The Age of Remote Workers

Managing Remote Workers Can Be Challenging!

When you do not see people often, many details about them and their lives fade.  How can we get the best out of our remote workers while keeping them fully engaged and motivated?

My first real experience with multiple virtual staff members was when I inherited a staff of 60+ in India.  Many of my peers wanted to sever the relationship and let them all go.  I offered to take a crack at improving the productivity and morale of the staff half a world away.  We did it, quickly, but not without some missteps.  Since then we have conducted a study of how to hire, form, and move virtual teams into high performing teams.  It takes a lot of intent and effort.

This post discusses how we converted our mildly engaged distance staff into highly engaged team members and a bit of what we have researched and learned since then.  We will have a Part 2 on Hiring Remote Workers, and a Part 3 on Motivating Virtual Staff soon.  Contact us if you want help setting up processes for or coaching on managing remote workers.

How to Manage Remote Workers

Leading Remote Staff is more important than managing them.  If they buy into your leadership, they will at least, somewhat, self-manage and you won’t need to be in the role of disciplinarian very often.

In order for them to see you as a leader, you must set the vision, communicate in ways that they can easily absorb, and use multiple channels of communication consistently.  Most people, if given the right guidance, support, and tools, will take the time to learn and execute on your vision.  Below are a couple of points to decide how you will handle your remote workers.

• Remote workers will likely have different learning and communication styles than the local staff.
• They have varied experiences with leaders and managers that you are not aware of.
• They may fear for their job more than local workers.
• Their understanding of time and commitment varies incredibly.
• Ideas on process change that your local staff did not originate.

Your remote workers have to mesh with your staff, put up with your governance, execute your processes, and buy into your philosophies in order to be high performing.  They can learn the ins and outs of your work processes but it will be a low percentage bet to change their outlook and behavior relating to your culture.  It will take time and effort.

Here are 5 tactics to consider in managing virtual staff.

1. Hold regular 1-on-1’s with each subordinate every week (yes weekly).  This time should be split between the manager and staff, including bi-directional feedback, coaching on tasks to become more efficient, and career support.  If we hear from our readers, we can cover our 1-on-1 process that has worked in organizations around the world.  Just let us know.
2. Learn about their private life, their goals, their experiences, including negative work experiences that you may be able to mitigate or at least commiserate with in the future.
3. During the first few minutes of most, if not all scheduled meetings, have 2-4 minutes of private life sharing.  Things like children’s sports, local weather and how it affects them, holidays or work travel, personal accomplishments, upcoming important events, etc.
4. Whenever possible, include your remote workers in your decision making process.  If you do not support their position, thank them anyway and tell them why you chose another path.
5. If language is a partial communication barrier, insist on video conferencing and screen sharing for every meeting.  If that is not enough, record your meetings so they can be viewed again and compared with documents that guide their work.  This is especially important if the time zone differences are inconvenient.  This may take some pressure off remote folks to attend earlier or later than their normal work hours.

How to Measure Productivity of Virtual Workers

This is always a touchy subject.  Trying to record keystrokes or force people to be on an IM during every long day can reduce, not increase, productivity.  Remote workers may feel that they are “being watched” far more than local workers and resentment can set in.

If your 1-on-1’s are working, you and your staff should be setting micro goals and keeping track of how long tasks take, so they can be coached and receiving feedback on their effectiveness is easier.  Frequent chats, some no longer than 3-4 minutes, will go a long way to instilling a sense of urgency without applying undue pressure.

If your local staff keeps track of how long things take them, step by step, you will have the data to work with your remote staff.  Remote workers may actually be more efficient on specific tasks as they may not have the interruptions and task switching that your local office people experience.

Your Thoughts?

Let’s hear your tips on managing remote staff.  We will add your tips to our best practices!  Good luck and keep your eye out for ways to connect with your people.  That is the default process to drive high performance!

Your path to business success.