10 Effective Ways to Manage Employees Remotely
Remote work is quite common in companies around the world. It has a lot of benefits both for companies and employees such as employing specialists without making them relocate, using the freelance workforce, reducing costs, and increasing work satisfaction. During the recent pandemic, working from home saved many companies from bankruptcy.
While the advantages of working remotely are accepted by everyone, the main drawback is related to employee management and much of it goes to the HR department. How can you manage attendance tracking, absenteeism, leave requests, employees’ documents, and changes in the company’s policy when you aren’t in the same building or even in the same town? How can you be responsive and increase employees’ work satisfaction, while making sure you maintain transparent communication and good work relationships from the distance?
Here are 10 tips to help you untangle remote work management and improve performance.
- Resource your team with the right tools for working remotely
Working from home relies on technology. Employees need laptops, mobile devices, and a fast internet connection. They also need specialized software such as communication channels, collaboration tools, and secure storage space.
Don’t assume that everybody has these resources and, most importantly, know how to use them. Take time to organize training and workshops. Using technology as part of the working process shouldn’t be time-consuming and stressful.
2. Implement employee self-service
Employee self-service allows the employees to manage their work-related data. They have secure access to their work documents and paid-time-off situations, can change their personal data when the situation asks for it, can request leave, and receive fast responses to their requests. Employee self-service empowers employees and increases work satisfaction. At the same time, it releases the HR department of repetitive and time-consuming tasks and helps it be more responsive and goal-oriented.
Employee self-service is extremely helpful for remote work. You don’t have to manage different time zones and be up for employees around the world. Employees can solve many of their problems by themselves. This increases performance and raises morale.
3. Adopt transparent communication channels
When you’re far away from employees they need to know you’re there for them. There are many dedicated tools for working remotely that increase responsiveness and make sure you’re connected with employees from all departments. You can use chat or email services, apps for video and audio calls, and other remote collaboration tools such as Slack, Zoom, GitHub, and others.
These tools are also useful for task planning, online training, and attendance tracking. Not only that you can respond quickly to any request, but you can also analyze performance, absenteeism, and work satisfaction.
4. Invest in leave management software
Smart leave management software helps you manage paid time-off in a fast and efficient way. Remote work implies employees with different leave policies and public holidays. You need to comply with labor legislation from different countries. Why not leave all this trouble to software?
Leave management software provides dedicated calendars for each country, lists of public holidays automatically updates, tools for adjusting leave policies for multiple employees at the same time, and tools for generating reports and statistics. They’re a great way to increase work satisfaction and achieve efficient planning.
5. Use employee portals
We urge you to empower employees with access to their administrative data. Employee portals allow them to manage attendance and paid time off. They include regular working hours, overtime, part-time, vacations, sick and maternity leave, unpaid leave, public holidays, and work from home. Usually, employee portals are software apps that run in a browser and can be accessed from anywhere. They provide secure connections and logins and make sure you get notified in real-time.
6. Go online
Speaking of HR software, for remote work you need online apps that run in a browser and can be used with mobile devices. Cloud storage is a plus as it releases your company from server maintenance and a busy IT team. Moreover, cloud-based software doesn’t require installation and updates. All you have to do is configure the software according to your company’s requests. Online HR software provides tailored reports, Slack integration, and custom employee profiles.
7. The future is mobile
Focus on HR mobile apps as many of your employees are probably more used to mobile devices. Smartphones and tablets are easy to use, come with many useful apps already installed, and are also cheaper. You can still keep track of employee vacation time and absences while working from home or remotely.
8. Try free HR software
If you don’t use HR software yet, it’s best to start with free HR software. Usually, free HR software provides smart solutions for small businesses without overwhelming the budget. They have some limitations (for example, the number of employees you can work with) but they help you better understand your department’s requirements. Moreover, you can switch between several apps before deciding which one works for you. And if you only have a few employees working remotely, the limitations won’t even affect you.
9. Manage time zone difference with flexible attendance tracking
Flexibility is one of the key elements of remote work. You won’t be able (and you shouldn’t) to keep up with the fixed schedule of regular working hours. Employees who choose to work remotely need a flexible schedule to manage their family and work life, to attend meetings, or to work for other companies. In addition, the time zone difference makes impossible a 9 am to 5 pm schedule for everybody at the same time.
Implement flexible attendance tracking that allows you and your employees to have a healthy life and a productive work environment.
10. Focus on results, not on the process
The process of working remotely should be easy and stress-free. You want productivity, results, and happy employees, not mastering a complicated process that stresses everybody. Analyze absence patterns and see how they influence task planning. Working remotely changes working schedules and leave patterns. It’s important to stay focused on results, maintain good communication with team leaders, and be ready to change the process if necessary.
Editor update: We found two very interesting treads that reflect about remote work, and how it will impact the future. Chris is the founder & CEO @FirstbaseHQ, the physical OS for remote teams. While Sid Sijbrandij is the Co-founder & CEO of GitLab, a web-based DevOps lifecycle tool.
Whether remote work is a permanent or a temporary solution for your company, keep in mind that the future is mobile. Globalization is here for some time now. Technology provides you with all the tools you need to implement remote work, keep employees happy, and maintain (if not increase) the company’s performance. Adapt to change and chose the best HR software for your needs. As always, knowledge is power.
