Manage your staff remotely with the right platform

The remote workforce model had been gaining traction in recent years when all of a sudden, COVID-19 pushed it to the fore and made it the (almost) mandatory work arrangement for companies affected by quarantines and lock-downs. In these unprecedented times, this means almost every company in almost every country around the world.

Ready or not, organisations have to manage a remote workforce. And workers will have to learn to work effectively, remotely. But is everyone ready for it?

Managing distributed teams often requires cultural and technological changes. Here's how to manage the people, process and technology aspects of a remote workforce.

Communication lies at the heart of good people management practice, and this is even more pertinent in a remote working scenario where physical face-to-face interaction is no longer an option. With a remote workforce, management and staff need to communicate constantly to discuss and ensure that everyone is aligned to the business’s needs and goals.

Use multiple channels to communicate. Schedule time to talk to each other and to “see” each other at a reasonable frequency, so that employees get feedback on how they are doing and are able to share their inputs.

Give employees access to key personnel and decision makers and respond to them as quickly as possible. Having regular feedback and responses will help ensure that the workforce remains engaged and motivated.

Define expectations clearly and focus on goals. For example, the term “urgent” may mean different things to different people. Set deadlines so that it is translated into an objective goal for the actionable item. And stay focused on the goals. Do not worry about specific activities or micromanage how the employees use their time, but check in on overall progress.

Give team members time to learn the tools and the skills of remote work. This includes learning how to use the right digital tools to collaborate, and how to structure work and coordinate with remote colleagues.

Introduce some structure and processes in the right places to improve the team’s performance, and communicate these measures clearly to the workforce.

For example, to facilitate collaboration, the organisation may require employees to share their calendars and set more granular deadlines to ensure that different project components dovetail smoothly.

Schedule regular calls and meetings to check-in with the distributed team, and make each engagement count. Have a clear agenda and communicate the purpose of each meeting with the team.

Set up clear guidelines for working from home. For example, stipulate that team members respond to emails within a specified time frame; and not send meeting invites or make work-related calls in the middle of the night to ensure that employees are able to retain work-life balance whilst working from home.

Remote work is enabled by secure and efficient connectivity, which means providing team members with access to IT and business resources, typically through the Internet and a virtual private network.

Organisations need to know how much bandwidth workers require in order to work productively from home and cannot assume that their home networks are up to speed. Bandwidth requirements will vary with usage – from sending out simple emails to web and video conferencing and the sharing of rich media files.

If a team member is unable to download a file or to listen/see clearly in a video conferencing session, productivity will be undermined. There may thus be a need to invest in data plans for employees, or to upgrade their existing access to ensure that they can work effectively from home.

Next will be to ensure that workers make use of a secure connection to access IT and business resources within the organisation. This is typically done through a virtual private network (VPN) which sits on the computer or mobile device and creates an encrypted link to corporate resources or other networks.

It is important to establish a clear VPN usage policy so that team members do not carry out work-related activities online without the VPN on their device(s) being turned on. It may be useful to prepare QuickStart guides and organise power users to assist users who may not be familiar with these technologies.

Team members will also need to be equipped with the necessary tools for home-based work such as productivity tools, line-of-business applications, and communications/collaboration capabilities. However, installing these across the relevant company platforms and devices can be difficult and time consuming. An alternative would be to adopt secure cloud solutions that can be rolled out quickly to support a remote workforce and utilised almost immediately across most common browsers and mobile devices.

The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the cultural and organisational changes required to support a remote workforce. As businesses adapt to the new operating environment, it is critical to re-think people management strategies in this context, implement the appropriate policies and practices, and make informed technology choices as they hunker down for what could possibly be a long haul.

Speak to us to find out how our remote working solutions can help you work effectively and securely.