive within your company’s goals.
Ask For Updates From Them
You should demand weekly or daily updates from remote employees. This is the best way to ensure they are up-to-date and working on tasks instead of wasting time with other things, or just plain goofing off. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with them, but it is important that you maintain your standards and expectations for the remote workers.
Ask for an update after the remote workday. Ask how things went today? Was anyone able to finish tasks? Did someone need help getting started on something new? And then offer feedback or suggestions (if needed) based on these discussions and observations.
Reward Them For Their Hard Work
If a remote employee works hard, reward them. This could be a remote workday or remote vacation time, whichever you prefer. It’s worth the investment to make sure your remote employees are being productive and feel appreciated for their hard work! You can also add bonuses in the mix and they’ll be happy to keep it up at the same pace, if not better.
The most successful remote employees are often the ones who check in with their managers on a weekly basis and stay involved. However, you should always have software to monitor them just in case. They’re also rewarded for their hard work, which can include providing updates about projects they’re working on or checking in to see if there’s anything else they need help with. With these methods, you’ll have no problem with lazy workers.
