Today, businesses aren’t limited to traditional brick and mortar offices and establishments. With advances in technology, many small business owners are outsourcing some of their work to remote employees.
There are, of course, certain advantages to this. A remote employee is more cost-effective since you won’t need to expand your office space to accommodate them or bear other such expenses. You also can source talent from a wider area, seeking out an employee that suits you best and performs well.
Remote employees can come with some disadvantages as well. Keeping them engaged and productive can require some effort. You can get the best performance out of them by following simple rules.
Communication is vital
Remote employees can be a little isolated and get distracted over time. Some of them even lose interest in their work and start slacking off. It’s important to keep your presence in their mind, remind them that you’re expecting timely and good quality service from them.
The best way to do it is to establish a good rapport with them from the beginning. You need to keep a keen eye on their performance, acknowledge them when they’re doing good, consistent work. If the quality starts to fail, you should bring it to their notice.
It’s generally a good idea to keep your remote employees engaged. Often, they can feel disconnected from the company. By communicating regularly and candidly with them, you’re ensuring that there’s some company loyalty building over time.
Be reasonable
When you’re dealing with remote workers, it’s easy to forget setting boundaries on just how much work you’re assigning to them. Keep a reasonable target in mind and give them room to breathe and work comfortably. Increase or decrease the amount of work you send across depending on the quality of their submissions.
Most remote employees don’t work fixed hours so it’s easy for them to overwork all the time. Your regular employees might stop working when they leave office and head home. Your remote employees might just continue working.
Like entrepreneurs, remote employees have a tendency to take on more work than they can handle.
Set Targets
Set goals and targets for your remote employees and ensure your can keep track of them. You need to monitor key performance indicators but bear in mind that they don’t accurately judge remote employees. The best way to ensure you’re getting your money’s worth is to set targets.
Once you set targets and employees start meeting them, you can judge just how productive they are being. This would also help you review your employees more easily.
Establish Trust
Trust between remote employer and employee takes time and effort to establish. It can be difficult to trust someone with work when you aren’t in personal, face-to-face contact with them. You might even favor your in-house employees over your remote employees. By doing that, you risk alienating them and that can lead to a dip in performance.
If you establish a relationship of trust between you and your employee, they’ll feel a level of loyalty towards you as well. That can encourage them to give you their best performance regularly.
