Maximizing the Productivity of Your Remote Workers

Maximizing the Productivity of Your Remote Workers Remote work is a source of great excitement across a variety of industries. The developments in technology has meant that companies can now offer remote working as one of their most lucrative perks. Some companies love to sing the praises of being able to save money on their overheads, hire freelancers who take care of their own taxes and be able to have a remote team working that is made up with global talent. That’s the other thing about encouraging working remotely in your business; you are able to reach out to talented individuals across the globe instead of just looking in the local area for the best employees. Telecommuting is one of the best things to happen to businesses over the years and it’s one of the best things to happen to people who crave a work/life balance. There are, of course, those who don’t agree with it, preferring to have their team on site at all times to be able to watch and wait as deadlines are hit and growth is achieved. Don’t worry though, there is still an amazing amount of evidence that suggests that remote working increases the productivity of your employees massively. This can happen, but only if you manage your remote workers correctly. You should be thinking about the individual remote employee and how they work, how they like to achieve. You should think about how you can reach your remote workers during office hours and how you can train them to access the company cloud based storage so that everyone is on the same system. People who work in their own time on their own deadlines, without being micromanaged every second of the day, are more likely to be successful in their job and are more likely to be more productive each day. Productivity is so important for management teams in business, because the better their staff work, the better the company does. It’s in your best interests then to ensure that you are doing everything possible to make your employees as productive as possible. Employees crave freedom and flexibility when they are stuck in the office, but if you can learn to manage remote workers correctly, you can maximise their productivity and benefit from their enthusiasm. There are some jobs out there that are far better for remote work than others. You can’t exactly allow nurses to work remotely, because patients don’t live in their homes. However, you can allow administrative staff to work from home as all they require is internet access, a telephone and a computer to work from. If you have the capability to allow teams of people in your office to work from home, you should look into it. By clearing most of the desk space, you are going to be able to save a lot of money on commercial office space and funnel that cash into your IT systems and security. This can mean that you are putting the budget that you have against the things that are going to do well for your business. Trusting your staff to work from home on their own schedule is not a foolish idea; in fact, employees are more loyal to those who give them a little autonomy and trust in their own schedule. The next question that you should have to ask yourself is whether remote work is good for the people who work for you. Not everyone wants to work remotely. Some people need the social interaction and the bustle of an office environment to be productive in their roles. Not everyone has that discipline to sit down and work their schedule without the micromanagement. Before you decide to go remote with your staff, why don’t you sit down and discuss the option with them? You can’t do better than asking those you would like to give this perk to if they want it or not. If you need to save your budget, you could offer remote working on a trial basis and let them test the waters. It’s your responsibility to maximise the productivity of the individuals that work for you and understanding the way that these people work is the first step. It takes a lot of respect on your part to allow people to make this choice for themselves, and your reputation in the industry will be massively praised by allowing a choice. If people do decide to plough ahead and work from home, you need to make sure it’s worth it. Teams of people need to have access to online chat and file sharing facilities. You don’t have to pay out tons for a fancy service, but it can benefit your business to find the programme and software that is the most efficient and works the best for everyone. Schedule training days to ensure everyone is up to speed on how to use these systems before you let everyone loose to work from the comfort of their own home. If team members have the chance to collaborate together online, you’re going to give them a much smoother remote working experience overall. This is going to reflect back on you, because you’ve done everything in your power to increase their motivation, productivity and you’ve given autonomy to people in your business. To be able to have a successful remote workforce, you must ensure that they have a proper office set up to work from. If not an entire room with a desk and a chair, you need to be able to give out office technology to your staff to work from home and access internal business systems. All the effort that you put into your business is going to pay off if you put the same effort into your employees. There’s no doubt that managing a remote workforce that you don’t see very often is a challenge, but that doesn’t mean that it cannot work. Sit down and make a plan, then share that plan with your staff. Lastly, sit down and wait for the magic to happen.