Operating in a highly competitive global environment, companies today strive to provide the best of services leveraging the best talent, irrespective of the talent’s location. Increasingly, companies are adopting the concept of remote working, including ‘Work from home’ to engage and retain talent. Technology has also helped in propagating this concept through various new tools/applications and sophisticated communication media.
Where, employees working from home have the opportunity to achieve a better work-life balance. At the same time, some associates can easily feel distant and de-motivated when they are in an isolated environment. This can happen for a number of reasons, including the lack of direct/face-to-face interaction with the manager, co-workers and clients.
Here is lists out important factors which play an important role while managing associates working from home or remote locations:
• Reward & recognition: Recognising an associate for doing something special and applauding his/her efforts, acts as a motivator for associates. This helps in developing a culture of appreciation.
• Communication: Regular communication with remote associates makes a big difference in keeping them motivated. Communication channels (conference calls, video calls etc.) blended with enabling technology (webcams, secured and high speed network) play an important role in involving and engaging remote associates. Scheduling face-to-face meetings (video calls) at regular intervals paves way for interpersonal interactions.
• Building trust: Motivating associates, who work from home/remote location is as good as expressing our faith in them. Associates need to know that they have their manager’s trust in terms of work ethics and ability to make decisions without direct supervision and micro management.
• Regular feedback: Seeking associate feedback on what's working for them and what's not in terms of performing their duties from a remote location helps them feel connected and develops a ‘caring organisation’ approach, which in turn helps to keep associates happy at work.
• Right technology for remote associates: Companies need to ensure remote associates have the right technology to get their job done, i.e. high speed data cards, latest laptops with web cam, secured communication tools (RSA token), BlackBerry or smart phone etc. Providing the right technology and open lines of communications enhances greater productivity from everyone.
Do’s• Assign a dedicated technical support lead/ manager to promptly address technical problems for remote associates
• Give them full and transparent access to the office systems/applications (using secured tools)
• Establish regular log-on times to help them better plan their day
• Guard against making unreasonable demands from remote associates and ensuring that they have a balanced life
• Ensure remote associates are part of regular email groups, so that they are fully updated in terms of company policies and other communication
Don'ts• Do not focus on pampering your remote staff, rather focus on engaging them
• Don’t micromanage to the last extent, as being in a remote location; trust is the most important factor for them
• Refrain from being judgmental about the behavior of an associate from his/her emails. Written communication can go miscomprehended at times
• Unless you have a specific reason, don’t question them on how they spent their day, just because you aren't there to monitor them
• Don’t schedule ad-hoc meetings at short notice. This disturbs their work schedule and impacts their productivity
Where, employees working from home have the opportunity to achieve a better work-life balance. At the same time, some associates can easily feel distant and de-motivated when they are in an isolated environment. This can happen for a number of reasons, including the lack of direct/face-to-face interaction with the manager, co-workers and clients.
Here is lists out important factors which play an important role while managing associates working from home or remote locations:
• Reward & recognition: Recognising an associate for doing something special and applauding his/her efforts, acts as a motivator for associates. This helps in developing a culture of appreciation.
• Communication: Regular communication with remote associates makes a big difference in keeping them motivated. Communication channels (conference calls, video calls etc.) blended with enabling technology (webcams, secured and high speed network) play an important role in involving and engaging remote associates. Scheduling face-to-face meetings (video calls) at regular intervals paves way for interpersonal interactions.
• Building trust: Motivating associates, who work from home/remote location is as good as expressing our faith in them. Associates need to know that they have their manager’s trust in terms of work ethics and ability to make decisions without direct supervision and micro management.
• Regular feedback: Seeking associate feedback on what's working for them and what's not in terms of performing their duties from a remote location helps them feel connected and develops a ‘caring organisation’ approach, which in turn helps to keep associates happy at work.
• Right technology for remote associates: Companies need to ensure remote associates have the right technology to get their job done, i.e. high speed data cards, latest laptops with web cam, secured communication tools (RSA token), BlackBerry or smart phone etc. Providing the right technology and open lines of communications enhances greater productivity from everyone.
Do’s• Assign a dedicated technical support lead/ manager to promptly address technical problems for remote associates
• Give them full and transparent access to the office systems/applications (using secured tools)
• Establish regular log-on times to help them better plan their day
• Guard against making unreasonable demands from remote associates and ensuring that they have a balanced life
• Ensure remote associates are part of regular email groups, so that they are fully updated in terms of company policies and other communication
Don'ts• Do not focus on pampering your remote staff, rather focus on engaging them
• Don’t micromanage to the last extent, as being in a remote location; trust is the most important factor for them
• Refrain from being judgmental about the behavior of an associate from his/her emails. Written communication can go miscomprehended at times
• Unless you have a specific reason, don’t question them on how they spent their day, just because you aren't there to monitor them
• Don’t schedule ad-hoc meetings at short notice. This disturbs their work schedule and impacts their productivity
