Are you still navigating your way around managing your business and employees from home? If you’re here and looking for some help, read on to discover our tips for effectively managing remote employees.

A trustworthy and hard-working team is the backbone of every successful business. During covid-19 and the lockdown period, these working relationships were tested for many. So how can you manage your team and your new workflow whilst staying on top of the game? Let’s take a look.

Stay connected

You and your team need to work together to keep things in check. One of the biggest changes for employees who are used to working in an environment with other employees around is the sudden feeling of isolation. It can be hard on those who are used to calling out to a co-worker for help or asking you for guidance. Make sure your team still feels like they’re a team and can reach out when necessary.

Schedule virtual video chat meetings, create a WhatsApp or Skype group for co-workers and encourage them to share their work struggles. This is a perfect way to communicate and help one another. Just another day in the (home) office! 

Offer virtual training

Chat with your team about areas they need more training in, learning experience or guidance for. Between you and your team, you can all chip in to help one another and offer virtual video conference training sessions to fill skill gaps and further your employees’ capabilities.

These virtual training sessions don’t have to be strictly for general work skills, but could also apply to an employee who needs a bit of help using and working with all the resources for the job. Ask your employees which of them wouldn’t mind taking a few minutes out of their time to help a co-worker in need. That\’ll keep communication clear and working relationships pleasant and helpful. 

Ensure everyone has what they need

Effectively managing remote employees requires you to make sure they have what they need. Check in with your team that the equipment and technology they have is sufficient. If working remotely is completely new to your team, it would be wise to monitor their work by using an online hourly planner such as clockify or alike. 

Follow a schedule

Create a virtual work hour and schedule tracker to plan and monitor your employees work hours. It’s especially convenient for making sure you’ll always have someone online and available for your business. Imagine if you were unaware of which times your employees will be off and it ends up overlapping into the same hours? You could end up having no active employees working for 3-4 hours which could be very damaging to your business flow. Results from this could be many angry customers/clients who haven’t had a response in hours!

One of the top benefits of working from home is schedule flexibility. Take advantage of that and plan your teams work hours accordingly to get maximum performance. 

Conclusion

Effectively managing remote employees will not be successful without clear communication, schedule planning and support. Schedule flexibility is the most commonly praised benefit of working from home. However, to effectively manage your teams’ productivity, it’s important to plan their schedules with them to avoid an overlap of unavailable hours.

Stay connected with and encourage your employees to train their co-workers and help each other out. Do regular check in’s and meetings via video chat and make sure everyone has access to it.