The Ultimate Guide to Managing Remote Employees

According to one survey, 65% of respondents said that they would prefer remote work full-time rather than going into the office.

If your employees prefer working from home, you might be wondering how to navigate managing remote employees.

Thankfully, we have the best guide for you, so make sure you keep reading to find out how!

Highlight Interaction

If you want your team to work well together, you need to make sure everyone has some form of interaction, even if it is online. In order to communicate effectively, your employees will have to put a little bit more effort into communication with each other. 

While forcing this conversation might seem awkward at first, your employees will start talking to each other on their own as well. 

You should start with using emails, instant messages, video calls, and phone calls to help your employees feel connected. You may also want to come up with a group calendar so that everyone can see when their coworkers are available. 

You may even want to encourage communication that isn’t always just about work. Have virtual water cooler chats so that your employees can still feel connected and like they’re part of the company culture. 

As a manager, you may even want to host group meetings or even hold weekly one-on-ones just to touch base with people. 

Provide Guidelines

Working from home can blur the lines a little bit for people to separate their work and home life, so make sure you set guidelines for working. 

You will want to help them establish boundaries and then go over the basics when they’re working. Your employees will likely have questions about the process, so make sure you provide as much clarity on what you expect from them. 

You should also keep them up to date if there are any changes with the staff, policy, company, or remote work. 

Some employees also find it helpful to have a set schedule to work around so that they know what hours they’re expected to be on. Encourage them to have a separate area that is only for work so that they can leave that area and feel like their day is done and don’t have to be in work mode anymore. 

Provide the Right Equipment

If you want your employees to be successful, you have to give them more than just a laptop and a phone. You may also need to supply microphones and cameras. 

You may also want to equip them with virtual desktops and the ability to share their screens for easy collaboration. 

Set Expectations

Many employees learn about what their expectations are by observing their coworkers and office life. But when they’re remote, it’s a little bit harder to gauge what you expect from them.

To avoid that, make sure you’re very clear in what you expect them to come up with. Tell them what metrics you’re using to check your performance, what deadlines they have to work toward, and what the parameters and expectations of their jobs are. 

You should also let them know if you expect progress updates, quick replies to emails, or if you’re a little bit laxer and are okay as long as they get their work done. 

Focus on Active Listening

If you want to be a good manager, make sure you listen and communicate with your employees. Ask them frequently how their workload is to make sure that you don’t overload them with work.

However, there is a fine line between keeping updates on them and micromanaging them. 

If you want to gauge how you’re doing as a manager, you can also send out anonymous surveys. These can be great ways to ask for feedback from your employees without nagging them about how they’re feeling every few days. 

Build Trust

The best thing that you can also do is build trust with your employees. Don’t assume that they are at home slacking off unless you have actual evidence to prove it.

It can be scary to not have visibility over your employees but don’t swing the opposite direction and start micromanaging them. This will only stress them out more. Instead, have confidence that your employees are putting in just as much effort (if not more) than they were in the office. 

Hire Good Talent

If you want employees who will perform well, you need to hire the best talent. Thankfully if your employees are remote, you have access to talent from all around the country. 

This way, you can take your time actually choosing a candidate who is perfect for the job rather than just picking the first person you find in order to fill a role. 

When you do have a lot of strong talent on your team, make sure that you assign projects out based on their specific talents. 

Collaborate

Even if you’re remote, find ways to collaborate! This might be working in a shared document like Google Docs provides. 

With access to the cloud and virtual networks, that way everyone can be working on the same project at once while using video or telephone calls to communicate. 

Learn More About Managing Remote Employees

These are only a few things to know about managing remote employees, but there are many more tips out there.

We know that managing employees can be stressful, but we’re here to help you out.

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