Remote work is here to stay. And it’s up to enterprise leaders to create a win-win for both their employer and for the individual employees. It’s important that leadership rises to the challenge and creates new ways of thinking when it comes to managing a remote workforce.
For years, companies resisted the idea of letting employees work from home. Leadership feared that collaboration would drop off and productivity would decline. Prior to COVID-19 just 1 in 30 companies had at least half of their staff working remotely. As of late August 2020, the ratio amped up to 1 in 3.
According to recent research, almost 42% of the US labor force is now working from home full time. Another 33% are not working, and the remaining 26% are working in the office. The US has become a remote economy. The way your organization manages your remote workforce will have long-term implications to your business and its potential growth.
Here are 7 ways enterprise leaders can put the right processes in place and provide the digital tools necessary to manage remote employees:
Hire the right people
Everyone loves the flexibility of working remotely. But not everyone is cut out to be a remote worker. Good remote workers have a positive attitude and motivation to do their jobs well. They won’t wait for you to tell them what to do. Instead, they will proactively update you on the status of the work they are currently handling.
READ MORE: How Do You Find Effective Remote Workers? Look For These 11 Traits
Treat employees as individuals
Successful leaders can identify the strengths and weaknesses of every individual that works for them. They’re able to leverage that information to motivate each employee. It’s important that enterprise leaders are flexible and engaged with each remote worker. For instance, one employee might like to work in the early morning, while another employee might be a night owl. As long as work gets done and deadlines are met, that’s all that matters.
Define clear expectations
At the same time, employees do need boundaries. Explain what you want from them and when you want it. Set clear expectations and timelines. Your employees will know how to measure their performance, and determine what they need to do to meet these goals.
Communicate frequently
It’s more important than ever to communicate frequently and extensively. For remote working to be successful, employees need to know what is expected of them. For instance, there is no room for ambiguity – be sure to share the scope of work, deliverables, and deadlines. Enterprise leaders should reach out to employees via instant messaging, video chat, or a telephone call to answer any questions or concerns.
Manage productivity
When employees don’t spend hours commuting to work and are no longer dealing with office politics, they tend to be happier and more productive. A survey by FlexJobs said that 65% of remote workers were more productive when working from home.
Facilitate collaboration
With the available technology and digital tools that we have today, it’s much easier to connect employees and help them engage with each other. By using instant messaging, collaboration tools, and video conference options – such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet, remote employees can collaborate across the entire organization.
Trust your staff
Your employees are working from home. It’s much harder to watch over employees who work remotely, compared to being in the office. But, you have to trust that you made good hiring decisions to begin with and take a leap of faith that your remote workers are doing what they’re supposed to be doing.
READ MORE: Virtually Train Employees With An Enterprise Mobile App
At CatalystXL, we want to help you quickly and easily share information and foster collaboration across your entire organization – with employees and customers alike. We can deliver a no code, custom branded enterprise mobile platform that unlocks answers and provides insights via our Cardware™ platform – sharing categorized content in a powerful flashcard format.
Book a demo today.