Managing Remote Workers and Productivity

There are many naysayers in this area of discussion and the ongoing debate is whether remote workers are actually doing their work, contracting it out to a team of workers in India, have made an algorithm to automate production, or hitting the bong and listening to Linkin Park.

Actually, while the older generation might think this; simply, all of this satire is seriously the furthest from the truth.

The Reality of Productivity and Remote Working

Many companies are finally accepting the truth that indeed production is shown to be more or better than their cubicle counterparts. Everyone has worked at least one time in their life in the office and stared at the computer screen while contemplating whether the annoying co-worker next to them is actually plotting to drive you insane with their smacking gum or smelly kimchi.

Evidence has shown that working from home actually boosts productivity because of the positive impacts on the balance between work and family life. Additionally, the time spent commuting is more than likely spent working and not wasting it listening to Neil Diamond on the freeway and daydreaming in your car like Chevy Chase and his aspiring girlfriend in the classic “Vacation” to Wally World.

Also, it allows the employer to easily attain the best workers for the job and conversely, when losing an employee it can cost the employer thousands from training and recruiting new workers. Today, tracking systems such as Applicant Tracking Systems are helping to scout the best match for your team, and it can recruit from another part of the Globe.

You’ll give your best to recruit and keep a valuable working force! Remember, losing a valuable employee is known to be very costly at around $10-30K dollars.

Importance of Language and Monitoring Production

The easiest way to have happy and productive workers are establishing a team of remote employees. With that said, if the team is not managed properly and communication and responsibility are missing; then it can lead to missed deadlines and wasted time.

Communication and Teamwork

The ability to communicate and establish a sense of culture and teamwork is essential to having a sustainable and efficient remote company. When Managing remote workers, It takes a somewhat “proactive Approach” and managers need to cultivate a positive team dynamic. Additionally, employees need to feel some type of connection to each other even though they are not in an office every day.

A set plan of communicating and accepting roles and responsibilities towards the chain of communication will go a long way toward a remote company’s success. Having the appropriate communication tools are very important as well whether it be weekly meetings, or a messenger system, or even a weekly email that goes out. Sometimes a weekly email can be a waste of time because it can create a long, messy chain of replies which are not very efficient and things can get mislead or not even seen.

Monitoring the Remote Worker

All in all, hiring remote workers for your company can have many positive benefits but it does take a specific type of person to accept responsibility and accomplish the tasks at hand to meet deadlines.

There are different ways of monitoring employees and using some apps for remote workers that allows the employer to monitor in real time by knowing when an employee is coming and going by tracking GPS, saving time and money by automating payroll with an online time clock, and knowing what they have been working on.

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