Before this technological era, when business models made use of brick and wall as their offices, the usual practice was for you to watch your employees running from pillar to post in a bid to execute their individual tasks. But in today’s business world where more things are being automated, business owners now appreciate the essence of recruiting remote employees.
However, before you can make the best out of this new trend, you should be aware of the awful mistakes you should avoid when recruiting and managing remote employees. But you shouldn’t be worried because by the time you finish reading this piece, you will be fully aware of the mistakes you should watch out for while managing your remote employees.
Depending rather much on email
With the development in information technology, you may find yourself automating more than what is actually necessary; or perhaps you are not striking effective balance.
Chats and emails do not oftentimes meet emotional needs the way video or vocal communication will do. Always attempt to speak with or video-chat your employees from time to time. Work relationship is made more effective that way.
Though emails may prove to be a prompter means to communicate with your remote workers, you may just try occasionally to see and hear one another via the relevant available means. All the same, you are still making the most of IT, but on rather different and unique planes. And that serves everyone well.
Not walking the talk
One thing that attracts most people to remote workplaces is the fact that they can always work at their convenience. This is unlike the practice with regular day-to-day schedule which obligates employees to a static schedule. You have to exhibit the desired flexibility while managing remote employees.
If you begin to maintain the same rigid “9 am to 5 am” relationship with your employees, you are already falling short of the advantage of flexibility that remote work boasts of. And with that, your workers may rather get disinterested in the work altogether.
They will lose interest simply because your work will now make them feel more like they are still stuck to traditional job placements where they are expected to report from dawn to dusk. Therefore, while managing remote employees, you have to make them realise your work is actually worth leaving traditional job for.
You shy away from connecting with your workers in person
This is where most bosses miss it. Even for employees close to them, they do not endeavour to speak with them as though they understand them. Do you know that workers have the greater chances of putting in their best, intelligently and psychologically only when they realise the setup really cares about them and not just their work delivery alone?
At times, you may feel as though you are going rather far and meddling into their lives, but this is not so. It is your manner of approach that matters.
Study each worker, move close to them, check out how they intend to further their careers, make their kids better in school (if they have), how they cope with life generally. Simply show them that you care for them and they would show you how much they care for your business too.
What about time zones?
You need to greatly realise that a more essential benefit of a far-away workforce is the stark reality that you would have to hire any worker from any region of the world. So, if your workers are situated in diverse countries, it becomes necessary for you be mindful of the various time zones.
Attempt to be flexible, knowing full well that some employees might be over with the day when it is still official working hours with you.
Let’s take an instance, imagine you are contracting with writers to help you write a solid business proposal, you need to find out and factor in the time difference in all your dealings. Therefore, you should only set deadlines for your remote employees only after considering their time zone. This will go a long way in helping you to avoid disappointments.
Not updating them as much as you should
When your remote employees feel carried along with recent developments in the company, they are sure to improve the level of their job satisfaction. The possibilities are there for developments to occur at any time; but how much do they know about this?
Distance barrier should never be an excuse for you to relent in communication. In fact, you should leverage the power of ICT to close the gap between you and your remote employees.
Creating effective communication channels will foster exchange of data and results and it will enhance your productivity. For instance, you wouldn’t expect to get from your writer employee if you don’t facilitate a smooth exchange of research data and analysis.
According to James Humes, “the art of communication is the language of leadership”. The least you can do to exhibit your managerial prowess is to facilitate smooth communication between you and your distant employees.
Image: Pikwizard
Mismatching proper brains for the wrong jobs
You might have hired your remote employees based on their impressive abilities and skill set. But some business owners may for instance, wrongly assume that an employee who is good at calculating could necessarily be good at accounting. In order to get the best out of managing remote employees, you need to take some time to know their strengths and weaknesses.
You need to ensure the jobs you assign to them tally with their level of knowledge, expertise and experience. If you do otherwise, you may end up having yourself to blame. You just have to make sure you are not tempted to assign jobs based on your assumption alone.
You mistake so much of what your employees really do
When managing remote employees, many managers often do not think or know about how much the expertise and performance of their employees contribute to the company. You may be making a big mistake thinking that in as much as the work suits the office space the worker should get along himself. This is not so – it is a mistake which is even now often made with workers who work with you remotely.
You may always have to consider how much of the work your employees do independently and how often they should meet as a team. If you do not look into how they conduct essential conversations, you may also be making a mistake. All these hints, if put into practice would make you find out which worker you should fit into the office structure or permit to work from home.
In Summary
As almost every career in our business world today tend the electronic way, there is need for us to avoid the above discussed costly mistakes while managing remote employees. These tips are more helpful for ICT related careers like web designing.
Most of the successful web designers we have out there today have devised means of efficiently managing their team members in remote places using the tips provided above.
About the Author
Scott Matthew is a pro writer at A-writer.com. Aside the various awards he has received for his contribution to numerous research papers, he also enjoys being an assignment writer. He is also a consultant and research analyst at Myassignmentwriting.com.au where he works on technical papers. During his free time, he loves cycling and he has a strong penchant for blogging.
