3 Must Do’s to Boost Remote Workforce Productivity
Your company has finally gotten on-board with the concept of remote workers. It’s likely you have attracted a lot of attention from the largest segment of the workforce – the millennials – which craves more flexible work hours and structure.
You hired people to work remotely with the understanding that they already have the self-motivation to do this sort of work effectively.
Is that it? Does your responsibility to them end there?
In a word: No.
While it’s now a well-documented truth that “remote workers are generally more productive than their office-dwelling counterparts,” with a Stanford University study proving that “remote workers were 13% more productive, took fewer days off and were more likely to work their full shift every day,” you can still improve on that.
If you want to ensure your remote workers are as productive as the people who work in the office on a regular basis, you can support them in the following ways.
Meet and Create Quarterly Goals
Anyone who talks about successful work techniques will always mention long and short-term goals. They’ll use words like measurable, realistic, and attainable. The point here, though, is that a remote worker can get a bit disconnected if they are without long-term goals.
To provide that, meet with them and set quarterly goals. This guarantees that they are in direct conversation with you at least four times each year about what they are doing, their processes, their concerns, and so on.
With quarterly goals, you can then measure daily goals or create weekly targets that ensure you are all on that same page, and that the individuals or teams are on track for meeting those goals.
As one report from Business.com said, “You could take it a step further and offer incentives to employees who reach their established goals,” giving them a sense of connectedness that goes beyond the work.
Offer Time Management Support
Technology is amazing these days and one of the things that most remote workers face is a frequent struggle with time management and procrastination.
By giving them software that lets them track their work or the pace of their work, layout a daily schedule with short term deadlines, and even link their workflow to your company’s time management software, it helps keep them mentally connected to the work day.
While it’s unlikely that you will hire remote workers who can’t set aside household chores or remain focused on their actual work, it can’t hurt to help them link to the company and its daily grind through something like time management software or other tools.
Video Chats and Calls
It can be very isolating for remote workers, and without colleagues, their loyalty to a company may falter. By conducting weekly or even daily video calls and chats, you are helping them to feel connected in a very human sense.
It can be remarkably productive to sit down and discuss the work, any challenges or any management issues, and the fact that a “face to face,” is likely to appeal to most remote workers.
It’s a good idea to consider offering remote work to new hires or candidates, but you mustn’t leave the onus on them to handle the entire process effectively.
Direct the same energy to remote workers as you do “brick and mortar” employees, use the same HR techniques, and keep them engaged to get high productivity and long-term success.