2022 is the year of remote work. The main cause of this? The coronavirus and Covid-19 pandemic. Over the course of the past two years, countless businesses and employees alike have discovered the benefits of working from home. From your side, having a remote workforce significantly cuts your business’ operational costs. Rather than spending money on commercial premises, their maintenance and their bills, you can instead allow your team to work from their own spaces and invest this money elsewhere. From your employees’ perspective, remote work cuts the costs of commuting and parking, and also allows them to spend more quality time doing what they want rather than sitting in traffic or on crowded public transport. Of course, managing a remote team is very different to managing an in-person team. So, you’re going to have to find new techniques and tactics to encourage productivity in this new working arrangement. Here are some suggestions that can help you along the way!
Equipment
You need to make sure that your team has equipment that is specifically set up for remote working. Do not allow your staff to use their own devices. Instead, they should work from devices that you provide them with and that have the necessary protective software on. This could include a firewall, a VPN (virtual private network) and more.
Furniture
You may need to provide your remote team with furniture to allow them to work well and comfortably at home. This could include basics like a desk, a spinny chair and ergonomically designed accessories, such as foot rests, back supports, keyboards, mice and more. This is only what you would have to supply in-office staff with anyway, but can reduce chances of your team developing issues like repetitive strain injury.
Communication Software
When your team works from home, they can’t stroll to one another’s desks to talk and chat. They also won’t be holding meetings in person. But communication is essential for a productive workplace, so you need to ensure that they have good quality communications software available to them. Consider Microsoft dynamics phone integration, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack and other software that allows for quality discussion and collaboration.
KPIs
When your team work from home, it is also harder to see what they’re doing on an ongoing basis. You should make sure to monitor employees’ work and productivity through KPIs. KPI stands for key performance indicator and takes the form of a goal that they need to hit. This could be completing a set number of projects, implementing a new process, selling a certain number products or another goal that is relevant to their role. As long as staff are hitting their KPIs, you can be certain that they are bringing value to your company and are working well.
Support
Make sure to send around anonymous surveys for feedback from your staff. This can help people raise issues, allowing you to provide your remote employees with the support they need.
Hopefully, some of the suggestions above will help you to manage your remote team as best possible!
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