As work from home slowly becomes the norm, we see that companies are actually preferring it because it means that they have to incur less operational costs on stuff like rent, electricity, and transport expenditure for employees. But this has in turn made the job difficult for the managers who now have to manage their employees remotely. Productivity is one of the biggest issues when working remotely, and managers find it tough to keep that high. Below are some tips with which managers can keep productivity high for their remotely working employees-
- Keep Easily Visibly Progress Variables – The process of setting up goals needs to be done in such a manner with employees are able to observe their progress as they make progress in terms of their goals. This propels them to understand how they can achieve their target as quickly as possible while keeping them motivated and helps you to evaluate their progress as soon as you get a look at the variable.
- Create a Virtual Office – Being away from the office while still being virtually connected, is what a virtual office is. One of the biggest disadvantages of the remote work culture is that employees have to separately update their progress in spreadsheets, making their work difficult and lengthy. But with proper tools, you may find that this may not be needed at all. In a virtual office, you will see that the work is updated automatically for the whole team to look at. Also, group communication channels and one on one communication channels are always open in such virtual offices.
- Try to Create in-depth Data for Qualitative Measures – In a remote work environment, it is tough to measure certain qualities in employees which cannot be expressed in terms of numbers or other data, but this is where a manager needs to shine. Data science is a big boon for managers these days, and under newer management techniques, managers may be able to find better ways to judge remote employees. Also, since employees are never setting foot in a physical office, a lot many other aspects of such a managerial judgment can be easily ignored, making the task of managers much simpler.
- Warm Up the Team Just Like the Old Times – Even if your teams may not meet each other, they will still have to coordinate and work together on different projects. For that reason, you will need to integrate them with each other in a way that they are comfortable with each other. Employee orientation is very important in case of new hires or team shuffles so that the project does not suffer and your team’s performance is exemplary.
- Increase Performance-Based Incentives – Since the work is remote, the employees may miss out on certain things such as rent expenses and other such allowances from their salaries, which is a demotivator. Since the company is saving this money, it is better to start newer performance-based incentives which not only motivate the employees but also help the company better its figures with such target-based incentives.
In the end, it must be said that as the work culture changes, a company and a manager should help their employees to warm up to this culture before they begin to adjust to it. Expecting great results straightaway is a big mistake in this case, and as a manager, you should not do it.
