7 Mistakes You Need to Avoid With Remote Workers
As a manager in charge of remote workers, you need to adapt your management strategies a bit so you can handle remote workers’ unique concerns. If you’re managing people who work remotely, here are the seven most common mistakes you’ll want to avoid.
1. Providing Ineffective Feedback
Feedback needs to be effective and constructive to do just about anything of benefit, and some industry surveys show that up to 2/3 of employees feel like they don’t get constructive feedback regularly. Do your best to talk to your employees on a regular basis, letting them know what they’re doing well and what they might need to change.
2. Assuming That Remote Workers Will Be Less Productive
Just because someone is working remotely, that doesn’t mean their productivity will drop. In fact, many employees and employers notice an increase of productivity. Try not to worry about productivity too much; give your employees the tools they need to succeed instead. After all, all they need is a secure connection and the use of tools like cloud-based calling platforms like those from companies like Fusion Connect, visit this site for more information – https://www.fusionconnect.com/solutions/need/remote-workforce/.
3. Not Providing Productivity Tools
There are many different productivity tools that you may need to give your remote workers so that they can maximize their productivity long before they really need to. Project management tools will allow you and all your team members to work together when it comes to your overall project. Perhaps the software from Prosymmetry could be useful for remote businesses. Their project management software helps businesses to organize their resources and collaborate together, ensuring that all work gets done on time. To read more of the benefits of project management, head over to Prosymmetry’s website.
4. Assuming Skill With Communication Tools
Don’t ever assume that your employees will be able to use a software perfectly. If you need to introduce a new software, talk to your employees about how the software works. If they need it, consider investing in an online course to help them learn.
5. Offering Fewer Development Opportunities
Career development opportunities are one of the things that can make it easier for your employees to work as hard as they can at their jobs. If you don’t provide career advancement opportunities, they’re less likely to do their best. Make sure you have career development opportunities for all employees, remote and on-site.
6. Setting Unclear Expectations Regarding Work Hours
Make sure you’re openly and explicitly discussing when people should and shouldn’t be working from home. It can be helpful to draw up a Remote Work Policy that outlines the roles, responsibilities, and hours of everyone on the team. You can also include clear policies around leave and flexible working hours. Not only will this help you make sure your employees are working, but it will also help your employees stay away from work when they need to have free time.
7. Not Thinking About Your Remote Workers’ Mental and Physical Health
Your employees’ mental and physical health should be of the utmost importance to you whether or not they’re working on-site. Make sure you’re talking to your remote workers about keeping their mental and physical health up. Reassure them that you are going to do everything in your power to help with their overall health and wellbeing. You may even want to consider looking into places like Eden Health that can offer virtual care services to all your employees. This could be particularly beneficial, especially if most of them are remote working. By doing this, it might surprise you how much of a difference it could make simply to know that you care.
Conclusion
It’s not always easy to have remote workers, but that doesn’t mean it has to be difficult either. As long as you anticipate and respond to problems with remote work before they happen, you’ll be able to lead your entire team to success, whether or not that includes individuals who are working remotely.
