10 Tips for Leading Remote Employees

Communicate Regularly and Effectively

Effective communication with remote workers is essential for maintaining productivity, avoiding conflicts, and building a positive work culture. To achieve this, it is important to establish a clear communication platform and routine that works for everyone involved. This could include regular team meetings, check-ins, and status updates on a video conferencing, instant messaging, or project management platform.

To ensure effective communication, it is important to be clear and concise in messaging, especially as remote workers may not have the benefit of in-person communication. This could include setting clear expectations for deadlines, providing detailed instructions for tasks, and being responsive to questions and concerns. Additionally, being mindful of time zones and schedules is crucial for avoiding miscommunication and scheduling conflicts.

Creating a culture of open communication and understanding is also essential for effective communication with remote workers. This involves being respectful of cultural differences, encouraging feedback and questions, and actively listening to concerns. By communicating regularly and effectively with remote workers, you can build strong relationships, maintain productivity, and achieve success in a remote work environment.

Set Clear Expectations and Goals for Each Employee

Setting clear expectations and goals for remote employees is crucial to avoid confusion and ensure that everyone is working towards the same objectives. This includes clearly communicating the scope of work, timelines, deadlines, and expectations around communication and collaboration. Regular check-ins and feedback can help keep employees on track towards meeting their goals.

By establishing clear expectations and goals, you can increase productivity, improve morale, and contribute to the success of the team and the organization. Regular communication and feedback can help to ensure that everyone is aligned and motivated towards achieving common objectives, even in a remote work setting.

Use Technology to Stay Connected and Collaborate Virtually

Using technology is crucial for managing remote workers effectively. Project management tools like Basecamp and Asana allow teams to collaborate on tasks and projects, while video conferencing platforms like Zoom and shared calendars make it easy to stay connected and avoid scheduling conflicts. Collaborative document-sharing platforms like Google Drive also enable teams to work together on projects in real-time.

By leveraging these tools, remote teams can build a sense of collaboration and teamwork, even when team members are located in different parts of the world. This can help to ensure that everyone is working towards the same objectives, increase productivity, and improve overall team performance.

Provide Flexibility in Work Schedules and Deadlines

Providing flexibility in work schedules and deadlines is an important aspect of managing remote workers. With remote work, employees may be working in different time zones or have different personal obligations that require them to work outside of traditional work hours. Providing flexibility in work schedules and deadlines can help to create a better work-life balance for employees, which can ultimately lead to higher job satisfaction and increased productivity.

Recognize and Reward Good Work to Keep Employees Motivated

While working from home has numerous benefits for both parties, employees can also feel unseen and unappreciated. The simplest way to combat the potential feelings of isolation is to praise hard work, even when the tasks completed are part of the employee’s job description. When employees perform beyond your expectations, consider providing them with a small token of appreciation like a gift card to a local restaurant.

Foster Team Building through Virtual Events and Activities

Building cohesiveness among team members who may never see each other can be difficult, but it’s not impossible. Several online resources can help you get your creative juices flowing simply by typing “virtual team building activities” into your search engine. Virtual happy hours and games like murder mysteries and escape rooms are just a few examples.

Understand and Respect Each Employee’s Unique Home Setup

Some employees may have an extra room they can convert into an office, while others may have to work from their kitchen table. As long as employees can complete their work without distractions, trying to control their home setup will probably not go over well. However, appreciating their efforts to set up shop will.

Encourage Self-Care and Work-Life Balance

There has never been a better time to encourage employees to take care of themselves and offer benefits to help them do it. A credit towards a gym membership is one common example, but you can be as creative as you want. Providing flexibility in scheduling is another huge way that employers can help employees balance their responsibilities and remain physically and emotionally healthy.

Offer Training and Professional Development Opportunities

As a manager, it’s up to you to ensure that your virtual team has the same opportunities as everyone else to obtain additional education or earn a promotion. Frequent communication, feedback, and mentoring are all ideal ways to invest in your employees, so they feel comfortable taking the next step in their careers.

Highlight the Benefits of Remote Work

Not all employees love the idea of working from home and may actively resist it, so make it a point to speak about the benefits often. The ability to get ready in the morning and be at work within minutes without having to commute is a huge benefit to highlight. You can also point out that at-home workers tend to be more productive because they have fewer distractions and greater control of their schedules.

Telecommuting is Here to Stay

According to Statista.com, nearly half the American workforce now works from home five days a week. The popularity of this model will only continue to grow, so it’s in your best interest and that of your employees to take a positive approach to it. Employees enjoy flexibility, cost savings, and greater job satisfaction, while employers have the advantage of a more productive workforce and cost savings of their own.

If you're looking for a payroll solution that can help you manage your remote workforce, Exact Payroll can help. Our cloud-based platform allows you to easily manage payroll, benefits, and time off for your remote workers, all in one place. Contact us today to learn more and schedule a demo.